Svart Skauf 25^VIII

‘Var gren þetta         grjóti um hvorfið;
mátti hundur þar         hvergi inn komaz.
Gó hann grimmliga,         þá hann gat ekki
garpr ginmikill         gripið mig tönnum.

‘Þetta gren var um hvorfið grjóti; hundur mátti hvergi komaz inn þar. Hann gó grimmliga, þá hann gat ekki gripið mig tönnum, ginmikill garpr.

‘This den was surrounded by stones; the dog could not get in anywhere there. He howled horribly when he was not able to catch me with his teeth, the jaw-mighty fellow.

Mss: 603(82), Rask87ˣ(114r)

Readings: [1] gren: greni Rask87ˣ    [2] grjóti: grjót Rask87ˣ;    hvorfið: horfið Rask87ˣ    [3] þar: om. Rask87ˣ    [6] þá: þó Rask87ˣ;    hann gat: gat hann Rask87ˣ    [7] garpr: ‘grettur’ Rask87ˣ

Editions: Kölbing 1876, 244, Jón Þorkelsson 1888, 232, CPB II, 383, Jón Þorkelsson 1922-7, 157, Páll Eggert Ólason 1947, 64-5.

Notes: [1] gren (n. nom. sg.) ‘den’: Greni n. dat. sg. (Rask87ˣ) is grammatically incorrect. — [2] grjóti (n. dat. sg.) ‘by stones’: Instrumental dat. is required here, and the Rask87ˣ variant, grjót (n. nom. or acc. sg. or pl.), is incorrect. — [2] hvorfið ‘surrounded’: So Kölbing (1876), CPB and Jón Þorkelsson (1888; 1922-7). For the restoration of <v> in this and similar words, see ANG §235.1.a Anm. 1. Horfið ‘surrounded’ (Rask87ˣ) is the regular form (adopted by Páll Eggert Ólason 1947). — [6] þá hann gat ekki ‘when he was not able’: Þó gat hann ekki ‘yet he was not able to’ (Rask87ˣ) is also possible but less preferable from a metrical point of view, as a Type A with anacrusis rather than a Type C. Páll Eggert Ólason (1947) has gat þó ekki ‘yet [he] was not able to’, which is not supported by either of the mss. — [7] garpr ‘fellow’: The Rask87ˣ variant, ‘grettur’, is difficult to make sense of.

References

1. Bibliography
2. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
3. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
4. Jón Þorkelsson [J. Thorkelsson]. 1888. Om digtningen på Island i det 15. og 16. århundrede. Copenhagen: Høst & søns forlag.
5. Kölbing, Eugen. 1876. Beiträge zur vergleichenden Geschichte der romantischen Poesie und Prosa des Mittelalters unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der englishen und nordischen litteratur. Breslau: Koebner.
6. Páll Eggert Ólason, ed. 1947. Kvæðasafn 1300-1600. Vol. 2 of Einar Ólafur Sveinsson et al., eds. Íslands þúsund ár. 4 vols. Reykjavík: Helgafell.