Note to Eystk Útkv 1VIII (Hálf 48)
[1-2] sjálft mun letja at freista slíks ‘it is self-evidently futile to try such a thing’: Lit. ‘it will dissuade itself from trying such’. The meaning of ll. 1-2 is difficult to grasp, particularly the sense of sjálft ‘itself’ in l. 1. Some eds have considered emending sjálft ‘itself’ to sjálfr m. nom. sg. ‘self’. Edd. Min. in a footnote queries whether l. 1 should not read sjálfr mun [ek] letja ‘I myself will dissuade’, while Andrews (Hálf 1909) translates gerade davon will ich abraten ‘I will just advise against it’ but does not alter the text. Here it is proposed that sjálft means something like ‘self-evidently’ and refers back to Útsteinn’s proposal in st. 47 that Eysteinn might consider bringing on more warriors for him to fight, since he has now finished off all the sons of Úlfr. Eysteinn’s response recognizes the futility of such a move, given the evident superiority of the Hálfsrekkar as warriors.
References
- Bibliography
- Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
- Hálf 1909 = Andrews, A. Le Roy, ed. 1909. Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka. ASB 14. Halle: Niemeyer.
- Internal references
- Hubert Seelow (ed.) 2017, ‘Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka 19 (Hálfr Hjǫrleifsson, Innsteinskviða 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 320.