Cite as: Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 87’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1197.
Drífr handar hlekkr,
þars hilmir drekkr;
mjǫks brǫgnum bekkr
blíðskálar þekkr. |
Leikr hilmis her
hreingullit ker
— segik alt, sem er —
við orða sker. |
{Hlekkr handar} drífr, þars hilmir drekkr; {bekkr blíðskálar} [e]s mjǫk þekkr brǫgnum. Hreingullit ker leikr við {sker orða} her hilmis; segik alt, sem er.
{The chain of the arm} [RING] flies around where the lord is drinking; {the brook of the cheer-cup} [DRINK] is very pleasing to men. The pure golden goblet plays against {the skerries of words} [TEETH] of the ruler’s army; I tell all as it is.
Mss: R(52v) (SnE)
Editions: Skj: Snorri Sturluson, 2. Háttatal 87: AII, 74, BII, 85, Skald II, 46; SnE 1848-87, I, 704-5, III, 132, SnE 1879-81, I, 14, 84, II, 31, SnE 1931, 249, SnE 2007, 35; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 57-8.
Context: This variant is called ‘the lesser
end-rhyme’ (in minni runhenda), because
the identical end-rhymes are restricted to each helmingr (see st. 81). According to the commentary, it is a
truncated (hnept) version of the
metre in st. 86. That is not entirely correct, however, because although the lines end in
monosyllables, they are still tetrasyllabic (regular Type B: ll. 1-3, 5, 7, 8;
Type E: ll. 4, 6) and not catalectic variants of Types C3 and D2.
Notes: [All]: For this metre, see also RvHbreiðm Hl 47-8. — [1] drífr ‘flies around’: Lit. ‘drifts’, evoking the image of treasure flying around like snow or hail. — [7, 8]: Note the apparently
rhotacised form of er in the rhyme er ‘is’ : sker ‘skerries’ (see Note to st. 82/5, 6
above). — [8] sker orða ‘the skerries of words [TEETH]’: This kenning is taken here as a circumlocution for ‘teeth’ (so also Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, Skj B and SnE 2007). LP: sker gives ‘tongue’, which is also possible (cf. rœði tǫlu ‘the oar of speech [TONGUE]’ in st. 81/4). See also Meissner 133.
