[3] hvassa ‘sharp’: Emended in this edn from the refreshed and uncertain ms. reading ‘kræsa’ or ‘hræsa’. This adj. yields good sense and is rather a favourite with Gunnlaugr. Use of hausi without a prep. would be consistent with Gunnlaugr’s use of the bare dat./instr.: see Note to I 47/3-4. Bret 1848-9 and Skj B emend to hræs á ‘of a corpse on’ (cf. LP: hræ), but this makes little sense in context. Kock (NN §96; Skald; cf. NN §2992A and §3004, followed by Merl 2012) posits an adj. *hrœrr ‘quick’, qualifying hjǫrtr, inferred from West Germanic (putatively cognate with ModGer. rühren ‘move’), but this, even if sustainable philologically, would give inferior sense.
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.
- 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.
- Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
- Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.