Ólhv Frag 5III
Tarrin Wills (ed.) 2017, ‘Óláfr hvítaskáld Þórðarson, Fragments 5’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 305.
Herr ‘The army’
(not checked:)
herr (noun m.; °-s/-jar, dat. -; -jar, gen. -ja/herra): army, host
búask ‘prepare themselves’
[1] búask: so W, bjósk A
notes
[1] búask hvatt ‘prepare themselves keenly’: This edn follows all previous eds in taking W’s reading búask (pl.) over A’s bjósk (sg.). A pl. verb is required to make sense of the prose explanation. This edn reads hvárir in W (so also SnE 1848-87 and Skj A), whereas TGT 1884 and TGT 1927 read hvatir. In his notes to the line, Finnur Jónsson (TGT 1927, 102) mistrusts Óláfr’s grammatical interpretation and suggests taking hvatir ‘the keen ones’ (conflicting with his own reading in Skj A) as the subject of búask and assuming herr belongs to a separate sentence. However, A’s reading hvatt is preferred here as the main ms. (so TGT 1884, TGT 1927 and Skald) and because W’s reading produces a hypermetrical line (NN §2991B).
hvatt ‘keenly’
(not checked:)
hvatr (adj.; °-ari, -an; -astr): keen, brave
[1] hvatt: hvárir or hvatir W
notes
[1] búask hvatt ‘prepare themselves keenly’: This edn follows all previous eds in taking W’s reading búask (pl.) over A’s bjósk (sg.). A pl. verb is required to make sense of the prose explanation. This edn reads hvárir in W (so also SnE 1848-87 and Skj A), whereas TGT 1884 and TGT 1927 read hvatir. In his notes to the line, Finnur Jónsson (TGT 1927, 102) mistrusts Óláfr’s grammatical interpretation and suggests taking hvatir ‘the keen ones’ (conflicting with his own reading in Skj A) as the subject of búask and assuming herr belongs to a separate sentence. However, A’s reading hvatt is preferred here as the main ms. (so TGT 1884, TGT 1927 and Skald) and because W’s reading produces a hypermetrical line (NN §2991B).
til ‘for’
(not checked:)
til (prep.): to
snerru ‘battle’
(not checked:)
1. snerra (noun f.; °-u): onslaught
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Cited as a second example of syllepsis, the first being Anon (TGT) 18 (see Context there for a definition). In this case a plural verb is used with a singular collective noun. Óláfr states (TGT 1927, 67): Þessi fígúra finz ok sjaldan í nórænum skáldskap ‘This figure is also seldom found in Norse poetry’.
The attribution of this fragment to Óláfr was initially based on the similarity with a supplementary example in the Ars Laureshamensis (CCCM 40A, 221), a citation of Virgil’s Aeneid Book 2, line 20, referring to the Trojan horse: uterumque armato milite complent ‘and they fill the belly with an armed soldier’. The explanation in the Ars Laureshamensis (cum non in utero equi erat unus, sed plures milites ‘since there was not one but more soldiers in the horse’s belly’) is also similar to Óláfr’s explanation (TGT 1927, 67): Herr eru margir menn þeir er til orrostu búaz ‘The army are many men who prepare themselves for battle’. This, however, provides a less satisfactory source than the section of the Doctrinale identified by Wellendorf (forthcoming). — The attribution of this fragment to Óláfr is based on the similarity with the corresponding text and example in the Doctrinale of Alexander of Villa Dei. The following has been identified by Wellendorf (forthcoming) as the source for this section of TGT: Cum collectivo iunctum plurale sylempsim | assignant aliqui: ‘plebs ista parant equitare’. | sed magis est propria constructio: ‘plebs parat ire’ (Reichling 1893, 164, ll. 2458-60) ‘Some assign [i.e. term it] sylempsis when a plural is connected with a collective: “this mass of people prepare itself to ride”. But a more proper construction is “the mass of people prepares to go” (Wellendorf [forthcoming]).
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