Note to Keth Lv 20VIII (Ket 36)
[1-2]: Since l. 2 contains no word that alliterates with any word in l. 1, some eds have introduced or suggested emendations to provide l. 2 with a word beginning with <d> to alliterate with dregz and Dragvendill. They also differ in their interpretation of the meaning of the lines: Skj B emends to Dregsk nú Dragvendill, | deila krás arnar ‘Fly now, Dragvendill, to strike apart the delicacies of the eagle’; Edd. Min. 84 n. suggests Dregsk þú nú, Dragvendill, | við drífu járna ‘You draw back, Dragvendill, from the storm of swords’, but does not print this in the main text; Skald has Dregsk nú, Dragvendill, | við dagkrás arnar ‘You are drawn now, Dragvendill, for the breakfast [lit. ‘day-delicacy’] of the eagle’ (cf. NN §2397). Kock is surely correct in his interpretation of dregz as a reference to the drawing of the sword Dragvendill from its scabbard, but there is no need to emend the line, which makes perfect sense, despite the lack of an alliterating word in l. 2.
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.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.