Note to ESk Geisl 58VII
[5-8]: There are at least three ways of reading this helmingr. The one adopted here depends on reading Flat’s adj. hjaldrstríð ‘battle-hard’ (l. 8, f. nom. sg.) as agreeing with lygi ‘lying’ (l. 5). Both Skj B and Skald prefer Bb’s slightly emended reading hjaldrstríðr (m. nom. sg.) agreeing with kraptr hermðar ‘the power of anger’ (l. 7). Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) construes lygi hefr brugðit blíðu skapi nýtra bragna til heiptar; hjaldrstríðr kraptr hermðar brýtr stundum frið ‘lying has transformed the happy mind of able men to indignation; the battle-strong power of anger sometimes breaks the peace’. Kock (Skald and NN §948) prefers lygi hefr brugðit blíðu skapi bragna – stundum brýtr hjaldrstríðr kraptr hermðar frið nýtra til heipta ‘lying has transformed the happy mind of men – sometimes the battle-strong power of anger forces the peace of good [men] to feuds’.
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.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.