Note to Anon Gyð 2VII
[3-4] beitir bráðra sóta barðs ‘steerer of the swift steeds of the prow’: Finnur Jónsson (Skj B), followed by Kock in Skald, emends to bræddra barða, and presumably construes the man-kenning beitir bræddra sóta barða ‘steerer of the tarred steeds of the ship’. His emendation of B’s ‘bardz’ (l. 4) to barða, gen. sg. of m. barði ‘ship’ is unnecessary, however, since barðs may be interpreted as gen. sg. of n. barð ‘beak, prow’, which occurs frequently in ship-kennings (LP: barð – the inclusion of a reference to barðs sóti in the first, 1916 edn of LP suggests that at that time Finnur believed B to be correct here). Finnur’s correction of the adj. to bræddra in Skj B and LP: 2. bræða ‘to tar’, though drastic, is rather happier, though it is possible to make sense of B’s bráðra by taking it as the gen. pl. of bráðr ‘swift, eager, sudden’ agreeing with sóta.
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.