Anon (TGT) 37^III

Ekl vasa ógn á Stiklar-
óblíð -stǫðum síðan.

Óblíð ógn vasa ekl síðan á Stiklarstǫðum.

Unpleasant fighting was not lacking later at Stiklestad.

Mss: A(7v), W(110) (TGT)

Readings: [1] vasa (‘vara’): so W, var A

Editions: Skj AI, 596, Skj BI, 597, Skald I, 291; SnE 1818, 331, SnE 1848, 197, SnE 1848-87, II, 176-7, 424, III, 150, TGT 1884, 30, 112, 228, TGT 1927, 83, 107.

Context: Cited as an example of tmesis (‘themesis’ A, ‘temesis’ W), i.e. the interposing of other elements between the parts of a compound word (TGT 1927, 83): Themesis slítr í sundr eitt orð ok setr annan part í milli ‘Tmesis pulls apart a word and puts another part in between’.

Notes: [All]: The tmesis here is shown by the separation of the elements of the compound p. n. Stiklarstaðir. — [1] ekl ‘lacking’: This reading of ekl as an adj. follows Skj B. The word, not otherwise attested, is related to the f. noun ekla ‘lack’ and the adv. ekla ‘scarcely’. (Sturtevant 1933, 96 derives the noun from the adj. *ain-kil- > MLG ēnkel.) Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, III) takes ekl as an adv. (cf. AEW: ekl, ekla) and reads Ógn vara síðan ekl óblíð ‘The fighting was not a little unpleasant then’. This reading produces more subtle litotes. Along similar lines, Björn Magnússon Ólsen (TGT 1884, 228) sees a second instance of tmesis in *eklóblíð, an antonym to allóblíðr, but *allóblíðr appears to be a ghost word in CVC (cf. ONP: allóblíðr). — [1, 2] Stiklarstǫðum ‘Stiklestad’: The site of the battle in which Óláfr helgi died (29 July 1030; see his Biography in Introduction to SkP I). LP: Stiklarstaðir observes that all instances of Stiklarstaðir in the corpus are separated by tmesis; see Note to ESk Geisl 17/1, 2^VII.

References

1. Bibliography
2. TGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
4. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
5. SnE 1848 = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1848. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, eða Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál og Háttatal. Reykjavík: Prentsmiðja landsins.
6. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
7. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
8. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
9. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
10. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
11. TGT 1927 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1927b. Óláfr Þórðarson: Málhljóða- og málskrúðsrit. Grammatisk-retorisk afhandling. Det kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filologiske meddelelser 13, 2. Copenhagen: Høst.
12. SkP I = Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Ed. Diana Whaley. 2012.
13. Sturtevant, Albert Morey. 1933. ‘Old Norse Etymologies’. JEGP 34, 89-97.
14. SnE 1818 = Rask, Rasmus Kristian, ed. 1818a. Snorra Edda ásamt Skáldu og þarmeð fylgjandi ritgjörðum. Stockholm: Elmen.
15. Internal references
16. Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Geisli 17’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 21.