Note to SnSt Ht 73III
[2] Rǫkkva; stǫkkva ‘of Rǫkkvi’s <sea-king’s>; the swift’: The R reading ‘stavkqa’ (altered in R to ‘davkqa’ (R*)), m. acc. pl. of the adj. stǫkkr ‘swift’ (from Proto-Nordic *stankva-; AEW: stǫkkr), has been retained in the present edn (so also LP: støkkr 2, where the vowel is rendered incorrectly). Other eds adopt the adj. døkkva ‘dark’ (so R*, W(149), W(107), A). However, the internal rhyme ‑ǫkk- : ‑økk- is technically not an aðalhending, and both Skj B and Skald give dǫkkva rather than the regular døkkva. The form dǫkk- is unattested (døkkr < Gmc *dankwia (?), AEW: døkkr). It is possible that the two sounds ǫ and ø were sufficiently similar at this point (c. 1220) to allow for such a rhyme (see SnE 2007, 69; ANG §115.2), but it is equally plausible that the R variant represents the original reading (lectio difficilior), and that the W, A (and R*) readings are later attempts to make sense of an unfamiliar adj. For the noun stǫkkr ‘flight’, see st. 35/5 above.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
- SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.