Note to Arn Rǫgndr 1^II

[1] deildisk af ‘it fell out’: (a) Af must be an adv. here rather than a prep. since it bears full stress and alliteration. The phrasal verb deilask af is rare, but is attested in Stu, where the meaning is ‘be dealt out, carried on’: Kǫlluðu þeir at lengi mundi vǫrnin deilaz af úti ‘They said that the defence would be carried on for a long time out there’ (Stu 1906-11, I, 191). In the present context, where there is no explicit subject, the meaning could well be ‘it fell out, happened’ (cf. the verb skipta, which also means both ‘divide, deal’ and ‘happen’). (b) Finnur Jónsson in Skj B and Finnbogi Guðmundsson in ÍF 34, 54 n. regard af as a prep. and construe deildisk af aldri svát gǫndlar Njǫrðr… ‘it happened thus in [that period of the jarl’s] life that the warrior…’. But aldri has support from only one branch of the ÓH stemma, and the postulated interruption of af ... aldri by svát, which introduces the next cl., rules out this construal. (c) Kock (NN §§809 and 2710A) construes af as an adv., but does not account satisfactorily for aldri.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Stu 1906-11 = Kålund, Kristian, ed. 1906-11. Sturlunga saga efter membranen Króksfjarðarbók udfyldt efter Reykjarfjarðarbók. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
5. ÍF 34 = Orkneyinga saga. Ed. Finnbogi Guðmundsson. 1965.
6. Internal references
7. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Óláfs saga helga’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=53> (accessed 23 April 2024)
8. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Sturlunga saga’ in Guðrún Nordal (ed.), Poetry on Icelandic History. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 4. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=88> (accessed 23 April 2024)