Cite as: Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 100’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1208.
Gløggva grein hefk gǫrt til bragar,
svát es tírætt hundrað talit;
hróðrs ørverðr |
skala maðr heitinn vesa,
ef sá fær alla háttu ort. |
Hefk gǫrt gløggva grein til bragar, svát tírætt hundrað es talit. Maðr skala vesa heitinn ørverðr hróðrs, ef sá fær ort alla háttu.
I have made a clear account of poetic form, so that one hundred [stanzas] counted in tens are enumerated. A man must not be called unworthy of praise if he can compose in all verse-forms.
Mss: R(53r) (SnE)
Readings: [4] ørverðr: ‘ǫr vþr’(?) R
Editions: Skj: Snorri Sturluson, 2. Háttatal 100: AII, 77, BII, 88, Skald II, 48, NN §2575; SnE 1848-87, I, 714-15, III, 134, SnE 1879-81, I, 16, 85, II, 34, SnE 1931, 252, SnE 2007, 39; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 67.
Context: The metre is ljóðaháttr ‘songs’ form’ (heading in right margin in scribal hand). The stanza consists
of six lines: two half-lines linked by alliteration (ll. 1-2, 4-5) and two full
lines with internal alliteration (ll. 3, 6).
Notes: [All]: For this metre, see RvHbreiðm Hl 1-2 as well as Section 4 of the General Introduction in SkP I. — [3] tírætt hundrað ‘one hundred [stanzas] counted in tens’: This equals
a hundred, as opposed to the ‘long’ hundred (hundrað = 120). The count here must be of stanzas, whereas st. 67 refers to sixty different metrical variants (hættir), sts 1-8 being counted as stylistic variants of dróttkvætt (see Note to st. 67/4). — [4] ørverðr ‘unworthy’: Ms. R has ‘ǫr vþr’, with a blotched abbreviation above the <v> which looks like the abbreviation for er. It is not clear whether this is an addition or alteration by R*, and, if so, what the original reading of R would have been. Later a line was drawn between <r> and <v> (R*) indicating that this ought to be read as one word. Ørverðr is formed from the adj. verðr ‘worthy’ plus the prefix ør- with a privative meaning. The cpd also occurs in Egill Arkv 13/5V (Eg 109) coupled with the same gen. as here (hróðrs ‘of praise’).
