Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Svartr á Hofstöðum, Skaufhala bálkr 4’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 958.
Mælti gortanni við grenlægju:
‘Hvað skulum vinna vier til þarfa?
Við erum orðin veiklunduð mjög
hryggsnauð harla en halar rotnaðir.’
Gortanni mælti við {grenlægju}: ‘Hvað skulum vier vinna til þarfa? Við erum orðin mjög veiklunduð, harla hryggsnauð en halar rotnaðir.’
‘Filth-tooth spoke to the lair-lier [VIXEN]: ‘What should we do for our sustenance? We have become very weak-minded, exceedingly bare on our backs, and our tails have shed their hair.’’
[5-8]: For similar complaints of old age in European beast fables, see Amory (1973, 9-10).
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
Mælti gortanni
við gren†-lægu†:
‘Hvað skulum vinna
vier til þarfa?
Við erum orðin
veik†-lendit† mjög
hryggsnauð harla
en halir rotnaðir.’
Mælti †gor-ganti†
við grenlægju:
‘Hvað skulum vinna
við til þarfar?
Við erum orðin
veiklunduð mjög
†hrigg, snaud† harla
og hala rotnaðir.’
Mælte (gor-ganti)[1] Wid grenlægiu | hvad skulum vinna vid til þarfar? | Wid erum ordinn veiklundud mióg, | hrigg, snaud harla, og hala rotnader. |
(HB)
Kölbing 1876, 242, Jón Þorkelsson 1888, 229, CPB II, 383, Jón Þorkelsson 1922-7, 154, Páll Eggert Ólason 1947, 58.
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