Note to Anon Pl 40VII
[6-7] hjaldrserks ...: In the prose versions at this point, Plácitus is recognised by a scar on his neck (Tucker 1998, 46-7). The first two ll. of fol. 4v in 673b are very damaged from rubbing. Finnur Jónsson (1887 and Skj A) thought he could make out ‘kloker’ (i.e. klókir ‘clever’; cf. NN §§2137, 2491), but his reading was disputed by Jón Helgason (1932-3). The word klókir is of German origin and therefore unlikely to occur in a text of this date, besides being too heavy to fill the metrical position. Jón Helgason suggested ørugg merki | at hringdrífar hǫfðu (i.e. ‘until the [men] found the safe sign, so that the ring-scatterers [GENEROUS MEN] had correctly recognised the [man]’), but only as one possibility among others. As an alternative to ørugg merki, he suggested ørr á kverkum ‘scar on the throat’, cf. ørr á hálsi in the prose text.
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.
- Jón Helgason. 1932-3. ‘Til skjaldedigtningen’. APS 7, 150-68.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1887. ‘Plácítúsdrápa’. In Opuscula Philologica: Mindre Afhandlinger, 210-64.
- Tucker, John, ed. 1998. Plácidus saga. EA B 31. Copenhagen: Reitzel.