Note to Anon 732b 1^III

[3, 4] hljótr hásætrs ‘the receiver of the rowing-bench [SEAFARER]’: Alternatively, ‘the receiver of the high seat [GUEST]’: The polysemy of hásætr, through its morphological variant hásæti, underlies the cutting humour of the stanza, which associates the experiences of disappointment in love on land and the hardship experienced by a mariner in heavy seas. The lexical ambiguity arises from the homonyms of hár m.: the adj. ‘high’ and the noun ‘oar-port’. While hásætr m. usually designates the ‘high seat’ in a house, allotted to the most honoured guests, the variant form hásæti n. also refers to a humble ‘rowing-bench’ (lit. ‘oar-port seat’) on a boat or ship (see Fritzner: hásæti; cf. Finnur Jónsson 1886a, 191-2; LP: hásætr). There are therefore two possible contrasting referents for the kenning: a ‘guest’ who has been given the seat of honour in a domestic setting on land, and a ‘seafarer’ in his station at the oars. The votar nætr ‘wet nights’ (l. 4) experienced by the subject on the rejection of his wooing seems initially to disambiguate the sense of the kenning, supporting the reading ‘seafarer’. The spurned suitor is figured as having taken his place not in the seat of honour at the home of the woman he desires, but at the rowing-bench. The ambiguity of the expression hljótr hásætrs mockingly invokes the positive outcome for which he had longed, even as it resituates the unsuccessful lover as a weary rower who plies his oar night after night in tumultuous seas. Parallelisms between the emotional pain of lovesickness and the physical hardships of a sea-voyage in skaldic verse conventionally provide the basis for expressions of complaint or steadfastness by a lovelorn poet (e.g. Hfr Lv 26^V (Hallfr 32); KormǪ Lv 35-9^V (Korm 54-8); VíglÞ Lv 9^V (Vígl 12)). Here, however, the figure offers a further opportunity for defamation of the rejected suitor. The allusion to the votar nætr ‘wet nights’ that follow his disappointment develops a superficially innocuous metaphorical connection between grief and surging waves, but the phrase also contains a scurrilous double-entendre (see Note to l. 4 below).

References

1. Bibliography
2. 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.
3. Finnur Jónsson. 1886a. ‘Lønskrift og lejlighedsoptegnelser fra et par islandske håndskrifter’. In Kålund et al. 1884-91, 185-94.
4. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
5. Internal references
6. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2022, ‘Hallfreðar saga 32 (Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Lausavísur 26)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 912.
7. Edith Marold (ed.) 2022, ‘Kormáks saga 54 (Kormákr Ǫgmundarson, Lausavísur 35)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1120.
8. Klaus Johan Myrvoll (ed.) 2022, ‘Víglundar saga 12 (Víglundr Þorgrímsson, Lausavísur 9)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1429.