Note to Sigv Frag 1^III

[3-4]: This edn and most others take these lines (with or without nýla ‘recently’) as a syntactic unit, and agree that smæstu él nadda ‘smallest storms of barbs [BATTLES]’ is the object of telk ‘I will recount’. However, telk, næst and eigi in (l. 4) are problematic and the meaning of the whole uncertain: see Notes below. (a) This edn reads eigi in smæstu ‘not the smallest’ and assumes litotes: the poet will go on to praise the retinue for battles that are far from minor; cf. ‘next I recount none of the smallest, the next ones I recount will be none of the smallest either’, suggested by Faulkes as a second possibility in SnE 1998, II, 365. This accords well with skaldic convention. (b) Finnur Jónsson’s solution in Skj B is syntactically similar, but he seems not to assume litotes, translating, men jeg opregner ingen af de mindste kampe derefter ‘but I (will?) recount none of the smallest battles afterwards’. (c) Kock (Skald; NN §683) finds the assumption of the conj. en ‘and, but’ problematic and offers a wholly different construal using the Tˣ variant enn ‘still, further’. Lines 1-3 are read as a single clause, with él nadda ‘storm(s) of barbs [BATTLES]’ standing in apposition with víg ‘battle’ and hence as a second object to gerðu ‘fought, made’ (as reaffirmed in NN §1853E). Line 4 is read as a complete clause, Næst telk eng en smæstu!, with the sense härefter täljer jag de minsta ej! ‘after this I will not reckon up the smallest!’ However, this solution is unsatisfactory, not least because adv. enn would be metrically too heavy.

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. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.