Note to Anon Lil 4VII
[2] af sínum bókum ‘from their books’: Only Bb and 622 read sínum, the other mss having heiðnum ‘heathen’, the reading preferred by Skj B and Skald. Although sínum also occurs in l. 3, and so may indicate eyeskip on the part of Bb’s scribe, the reading is preferred here because it suggests the skald imagining for his predecessors a culture of literacy like his own. He may be referring to the use of poetic manuals to compose ‘elegant praise’, or he may be suggesting that skaldic poems about ancient kings are distilled from prose narratives. The pejorative heiðnum (see Fritzner: heiðinn) is out of place here and seems more like the judgement of a later age. This st. is not meant as disparagement of the learning of the poet’s predecessors. The point is rather that, if it was fitting for them to praise the great men who were their patrons, his relationship to ‘the all-powerful king’ makes him all the more obliged to do the same.
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.
- Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.