Svart Skauf 32^VIII

‘Hef eg oftliga         óþarfr verið
bændafólki         í bygð þessi,
skoðað jafnliga         skreið í hjöllum,
riklinga rár         og rafabelti.

‘Eg hef oftliga verið óþarfr bændafólki í þessi bygð, jafnliga skoðað skreið í hjöllum, rár riklinga og rafabelti.

‘I’ve frequently been destructive to the farming population in this settlement, regularly eyed stockfish in the racks, the stakes with dried flesh of halibut and their fattest strips.

Mss: 603(82), Rask87ˣ(115r)

Readings: [1] Hef: Hefi Rask87ˣ    [3] bænda‑: ‘bændum’ Rask87ˣ;    ‑fólki: og fólki Rask87ˣ    [4] þessi: þessari Rask87ˣ    [5] skoðað: skaðað Rask87ˣ    [6] skreið: so Rask87ˣ, ‘skrid’ 603    [7] riklinga rár: rikling allan Rask87ˣ

Editions: Kölbing 1876, 245, Jón Þorkelsson 1888, 233, CPB II, 384, Jón Þorkelsson 1922-7, 158, Páll Eggert Ólason 1947, 67.

Notes: [1-2]: These lines recall HallmGr Hallkv 6/3-4^V (Gr 56): nær hefik ǫllum | óþarfr verit ‘I have been destructive to almost everyone’. — [3] bændafólki ‘to the farming population’: The Rask87ˣ variant, bændum og fólki ‘to the farmers and the people’, is also possible and is preferred by Páll Eggert Ólason (1947). — [4] þessi (f. dat. sg.) ‘this’: Þessari (f. dat. sg.) ‘this’ (Rask87ˣ; adopted by Páll Eggert Ólason 1947) is a later form of the demonstrative pron. (see Bandle 1956, 353) and results in a hypermetrical line. — [5] skoðað ‘eyed’: Skaðað (Rask87ˣ) is possibly a variant of skoðað i.e. p. p. of skoða ‘eye, observe’ (see Fritzner: skáða; Heggstad et al. 2008: skaða), or p. p. of skaða ‘harm’, which is, however, only used impersonally in Old Icelandic. — [6] skreið ‘stockfish’: So Rask87ˣ (‘skrid’ in 603 is a scribal error). Skreið is (usually) Arctic cod (Gadus morhua) that is hung on drying-racks (hjallar) and air-dried (see also Fritzner: skreið 4). — [7] rár riklinga ‘the stakes with dried flesh of halibut’: Riklingr (or reklingr) is flesh on the side of the halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus), which has been cut into strips and air-dried (see Fritzner: reklingr and AEW: reklingr). The Rask87ˣ variant of this line, rikling allan ‘all the dried flesh of halibut’, is also possible. — [8] rafabelti ‘their fattest strips’: Lit. ‘belts of fat halibut flesh’. Rafr is the dried fat flesh around the fins of the halibut (see Fritzner: rafr).

References

1. Bibliography
2. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
3. Bandle, Oskar. 1956. Die Sprache der Guðbrandsbiblía. BA 17. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
4. 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.
5. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
6. Jón Þorkelsson [J. Thorkelsson]. 1888. Om digtningen på Island i det 15. og 16. århundrede. Copenhagen: Høst & søns forlag.
7. Kölbing, Eugen. 1876. Beiträge zur vergleichenden Geschichte der romantischen Poesie und Prosa des Mittelalters unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der englishen und nordischen litteratur. Breslau: Koebner.
8. Páll Eggert Ólason, ed. 1947. Kvæðasafn 1300-1600. Vol. 2 of Einar Ólafur Sveinsson et al., eds. Íslands þúsund ár. 4 vols. Reykjavík: Helgafell.
9. Internal references
10. Jonathan Grove (ed.) 2022, ‘Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar 56 (Hallmundr, Hallmundarkviða 6)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 759.