Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Máni, Lausavísa 5’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 290.
Hvat munt hafs á otri,
hengiligr, með drengjum,
karl, þvít kraptr þinn fǫrlask,
kinngrár, mega vinna?
Hvat munt mega vinna með drengjum á {otri hafs}, hengiligr, kinngrár karl, þvít kraptr þinn fǫrlask?
What will you be able to accomplish among the young men on {the otter of the ocean} [SHIP], slouching, grey-cheeked fellow, since your strength is waning?
Mss: R(35r), Tˣ(36v), W(80), U(34r), A(12r) (SnE); A(6v), W(107) (TGT); 2368ˣ(130), 743ˣ(97v) (LaufE)
Readings: [1] otri: so Tˣ, W, A, 2368ˣ, 743ˣ, ‘[…]ri’ R, akri U [2] drengjum: so all others, drengum R [3] þvít (‘þviat’): því 2368ˣ
Editions: Skj AI, 539, Skj BI, 520, Skald I, 254; SnE 1848-87, I, 444-5, II, 332, 444, III, 88, SnE 1931, 157, SnE 1998, I, 75; SnE 1848-87, II, 154-5, 421, TGT 1884, 26, 100, TGT 1927, 73, 103-4; LaufE 1979, 394.
Context: In Skm and LaufE, otr hafs ‘otter of the ocean’ is given among the kennings for ‘ship’ in which an animal is the base-word. In TGT, hengiligr ‘slouching’ and kinngrár ‘grey-cheeked’ are used to illustrate a series of adjectives joined together without the connective ‘and’ (asyndeton, ON klauf ‘cleft’).
Notes: [All]: The circumstances in which this lausavísa was composed are not clear, but the sarcastic tone is characteristic of Máni’s poetry (see Máni Lv 2-3II). — [1] á otri hafs ‘on the otter of the ocean [SHIP]’: The last word in l. 1 is partly erased in R, and the U reading, akri ‘cultivated field’, makes no sense in the context. — [2] drengjum ‘the young men’: Drengr is taken here in the meaning ‘young man’ as juxtaposed to the slouching old man with a grey beard. For the different meanings of drengr, see Goetting (2006). The R variant, drengum, presupposes that the word was inflected as an a-stem rather than an i-stem here, which is unusual but not impossible (see ANG §389 Anm. 4). — [3] fǫrlask ‘is waning’: This weak verb is derived from the noun fǫr f. ‘travel, journey’ (see AEW: fǫr).
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