Note to ESk Geisl 69VII
[5-8]: The second helmingr is difficult to understand. Both Skj B and Skald adopt Bb’s hreinum (l. 5), ef (l. 5) and ‘let’ (l. 7), which Finnur Jónsson interprets as létt ‘easily’ and Kock emends to lát ‘sound’. Chase 2005, 119 adopts hjǫlp ‘help’, based on Flat’s ‘hialp’. Line 7 is problematic for metrical reasons, as eds have long recognised, but the cause has not previously been adequately addressed, viz. that the word in position 4 cannot be either a noun or an adv., but must be a verb. Both Flat’s and Bb’s readings point in that direction. The present interpretation takes Flat’s text in all instances except for ef (l. 5) instead of af.
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.
- Chase, Martin, ed. 2005. Einarr Skúlason’s Geisli. A Critical Edition. Toronto Old Norse and Icelandic Studies 1. Toronto, Buffalo and London: Toronto University Press.