Note to Ótt Knútdr 2I
[4] liðvánir ‘the expected troops’: The interpretation followed here is that proposed in ÍF 35 (and apparently given support in Jesch 2001a, 198), whereby liðvánir is a f. acc. pl. noun ‘troop-expectations’ (i.e. ‘expected troops’, or perhaps ‘troops of whom there are high expectations’). Although the proposed cpd seems somewhat strained and hard to parallel, it agrees with the reading of the mss. Skj B, Skald, and Knýtl 1919-25, on the other hand, all emend ‑ir to ‑ar, to produce a kenning skauthreinar Vánar ‘sail-reindeer of Ván (where Ván is a river-name: see LP: 2. Vôn). However, since skauthreinn is already a kenning for ‘ship’, this emendation is not necessary or convincing.
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.
- 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.
- Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
- ÍF 35 = Danakonunga sǫgur. Ed. Bjarni Guðnason. 1982.
- Knýtl 1919-25 = Petersens, Carl af and Emil Olsen, eds. 1919-25. Sǫgur danakonunga. 1: Sǫgubrot af fornkonungum. 2: Knýtlinga saga. SUGNL 66. Copenhagen: SUGNL.