Note to Ólhv Hryn 3II
[7] snildar skýrs ‘eloquent’: Lit. ‘clear of eloquence’. The adj. skýrs ‘clear’ (m. gen. sg.) agrees with lituðs (m. gen. sg.) ‘reddener’ (l. 8), and so snildar skýrs ‘eloquent’ is taken with lituðs stála ‘reddener of weapons’ i.e. ‘warrior’ (l. 8) to refer to Hákon. The Flat variant skýrr (m. nom. sg.) ‘clear’ agrees with stillir (m. nom. sg.) ‘leader’ (l. 6), thereby associating snildar skýrr ‘eloquent’ with stillir rekka ‘leader of men’ i.e. ‘ruler’ (l. 6) in reference to Skúli. Though it is syntactically simpler and contextually preferable to assign the epithet ‘eloquent’ to Skúli, since he is the one pleading his case, the Flat variant appears to be a lectio facilior. See also NN §2279.