Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 81’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1092.
Magnús * malma regni
morðbráðan frák ráða;
hyrbrjótr hauka strætis
hjǫrskúrir vann gǫrvar.
Allnýtr Egða gætir
ósjaldan rauð skjaldar
sval*fúr seggja dreyra;
sveiti* dreif á hneiti*.
Frák morðbráðan Magnús ráða * {regni malma}; {{{hauka strætis} hyr}brjótr} vann gǫrvar {hjǫrskúrir}. {Allnýtr gætir Egða} rauð ósjaldan {sval*fúr skjaldar} dreyra seggja; sveiti* dreif á hneiti*.
‘I heard that battle-quick Magnús caused a rain of weapons [BATTLE]; the breaker of the fire of the hawks’ street [(lit. ‘hawks’ street’s fire-breaker’) ARM > GOLD > GENEROUS MAN] made sword-showers [BATTLES]. The thoroughly beneficial guardian of the Egðir [NORWEGIAN KING = Magnús] not seldom reddened the cool fire of the shield [SWORD] with the gore of men; blood splattered on the sword. ’
The metre is skjálfhent (‘Skialf hęnt’) ‘tremble-rhymed’ (cf. SnSt Ht 28 tvískelft ‘twice-trembled’ and Ht 35 in forna skjálfhenda ‘the ancient tremble-rhyme’), a variant of dróttkvætt in which the odd lines have alliteration in positions 1 and 3 (Type A-lines) and position two is occupied by a long syllable rather than by a short enclitic derivational or inflectional ending or by a proclitic formword.
In the corpus of skaldic poetry, skjálfhent and tvískelft lines do occur in dróttkvætt stanzas, and such lines are used systematically in Hallv Knútdr and HSt RstI. — Magnús is Magnús berfœttr ‘Barelegs’ Óláfsson, king of Norway 1093-1103. He died at the battle of Ulster, Ireland, on 24 August 1103. See Anon Nkt 42-4 and his Biography in SkP II. — [1]: The prep. í ‘in’ has been omitted for metrical reasons (it makes the line hypermetrical and in violation of skjálfhent metre). The emendation follows earlier eds.
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
Magnús í malma regni
morðbráðan frák ráða;
hyrbrjótr †…† strætis
hjǫrskúrir vann gǫrvar.
Allnýtr Egða †… eter†
ósjaldan rauð skjaldar
svall fyr seggja †dreij …†;
sveitir †dręf† á hneitir.
Magnús í malma regni
morðbráðan frák ráða;
hyrbrjótr hauka strætis
hjǫrskúrir vann gǫrvar.
All†-nittur† Egða †… etter†
ósjaldan rauð skjaldar
svall fyr seggja †dreij …†;
sveitir dreif á hneitir.
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