Cite as: Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 69’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1181.

Kunn bjók kvæði konungs bróður þjóð (þann veitk þengil) þrenn (fjǫlmennan).

Fram skal in fjórða fólkglaðs vaða ljóss elds lagar lofun friðrofa.

Bjók {bróður konungs} þrenn kvæði, kunn þjóð; veitk þann þengil fjǫlmennan. In fjórða lofun {fólkglaðs friðrofa {ljóss elds lagar}} skal vaða fram.

I prepared three praise poems, known to people, {for the king’s brother} [= Skúli]; I know that lord to have a large following. The fourth encomium {about the battle-glad truce-breaker {of the fair fire of the ocean}} [GOLD > GENEROUS MAN] must issue forth.

Mss: R(51r), W(149) (SnE)

Readings: [1] bjók (‘bio ek’): so W, bjó en R    [4] þrenn: ‘þ[…]nn’ W    [5] in: corrected from ‘eð’ W    [6] fólk‑: fjǫl‑ W

Editions: Skj: Snorri Sturluson, 2. Háttatal 69: AII, 70, BII, 80, Skald II, 44; SnE 1848-87, I, 684-5, III, 129, SnE 1879-81, I, 12, 82, II, 26, SnE 1931, 244, SnE 2007, 29-30; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 43-4.

Context: This is a second variant of tøglag ‘journey-metre’. All odd lines have two alliterating staves (in positions 1 and 3) but lack internal rhyme. The even lines have aðalhending in positions 1 and 3 (ll. 4, 8) or 2 and 3 (ll. 2 and 6).

Notes: [All]: The four poems referred to in this stanza are presumably the second and third part of Ht (sts 31-67 and sts 68-96) and two poems that Snorri had composed about Skúli on earlier occasions (see Stu 1878, I, 244; LH 1894-1901, I, 79; SnE 2007, 68). — [All]: For this metre, see st. 68 above and RvHbreið Hl 25-6. — [1] kunn; bjók ‘known; I prepared’: In R ‘Kvɴ’ appears to have been altered to ‘K\a/vɴ’ (?) and ‘bio en’ ‘prepared again’ has been corrected to ‘bio c’ (R*). — [2] konungs ‘the king’s’: King Ingi Bárðarson.