Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Hjǫrtr, Lausavísur 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 346.
Hafr es úti hvítr í túni;
skúmir augum, hefr skegg mikit,
brestir klaufum, vill bǫrn taka;
sás geitarson gerr við erru.
Hafr es úti, hvítr í túni; skúmir augum, hefr skegg mikit, brestir klaufum, vill taka bǫrn; sás geitarson, gerr við erru.
‘A billy-goat is outside, white, in the yard; he grows dark in the eyes, has a huge beard, bangs his hoofs, wants to take children; he is a goat’s son, ready for a quarrel.’
King Haraldr asks Hjǫrtr how the mission to Russian has gone, and Hjǫrtr replies with this st.
Heusler (1923, 99) identifies this st. as a nursery rhyme, and, indeed, it does resemble Skaufhalabálkur ‘Tassle-tail Bálkur’, a C14th nursery rhyme (barngælur) of forty-two sts by Svartur á Hofstöðum (Svart SkaufVIII). See also Anon (Ldn) 3IV. — [8]: The l. has internal rhyme (-err : -err-) as in tøglag.
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.
This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.
This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.