Cite as: Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 89’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1199.

Hirð gerir hilmis kátt; hǫll skipask þrǫngt at gátt; auð gefr þengill þrátt; þat spyrr framm í átt.

Slíkt telk hilmis hátt; hans es rausn of mátt; jarl brýtr sundr í smátt slungit gull við þátt.

Gerir kátt hirð hilmis; hǫll skipask þrǫngt at gátt; þengill gefr auð þrátt; þat spyrr framm í átt. Slíkt telk hátt hilmis; rausn hans es of mátt; jarl brýtr sundr slungit gull við þátt í smátt.

The lord’s retinue becomes cheerful; the hall is crowded to the gate; the ruler gives wealth incessantly; that will be heard for generations. Such I declare to be the way of a lord; his splendour is overpowering; the jarl breaks asunder twisted gold by the strand into small pieces.

Mss: R(52v) (SnE)

Editions: Skj: Snorri Sturluson, 2. Háttatal 89: AII, 74-5, BII, 85, Skald II, 47; SnE 1848-87, I, 706-7, III, 133, SnE 1879-81, I, 14, 84, II, 32, SnE 1931, 250, SnE 2007, 36; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 59.

Context: The metre is a catalectic, pentasyllabic variant of st. 88, and identical internal rhymes are extended throughout the stanza (rétt runhent ‘consistently end-rhymed’). The metre is not attested elsewhere.

Notes: [1] gerir kátt hirð hilmis ‘the lord’s retinue becomes cheerful’: Lit. ‘it becomes cheerful for the lord’s retinue’. The clause is impersonal with hirð hilmis ‘the lord’s retinue’ as dat. of respect. — [6] of mátt ‘overpowering’: Lit. ‘over might’.