[3] ljótan (adj. m. acc. sg.) ‘menacing’: Lit. ‘ugly’. This is construed here with leiðangr ‘fleet’ but could also be a descriptive element referring to the kenning völl lunda ‘the plain of puffins’ (l. 4), i.e. ‘the ugly sea’, indicating that the ships were sailing over a turbulent sea. Konráð Gíslason (1895-7, I, 72) and Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) thought that ljótan qualified völl lunda, but Kock (NN §2285) disagreed on the grounds that the adj. precedes the heiti or kenning it qualifies in Hryn, if it is not part of the same l. as it is here, so he construed ljótan with leiðangr ‘terrible fleet’ (l. 3) (see also Note to Valg Har 11/4).
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.
- Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
- Internal references
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Valgarðr á Velli, Poem about Haraldr harðráði 11’ 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. 309-10.