Note to Ótt Hfl 1I
[2] myrkblás ‘dark black one’: The emendation is justifiable on the basis of the reading of Sigv Lv 2/2, and because the only ms. witness is the often unreliable Tóm. Kock’s attractive suggestion (NN §721) is that Óttarr is here referring to himself, with myrkblár as an onomastic play on his nickname svarti ‘black’; he cites as parallels examples such as naðrstunga ‘adder-tongue’ for (Gunnlaugr) ormstunga ‘Serpent-tongue’ and húnn ‘cub’ for Bersi ‘bear’ (on onomastic play see further Frank 1970). Óttarr is dexterously adapting Sigvatr’s line even as he reproduces it: in Sigvatr’s stanza myrkblár qualifies part of a ship-kenning (see Note ad loc.).
References
- Bibliography
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Frank, Roberta. 1970. ‘Onomastic Play in Kormakr’s Verse: The Name Steingerðr’. MS 3, 7-30.
- Internal references
- R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Lausavísur 2’ 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. 701.