Note to Anon (MH) 1^II

[7] skylja (m. gen. sg.) ‘of that lord’: This noun could technically modify hǫfuð ‘head(s)’ (l. 8): hirðmenn hafa hulit hǫfuð skylja, þess’s fremstr vas jǫfra ‘the retainers have covered the head of the lord, who was the foremost of princes’ (ll. 7-8; so NN §§1147, 2787, citing Beowulf ll. 445b-46a and notes; Beowulf 2008, 143). However, that construction is highly unlikely from a metrical point of view, because enjambement on a non-alliterating noun (skylja ‘of the lord’) and an alliterating noun (hǫfuð ‘head’) is avoided in dróttkvætt poetry (see Gade 1995a, 202-05). For the custom of covering one’s head in grief at the death of a ruler, see Sv (ÍF 30, 148): En hverju gegnir þetta er allir menn drepa niðr hǫfði eða bera klæði yfir hǫfuð sér ‘But of what avail is this, that all men hang their head or pull clothes over their heads’. See also Sigv Berv 12/5-8 and Egill Lv 16/5-8^V). The H-Hr variant (hirðmenn skylja hafa hulit hǫfuð, þats fremst vas jǫfra ‘the retainers of the lord have covered the head, which was the foremost of princes’) must be an attempt at syntactic simplification.

References

1. Bibliography
2. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
4. Beowulf 2008 = Fulk, Robert D., Robert E. Bjork and John D. Niles, eds. 2008. Klaeber’s Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg. 4th rev. edn of Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed. Fr. Klaeber. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.
5. ÍF 30 = Sverris saga. Ed. Þorleifur Hauksson. 2007.
6. Internal references
7. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Sverris saga’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=2> (accessed 25 April 2024)
8. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Hulda-Hrokkinskinna’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=84> (accessed 25 April 2024)
9. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 23 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Lausavísur 16)’ 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. 210.
10. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Bersǫglisvísur 12’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 23-4.
11. Not published: do not cite ()