SnSt Ht 88III
Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 88’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1198.
text and translation
En, þás hirð til hallar
hers oddviti kallar,
opt tekr jarl at fagna
við ótali bragna.
Búin es gjǫf til greizlu
at gullbrota veizlu;
þrǫngt sitr þjóðar sinni;
þars mestr frami inni.
En, þás {oddviti hers} kallar hirð til hallar, tekr jarl opt at fagna við ótali bragna. Gjǫf es búin til greizlu at veizlu {gullbrota}; sinni þjóðar sitr þrǫngt; þars mestr frami inni.
‘And, when the leader of the army [= Skúli] calls the retinue to the hall, the jarl often begins to welcome a countless number of men. The gift is ready for distribution at the banquet of the gold-breaker [GENEROUS MAN]; the company of people sits crowded; inside there is the greatest glory. ’
notes and context
This variant is based on dróttkvætt, and according to the commentary the alliterating staves are placed as in dróttkvætt lines. Lines 4 and 6 are Type C3 with anacrusis, however, which is avoided in regular dróttkvætt (although it occurs in older and more occasional poetry and also in the metre háttlausa ‘formless’; see st. 67). The metre is called in minnsta runhenda ‘the least end-rhyme’, and the identical end-rhymes are restricted to each couplet (see sts 82, 85).
For this metre, see also RvHbreiðm Hl 21-2. — With Konráð Gíslason (1895-7), Skj B and Skald treat the clause contained in ll. 3-4 as a parenthetic main clause and have the first clause in the second helmingr (ll. 5-6) continue the sentence introduced by en ‘and’ in l. 1 of the first helmingr. While that clause arrangement, which obliterates the caesura between the two half-stanzas, is possible (see st. 84 above), it is less desirable and also unnecessary here. The present edn follows SnE 2007.
readings
sources
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.
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GKS 2367 4° (R) — 52v/13 - 52v/15
En, þás hirð til hallar
images
her oddviti kallar,
opt tekr jarl at fagna
við ótali bragna.
Búin es gjǫf til greizlu
at gullbrota veizlu;
þrǫngt sitr þjóðar sinni;
þars mestr frami inni.
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