[8] mól ‘pounded’: The reading in F is ‘níol’ (so also 761bˣ(152r) and F 1871), since although the first three minims could represent ‘m’ (which is printed in Skj A, B, Skald and CPB), the acute accent marks out ‘í’. ‘Níol’, normalised njól, could be a poetic term for ‘night’ (LP: njól f.), but the context seems to require a predicate for stýri, the rudder or steering gear of a ship, and hence emendation to mól, 3rd pers. pret. sg. of mala ‘to grind’, is necessary, and is adopted in previous eds. The verb is normally used of grinding corn, but here seems to represent the motion of the rudder in heavy seas.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. 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.
- CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
- F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.