Note to Eil Þdr 8III
[1] leit ‘saw’: The mss give the two variants sér ‘saw’ and lét ‘let’. This edn follows Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) who emends ‘let’ (Tˣ, W) to leit ‘he saw’. Although lét ‘let’ could be a possible choice (NN §449 and Reichardt 1948, 352), two arguments speak against this. First of all, lét would mean either that Þórr accepted the stones falling around him or that he caused them to fall. Neither interpretation is convincing because the next clause states that he did not know what to do in this situation. Secondly, the next helmingr uses the exact same verb (lét). Sér ‘he sees’ (R) (so Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1851, 8; Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 384) is also problematic because all other verbs in the stanza are in the pret. tense. The emendation leit results in a verb for ‘see, realise’ in the pret. form.
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.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Finnur Jónsson. 1900b. ‘Þórsdrápa Eilífs Goðrúnarsonar’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1900, 369-410.
- Reichardt, Konstantin. 1948. ‘Die Thórsdrápa des Eilífr Goðrúnarson: Textinterpretation’. PMLA 63, 329-91.
- Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 1851. Tvö brot af Haustlaung og Þórsdrápa. Reykjavík: Prentað á kostnað skólasjóðsins.