Þloft Glækv 4I/6 — sætti ‘mediator’
Hafði sér
harðla ráðit
Haralds sonr
til himinríkis,
áðr seimbrjótr
at sætti varð.
Sonr Haralds hafði harðla ráðit sér til himinríkis, áðr seimbrjótr varð at sætti.
The son of Haraldr [= Óláfr] had powerfully taken himself to the heavenly kingdom, before the treasure-breaker [GENEROUS MAN] became a mediator.
readings
[6] sætti: setti Kˣ, 39, Bb, ‘set’ Holm2, sætu 61, Flat, Tóm, om. 325V, sæti 325VII
notes
[6] sætti ‘a mediator’: Given the incomplete state of the helmingr, no interpretation can be more than tentative. (a) Skj B’s reading (which would seem to assume the agent noun sættir ‘mediator, reconciler’) is adopted here (see also Hkr 1893-1901, IV). It ties in well with the theme of the poem (cf. st. 9, where Óláfr intercedes with God for the benefit of humans) and, although an emendation, makes sense of the ms. readings. (b) Other solutions have been proposed. LP: sætti suggests a n. noun sætti ‘(means) of reconciliation’ here, but also notes that the text is corrupt, and this lexeme is usually f. sátt/sætt (the idiom verða at sætt is recorded, e.g., in Gylf, SnE 2005, 23). (c) Kock (NN §965), linking up with his reading kykvasætr in st. 3/7, suggests the noun involved is sætr n. ‘seat, residence’ or sæti n. ‘seat’; Skald prints sætri. (d) ÍF 27 simply retains the Kˣ reading of setti, and assumes that the clause cannot be construed as it stands since the last two lines of the stanza are missing.