Note to RvHbreiðm Hl 9-10III
[All]: The metre is not named (titulus deest ‘the heading is missing’), and the two stanzas cannot be reconstructed. Together they are made up of twenty lines, but it is unclear whether we are dealing with two ten-line stanzas or one eight-line plus a twelve-line stanza (so the reconstruction in Hl 1941, although Jón Helgason leaves open the possibility of two ten-line stanzas; the comparable stanza in SnSt Ht (st. 51) has 8 lines). Finnur Jónsson and Kock did not use papp25ˣ and Skj B and Skald are based only on R683ˣ. Both eds contain faulty line-divisions and give two eight-line stanzas in which the lines can contain 5-7 syllables. Because the text in the two mss is so fragmentary, the present edn makes no attempt to speculate about possible reconstructions. Earlier attempts at reconstruction are entirely conjectural and have little or no support in the ms. witnesses.
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.
- Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
- Internal references
- Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1094. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1376> (accessed 11 May 2024)