Note to Þjóð Haustl 11III
[All]: It is quite likely that the transmission of this stanza is defective in all three mss. In the first helmingr, the close similarity of ll. 2 and 4 is suspicious, and ǫl-Gefn ‘ale-Gefn’ occurs in both ll. 2 and 4, while there is, unusually, end-rhyme, which is very striking. Finnur Jónsson was so uncertain of ll. 1-4 in Skj B that he offered a minimal prose word order and a paraphrase of the likely meaning instead of a translation. Ms. W records only ll. 1-5 of this stanza. A gap for the remainder of the poem up to the end of st. 13 has been left and filled in by a later hand. The main hand begins again after the gap with the prose immediately below st. 13. In R, Tˣ, the final word of l. 8 is missing and no space has been left for it, suggesting a defect in the exemplars of both mss.