Cite as: Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 28’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1134.

Vandbaugs veitti sendir vígrakkr, en gjǫf þakkak skjaldbraks skylja mildum, skipreiðu mér, heiða. Fann næst fylkir unna fǫl dýr at gjǫf stýri stálhreins; styrjar deilis stórlæti sák mæta. Vandbaugs veitti sendir vígrakkr, en gjǫf þakkak skjaldbraks skylja mildum, skipreiðu mér, heiða. Fann næst fylkir unna fǫl dýr at gjǫf stýri stálhreins; styrjar deilis stórlæti sák mæta. Vígrakkr sendir vandbaugs veitti mér skipreiðu, en þakkak skylja, mildum skjaldbraks, heiða gjǫf. Næst fann fylkir fǫl dýr unna at gjǫf stýri stálhreins; sák mæta stórlæti deilis styrjar.

text prose order   {The battle-brave sender {of the rod of the shield-boss}} [SWORD > WARRIOR = Hákon] provided me with a levy district, and I thank the lord, liberal {with shield-crash}, [BATTLE] for the glorious gift. Next the leader selected {pale animals of the waves} [SHIPS] as a gift {for the steerer {of the stem-reindeer}}; [SHIP > SEAFARER] I saw the noble munificence {of the controller of strife}. [WARRIOR]

context: The stanza illustrates tvískelft ‘twice-trembled’ (or ‘double-shaken’, SnE 2007, 156). This is a variant of dróttkvætt in which the odd lines have alliteration in positions 1 and 3 (Type A-lines) and position 2 is occupied by a long, heavy syllable (Type A2l) rather than by a short enclitic derivational or inflectional ending or by a proclitic formword. In Snorri’s variant the first internal rhyme in the odd lines falls in metrical position 1. In TGT ll. 3-4 are given as an example of Cacenphaton (ON þreskǫld ‘threshold’), when the final sound in one word is the same as the onset of the next word, here -braks skylja.

notes: The headings are tvískelft .xxi. ‘twice-trembled, the twenty-first’ (Tˣ) and tvískelft (U(47r)). The term must refer to the metrically heavy onset of the odd lines (Sievers’s Type A2l), directly followed by the second alliterative stave in metrical position 3. See also RvHbreiðm Hl 81-2, as well as Hallv Knútdr and HSt Rst^I. This is the first stanza in the second category of dróttkvætt (sts 28-67), in which Snorri exemplifies variants of dróttkvætt in terms of alliteration, variations of hendingar and length of lines (see Introduction above). — Lines 3-4 are attributed to Snorri in TGT.

texts: ‹Ht 30›, ‹TGT 35 [3-4]›, ‹Gramm 37›, ‹SnE 622›

editions: Skj Snorri Sturluson: 2. Háttatal 28 (AII, 59-60; BII, 68); Skald II, 39; SnE 1848-87, I, 638-9, II, 371, 386, III, 117, SnE 1879-81, I, 4, 77, II, 14, SnE 1931, 228, SnE 2007, 16; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 18-19; SnE 1848-87, II, 122-3, 412, TGT 1884, 19, 79, 190, TGT 1927, 55, 97.

sources

GKS 2367 4° (R)	48r, 10 - 48r, 13	(SnE)
Traj 1374x (Tx)	50r, 28 - 50r, 28	(SnE)
AM 242 fol (W*)	143, 18 - 143, 20	(SnE)
DG 11 (U*)	47r, 15 - 47r, 15 [1-1]	(SnE)
DG 11 (U*)	52r, 17 - 52r, 19	(SnE)
AM 242 fol (W*)	104, 4 - 104, 5	(TGT)
AM 748 I b 4° (A)	5r, 3 - 5r, 4 [3-4]	(TGT)
AMAcc 18x (Acc18x)	214, 19 - 214, 22