Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

Anon Mhkv 1III

Roberta Frank (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Málsháttakvæði 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1216.

Anonymous PoemsMálsháttakvæði
12

text and translation

þegir;
dylja má, þess er einn hverr segir;

… eitt bregzk hóti síðr.
Fœra ætlum forn orð saman;
flestir henda at nøkkvi gaman;
gleði minnar veit geipun sjá;
griplur er sem hendi þá.

þegir; má dylja, þess er einn hverr segir; … eitt bregzk hóti síðr. Ætlum fœra forn orð saman; flestir henda gaman at nøkkvi; sjá geipun veit gleði minnar; er þá, sem hendi griplur.
 
‘… is silent; what any one person says can be denied; … only deceives somewhat less. We [I] intend to bring ancient sayings together; most people take pleasure in something; this nonsense shows my good cheer; it is then as if one gathers pickings.

notes and context

[2]: Cf. Grettis saga (Gr ch. 46, ÍF 7, 146): en jafnan er hálfsǫgð saga, ef einn segir ‘one man tells only half a tale’; Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr (Flór ch. 22, Kölbing 1896, 71): er ok ósagt frá ef einn segir ‘it is [as if] untold if only one tells it’. — [6]: The emendations in this line, first proposed by Jón Sigurðsson, have been followed by subsequent eds. Möbius (1874, 25) compares the Icelandic proverb: hverr kveður sér gaman ‘each decides his own joy’. The verb henda ‘seize, catch’ occurs three more times in Mhkv (sts 1/8, 10/6, 11/4), as if prominent in the poet’s mind as he searched for hendingarorð ‘rhyme-words’.

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.

editions and texts

Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], A. [1]. Málsháttakvæði 1: AII, 130-1, BII, 138, Skald II, 73; Möbius 1874, 3, Wisén 1886-9, I, 73.

Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close

Stanza/chapter/text segment

Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.

Information tab

Interactive tab

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.

Full text tab

This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.

Chapter/text segment

This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.