[2] stilltan ‘quelled’: I.e. ‘quietened’ or ‘controlled’. This translation is appropriate if the word refers, with ironic understatement, to the men’s death in battle. The reference could alternatively be to the ill-advised nature of Haraldr’s campaign. Stilla can mean ‘bring into a dangerous, difficult situation’ (LP: stilla 3), and this sense seems the basis for interpretations in Skj B and Ulset 1975, 109-10. The eds of ÍF 28 and 29 interpret stilltan as ‘deceived, tricked’ (vélaður/vélaðan), and Hkr 1991 similarly has hafi verið ginnt ‘has been duped’.
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.
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
- Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
- Ulset, Tor. 1975. Merknader til en del skaldedikt. Oslo: Novus.