Note to ESk Geisl 8^VII

[6] yðart biðk magnit styðja ‘I ask that your power support [the praise]’: The l. is difficult both metrically and syntactically and the two mss diverge in several respects. Bb’s reading of the final word, styðja ‘support’, is preferred here over Flat’s styrkva, as it does not require emendation, it makes better sense and provides aðalhending with yð-. Chase 2005, 58 and 132 proposes the emendation styrkna ‘to become strong’ from Flat and reads yðvart biðk magnit styrkna ‘I desire that your power be strengthened’, assuming the scribe may have made the common error of writing u for n and arguing that styrkna is feasible if the l. is read as a parenthesis and mærð is understood to be syntactically parallel with óð ‘poetry’. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) emends Bb to yðvarrar biðk styðja | mærð, þats miklu varðar, | máttigt hǫfuð áttar ‘I ask the mighty head of your line to strengthen the poem, which is of great importance’, and Kock conflates the two texts: yðvart biðk magn styðja | mærð, þats miklu varðar, | máttig, hǫfuð áttar! ‘I ask that your strength, mighty heads of the nation, support the poem, which is of great importance’ (NN §2052).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Chase, Martin, ed. 2005. Einarr Skúlason’s Geisli. A Critical Edition. Toronto Old Norse and Icelandic Studies 1. Toronto, Buffalo and London: Toronto University Press.