Note to Anon Sǫrl 1VIII (Sǫrla 1)
[2] fyst ‘first’: The prose introducing this stanza states (Flat 1860-8, I, 278): En Sorlli lifðe þeirra skemr ‘But Sǫrli was the shorter-lived of them’, i.e. of himself and Hǫgni. It is not certain, however, that the sup. adv. fy(r)st ‘first’ (as opposed to the comp. adv. fyrr ‘earlier’) necessarily refers here specifically to the first of two, as Finnur Jónsson (Skj B), van Hamel (1935-6, 280), and Barwell (1976, 84) seem to have thought; the meaning could simply be that Sǫrli, or whoever inn forsnjalli ‘the brave one’ may be, was the first of an unspecified number of combatants to fall.
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.
- Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
- Barwell, Graham. 1976. ‘An Edition of Sörla þáttr’. M. Litt. thesis. University of Otago, Dunedin.
- Hamel, A. G. van. 1935-6. ‘The Saga of Sǫrli the Strong’. APS 10, 265-95.