Cite as: Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 50’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1159.

Yggs drósar rýfr eisa ǫld móðsefa tjǫld; glóð støkkr í hof Hlakkar hugtúns firum brún. Geðveggjar svífr glugga glæs dynbrími hræs; hvattr es hyrr at slétta hjaldrs gnapturna aldrs. Yggs drósar rýfr eisa ǫld móðsefa tjǫld; glóð støkkr í hof Hlakkar hugtúns firum brún. Geðveggjar svífr glugga glæs dynbrími hræs; hvattr es hyrr at slétta hjaldrs gnapturna aldrs. Eisa drósar Yggs rýfr tjǫld móðsefa ǫld; brún glóð Hlakkar støkkr í hof hugtúns firum. Svífr dynbrími hræs glugga glæs geðveggjar; hyrr hjaldrs es hvattr at slétta gnapturna aldrs.

text prose order   {The fire {of Yggr’s woman}} [VALKYRIE > SWORD] rips {the tents of the mind} [CHESTS] of people; {the burnished ember of Hlǫkk} [SWORD] leaps into {the temples {of the mind-meadow}} [BREAST > HEADS] of men. {The crashing flame of carrion} [SWORD] flashes through {the windows {of the clear mind-wall}}; [BREAST > WOUNDS] {the fire of battle} [SWORD] is whetted to level {jutting towers of life}. [HEADS]

context: The variant is called inn meiri stúfr ‘the greater apocopated’, and in all the even lines the final syllable (in regular dróttkvætt) has been left off, making the lines pentasyllabic and catalectic (see st. 49 above).

notes: It is noteworthy that all the base-words in the four kennings for ‘sword’ are terms for ‘fire’ (eisa ‘fire’, l. 1; glóð ‘ember’, l. 3; dynbrimi ‘crashing flame’, l. 6; hyrr ‘fire’, l. 7) and that the base-words in all the kennings for body parts are terms for man-made structures (tjǫld ‘tents’, l. 2; hof ‘temples’, l. 3; ‑veggjar ‘-wall’, l. 5; ‑turna ‘towers’, l. 8). If all these kennings are taken without their determinants, the stanza consists of four sentences depicting fire attacking buildings (or tents), i.e. a town being sacked (cf. the double layering of imagery in the previous stanza). — For this variant, see also Þórsnep Lv^IV and RvHbreiðm Hl 61-2 (alstýft ‘completely apocopated’). — The heading in Tˣ is inn meiri stúfr. 42 ‘the greater apocopated. 42’.

texts: ‹Ht 53›, ‹SnE 645›

editions: Skj Snorri Sturluson: 2. Háttatal 50 (AII, 65-6; BII, 75); Skald II, 42, NN §§2823, 2824; SnE 1848-87, I, 662-3, II, 393, III, 123, SnE 1879-81, I, 8, 80, II, 20, SnE 1931, 237, SnE 2007, 23; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 30.

sources

GKS 2367 4° (R)	49v, 24 - 49v, 27	(SnE)
Traj 1374x (Tx)	52r, 3 - 52r, 3	(SnE)
AM 242 fol (W)	146, 10 - 146, 12	(SnE)
DG 11 (U)	54r, 27 - 54v, 2	(SnE)
AMAcc 18x (Acc18x)	221, 10 - 221, 13