Cite as: Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 96’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1205.

Orts of ræsi,         þanns rýðr granar vargs ok ylgjar         ok vápn litar.

Þat mun æ lifa,         nema ǫld farisk, bragninga lof,         eða bili heimar.

Orts of ræsi, þanns rýðr granar vargs ok ylgjar ok litar vápn. Þat lof bragninga mun æ lifa, nema ǫld farisk, eða heimar bili.

[Poetry] has been composed about the ruler [= Skúli] who reddens the whiskers of the wolf and the she-wolf and colours weapons. That praise of lords will always live, unless people perish or worlds collapse.

Mss: R(53r) (SnE)

Readings: [7] bragninga: ‘bragniga’ R

Editions: Skj: Snorri Sturluson, 2. Háttatal 96: AII, 76, BII, 87, Skald II, 47-8; SnE 1848-87, I, 712-13, III, 134, SnE 1879-81, I, 15, 85, II, 33, SnE 1931, 251, SnE 2007, 38; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 65.

Context: The metre is fornyrðislag ‘old story metre’ (heading added by R*). The odd lines have one alliterating stave (Types A3 (l. 1), A2 (l. 3), C3 (l. 5), E (l. 7)) and all the even lines have anacruses (Types C2 (l. 8) and C3 (ll. 2, 4, 6)).

Notes: [All]: For a discussion of fornyrðislag, see Section 4 of the General Introduction in SkP I. — [1-4]: This is the last helmingr of the poem exclusively devoted to the praise of Skúli. — [7] lof bragninga ‘praise of lords’: An allusion to both Skúli and Hákon.