Note to Anon (SnE) 18^III

[7]: As it stands in the ms., this line contains five rather than six metrical positions, and a syllable is missing after the adj. blíðr ‘sweet’. The missing syllable must have been unstressed and must have belonged syntactically either to that adj. or to the following verb grœr ‘will grow’ (see Gade 1995a, 47-9). There are three possible emendations that would obviate the metrical deficiency. First of all, the adj. blíðr (m. nom. sg.), which qualifies glaumvindr ‘pleasure-wind’ (l. 8), could have been desyllabified (blíður), but that would presuppose that the stanza is late (C14th), and there are no other metrical or linguistic irregularities that would suggest such a late date. Second, emendation of blíðr to blíðum (m. dat. sg.) qualifying sal (m. dat. sg.) ‘hall’ would also furnish the missing syllable. Third (and adopted here), the expletive particle of could have dropped out in the ms. transmission. That emendation was first proposed by Konráð Gíslason (Nj 1875-89, II, 75-6) and adopted in Skj B. Kock (Skald; NN §2127) provides the pron. mér ‘for me’, but that emendation is unmetrical.

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. Nj 1875-89 = Konráð Gíslason and Eiríkur Jónsson. 1875-89. Njála: Udgivet efter gamle håndskrifter. Íslendingasögur udgivne efter gamle haandskrifter af Det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-selskab 4. Copenhagen: Thiele.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
7. Internal references
8. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2022, ‘Njáls saga 18 (Skarpheðinn Njálsson, Lausavísur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1243.