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A single dróttkvætt stanza, which LaufE claims is from an anonymous poem called Stríðkeravísur ‘Vísur of Grief-prick’ (Anon Stríðk), is found in LaufE mss and also recorded in RE 1665(Ji1), and may be from now lost leaves of W (LaufE 1979, 38, 175). It is cited, among ways of referring to women in poetry, to exemplify a kenning for a widow. It follows immediately upon LaufE’s citation of Egill Lv 48/5-6^V (Eg 132) in which Egill makes use of a double entendre of the noun ekkja to mean both ‘widow’ and ‘heel’ (hæll). Anon Stríðk’s strange title and the stanza itself depend on a similar play on words involving the compound stríðkeri; see Note to l. 8 below.

It appears that Stríðk was originally only in the Y version of LaufE, and that its presence on 26v, the final folio of AM 758 4°ˣ (758ˣ), which is what remains of Magnús Ólafsson’s autograph copy (X¹, sent to Árngrímur Jónsson in 1609), is due to an unknown copyist who took it from the Y version (LaufE 1979, 38). The text in 758ˣ is written sideways in a text-box down the left-hand side of the page, and the last two lines are now mostly illegible. The text for this edition is based on 2368ˣ and 743ˣ, both Y versions of LaufE. Ms. 758ˣ has also been consulted.