Note to Svart Skauf 33VIII
[6]: As it stands in 603, ef eg dyl einskis ‘if I deny nothing’ (so also Kölbing 1876, CPB and Jón Þorkelsson 1888), the line is unmetrical because the main stave falls on the second lift (einskis ‘nothing’). That is also the case with the Rask87ˣ variant ef eg nýt einskis ‘if I enjoy nothing’ (so Páll Eggert Ólason 1947). The present edn follows Jón Þorkelsson (1922-7). The clause ‘if I deny nothing’ is somewhat obscure, but it must refer to the fox’s own discourse – he is confessing or bragging or some mixture of the two. The Rask87ˣ variant ‘if I enjoy nothing’ makes no sense in the context.
References
- Bibliography
- CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
- Jón Þorkelsson [J. Thorkelsson]. 1888. Om digtningen på Island i det 15. og 16. århundrede. Copenhagen: Høst & søns forlag.
- Kölbing, Eugen. 1876. Beiträge zur vergleichenden Geschichte der romantischen Poesie und Prosa des Mittelalters unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der englishen und nordischen litteratur. Breslau: Koebner.
- Páll Eggert Ólason, ed. 1947. Kvæðasafn 1300-1600. Vol. 2 of Einar Ólafur Sveinsson et al., eds. Íslands þúsund ár. 4 vols. Reykjavík: Helgafell.