Svart Skauf 34^VIII

‘Forðaz vissa eg         vielar gjörvallar,
þó að fyrðar þær         fyrir mig setti.
Þurfti eingi         þess að leita,
því að eg vissa         vielar gjörvallar.

‘Eg vissa forðaz gjörvallar vielar, þó að fyrðar setti þær fyrir mig. Eingi þurfti að leita þess, því að eg vissa gjörvallar vielar.

‘I knew how to escape every single trap, though people set them for me. No one needed to try that, because I knew all traps.

Mss: 603(82), Rask87ˣ(115r)

Readings: [1] vissa: kunna 603, Rask87ˣ    [3] þær: om. Rask87ˣ    [4] setti: settu Rask87ˣ    [5] eingi: einginn Rask87ˣ    [7] að: om. Rask87ˣ    [8] vielar gjörvallar: vóða allan Rask87ˣ

Editions: ; Kölbing 1876, 245, Jón Þorkelsson 1888, 234, CPB II, 384, Jón Þorkelsson 1922-7, 158, Páll Eggert Ólason 1947, 67.

Notes: [1] vissa ‘knew’: Both mss have kunna ‘knew’ which is unmetrical because the line lacks alliteration. The emendation is in keeping with most earlier eds. See also the verbal repetition in ll. 7-8. — [3] þær ‘them’: Omitted in Rask87ˣ, which is possible but less preferable since it requires full stress on þó in the conj. þó að ‘although’. — [4] setti (3rd pers. pl. pret. subj.) ‘set’: Lit. ‘would set’. Settu (3rd pers. pl. pret. indic.) ‘set’ (Rask87ˣ) is also possible. — [5] eingi ‘no one’: Einginn ‘no one’ (Rask87ˣ) is a later form (attested in the second half of the C14th and common in the C15th; see Björn K. Þórólfsson 1925, 50 and Bandle 1956, 373). — [8]: The Rask87ˣ variant of this line vóða allan ‘all danger’ is also possible.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Bandle, Oskar. 1956. Die Sprache der Guðbrandsbiblía. BA 17. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
3. Björn K. Þórólfsson. 1925. Um íslenskar orðmyndir á 14. og 15. öld og breytingar þeirra úr fornmálinu. Reykjavík: Fjelagsprentsmiðjan. Rpt. 1987. Rit um íslenska málfræði 2. Reykjavík: Málvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands.
4. 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.
5. Jón Þorkelsson [J. Thorkelsson]. 1888. Om digtningen på Island i det 15. og 16. århundrede. Copenhagen: Høst & søns forlag.
6. Kölbing, Eugen. 1876. Beiträge zur vergleichenden Geschichte der romantischen Poesie und Prosa des Mittelalters unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der englishen und nordischen litteratur. Breslau: Koebner.
7. Páll Eggert Ólason, ed. 1947. Kvæðasafn 1300-1600. Vol. 2 of Einar Ólafur Sveinsson et al., eds. Íslands þúsund ár. 4 vols. Reykjavík: Helgafell.