Note to RvHbreiðm Hl 67III
[3] skóðs ‘of the weapon’: The readings of both mss can be normalised as skógs (m. gen. sg.) ‘of the forest’ (for that gen. form, see Finnur Jónsson 1901, 9-10), but the form of the word in papp25ˣ (‘scọ\ḳ/g̣s’) shows that Rugman was uncertain of the transcription. Skj B and Skald retain skógs and take it to mean ‘bow’ (see LP: 2. skógr). However, the word is otherwise not attested in that meaning (see the discussion in Hl 1941), and retention of the word also causes the line to have three internal rhymes. Holtsmark (Hl 1941) suggests a tentative emendation to skass ‘troll-woman’ (hagl skass ‘the hail of the troll-woman’, i.e. ‘arrows’), while Jón Helgason (ibid.) supplies skóðs ‘dangerous weapon’ i.e. ‘bow’, which is closer to the ms. reading and preferred in the present edn.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- Finnur Jónsson. 1901. Det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog omtr. 800-1300. SUGNL 28. Copenhagen: Møller.
- Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.