Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Svartr á Hofstöðum, Skaufhala bálkr 2’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 956.
Því voru nítján niðjar skaufhala
hunds jafningja heldr en tuttugu,
— þar sannaðiz forn fyrða mæli —
að oft verðr örgum eins vant á tög.
Því voru nítján niðjar skaufhala, jafningja hunds, heldr en tuttugu, að oft verðr örgum vant eins á tög; þar sannaðiz forn mæli fyrða.
It was for that reason that there were nineteen offspring of Tassel-tail, a dog’s equal, rather than twenty because the wicked one often lacks one from ten; there the old saying of men came true.
Mss: 603(81), Rask87ˣ(112r)
Readings: [2] skaufhala: so Rask87ˣ, ‘skaufala’ 603 [3] hunds: hans Rask87ˣ; jafningja: jafningjar Rask87ˣ [5] forn: so Rask87ˣ, fyrða 603 [6] fyrða: so Rask87ˣ, forn‑ 603
Editions: Kölbing 1876, 242, Jón Þorkelsson 1888, 229, CPB II, 383, Jón Þorkelsson 1922-7, 154, Páll Eggert Ólason 1947, 57.
Notes: [1] því ‘it was for that reason’: Kölbing (1876) takes this as an interrogative (= hví ‘why’), which is possible in later Icelandic (after 1400, see Björn K. Þórólfsson 1925, 46), but less likely in view of the adv.-conj. combination því … að lit. ‘therefore … because’. — [3] jafningja hunds ‘a dog’s equal’: Jafningjar hans (m. nom. pl.) ‘his equals’ (so Rask87ˣ) must be a lectio facilior. See the similar expression (hunds jafningi) in st. 19/4. — [5-6]: Earlier eds (except Páll Eggert Ólason 1947) retain the 603 reading þar [CPB þat] sannadiz fyrða | fornmæli ‘there the old saying of men came true’, which results in two unmetrical lines (l. 5 is hypermetrical and l. 6 is hypometrical). It is not clear why CPB replaces þar ‘there’ with þat ‘that’. — [7-8] oft verðr örgum vant eins á tög ‘the wicked one often lacks one from ten’: Guðbrandur Vigfússon (CPB II, 610) explains this as a proverb: ‘… nineteen is a favourite number in popular tales; a dangerous river has just taken ‘nineteen’ victims, and is waiting for the last; Mount Hecla has had ‘nineteen’ eruptions, and the like’. The ‘wicked one’ most likely refers to Satan here although örgum (nom. argr ‘wicked, cowardly’) could also be dat. pl. Amory (1973, 4) paraphrases this as ‘with cowards there is always one missing out of every ten men’.
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.
This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.
This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.