Note to Anon Líkn 12VII
[1] sá: Ms. ‘Sá er’; the relative particle er as pron. is problematic, and this ed. follows Skj B and Skald in omitting it. A scribal error seems possible both because of the infrequency of sá + strong adj. + noun constructions and because of recent occurrences of sá er (1/7) and sú er (10/6). Sveinbjörn Egilsson and Rydberg retain er, but this is problematic since it requires deferring the relative particle syntactically (‘The best prince ... who willed to be born’) rather than keeping it contiguous with sá (i.e. ‘That one who’). Such postponement would not allow Sá er to be cliticised and would thus produce a seventh syllable. Then, too, it would seem odd, construing ok as ‘also’ (or ‘in addition’), to say ‘The best prince ... who willed to be born ... also took on flesh’.