Cite as: Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 29’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1135.

Tvær mank hilmi hýrum heimsvistir ótvistar; hlautk ásamt at sitja seimgildi fémildum.

Fúss gaf fylkir hnossir fleinstýri margdýrar; hollr vas hersa stilli hoddspennir fjǫlmennum.

Mank hýrum hilmi tvær ótvistar heimsvistir; hlautk at sitja ásamt {fémildum seimgildi}. Fylkir gaf fúss {fleinstýri} margdýrar hnossir; {hoddspennir} vas hollr {stilli hersa} fjǫlmennum.

I remember the cheerful prince for two not unpleasant home-visits; I got to sit together with {the generous gold-increaser} [GENEROUS MAN = Hákon]. The leader gave, eager, most precious treasures {to the spear-controller} [WARRIOR = Snorri]; {the hoard-spender} [GENEROUS MAN = Snorri] was loyal {to the lord of hersar} [RULER], strong in number.

Mss: R(48r), Tˣ(50r-v), W(143), U(47r) (ll. 1-2), U(52r) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Tvær: Tveir Tˣ;    mank (‘man ec’): mun ek U(47r)    [2] ‑vistir: so all others, ‘vist er’ R    [5] gaf: gefr W    [6] flein‑: so all others, ‘flen‑’ R;    ‑stýri: ‘‑stori’ Tˣ, ‑stýrir W, U    [8] hoddspennir fjǫlmennum: ‘hatt spenn fiolni ennvm’ U

Editions: Skj: Snorri Sturluson, 2. Háttatal 29: AII, 60, BII, 69, Skald II, 39; SnE 1848-87, I, 640-1, II, 371, 386, III, 118, SnE 1879-81, I, 5, 77, II, 14, SnE 1931, 229, SnE 2007, 16; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 19.

Context: The stanza offers an example of detthent ‘stumbling-rhymed, falling-rhymed’, a variant of dróttkvætt in which all even lines end in a trisyllabic compound with the aðalhending on the second syllable.

Notes: [All]: The headings are xxij. ‘the twenty-second’ (Tˣ) and detthent (U(47r)). The term detthent most likely refers to the fact that the full stress at the end of the even lines fell on the hending in position 5, which was preceded by the first, usually short nominal syllable (ó-, fé-, fjǫl-) in a trisyllabic cpd carrying secondary, rather than primary stress. See also RvHbreiðm Hl 35-6, Kuhn (1983, 177-8) and Gade (1995a, 96). — [1, 2] tvær ... heimsvistir ‘two ... home-visits’: So all other mss. The R reading, ‘heims vist er’, is syntactically unclear and a line was later added between the last two words (R*). During his stay in mainland Scandinavia (1218-20), Snorri also visited magnates in Sweden, among them the lawman Áskell Magnússon and his wife, Kristín (see Stu 1878, I, 238). He stayed at the Norwegian court before (in Tønsberg) and after (in Bergen) his other travels. — [1] mank ‘I remember’: Muna e-m e-t has the sense ‘remember sby for sth. so that one can give sth. in return’ (see Heggstad et al. 2008: muna). See also st. 95/1, 4 below. — [3] ásamt ‘together with’: Note that the full stress falls on the second syllable here and that the first is unstressed. — [4] seimgildi ‘gold-increaser [GENEROUS MAN = Hákon]’: The second element in this cpd is an agent noun derived from the weak verb gilda ‘make strong, increase the worth of sth.’ (LP: gildir). — [6] flein- ‘spear-’: So all other mss. In R ‘flen-’ (not an Old Norse word) has been altered to flein- (R*). — [7] hersa ‘of hersar’: See Note to st. 27/5. — [7] stilli (m. dat. sg.) ‘the lord’: Altered in R to stillir (nom. sg.) (R*).