Note to RvHbreiðm Hl 78^III

[5-8]: The second helmingr can be interpreted in two different ways, depending on whether the phonetic forms are Norwegian or Icelandic. Rugman consistently renders the consonant cluster hr- as <r> (loss of initial h- can be dated to the end of the Viking Age in Norway, but h- was preserved in Icelandic; see Seip 1955, 68, 76, 162). In rautt (‘raut’, both mss, l. 5) we are dealing either with a Norwegian form of the verb hrjóta ‘gush’ (hraut) or with the adj. rautt (n. nom. sg.) ‘red’ (with <t> possibly representing <tt>; see Note to st. 4/3). If the skald (Rǫgnvaldr?) used Norwegian forms in this stanza, l. 5 must be rendered as raut blóð; rann þjóð ‘blood gushed; people ran’ and l. 7 as almr rauzk; ræ bauzk ‘an elm-bow was reddened; carrion was offered’. In that case, the adv. óslætt ‘not bluntly’ (l. 8) must be assigned to the first clause in l. 6: sverð riðu óslætt ‘swords swung not bluntly’ (so R683ˣ) or óslæt sverð riðu ‘sharp (lit. not blunt) swords swung’ (so papp25ˣ). See the discussion in Hl 1941 and Konráð Gíslason (1895-7, II, 86-8).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
3. Seip, Didrik Arup. 1955. Norsk språkhistorie til omkring 1370. 2nd edn. Oslo: Aschehoug.
4. Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
5. Internal references
6. Not published: do not cite (Run^VI)