Svart Skauf 33^VIII

‘Hef eg íhentað mier         hákallslykkjur
og höggið mier         hvinna snepla.
Eiga mier allir,         ef eg einskis dyl,
ýtar oftliga         ilt að launa.

‘Eg hef íhentað mier hákallslykkjur og höggið mier snepla hvinna. Allir ýtar eiga að launa mier ilt oftliga, ef eg dyl einskis.

‘I’ve fetched myself shark-loops and cut myself thieves’ snippets. All people often have bad deeds to repay me, if I deny nothing.

Mss: 603(82), Rask87ˣ(115r)

Readings: [1] Hef eg (‘Hefi eg’): so Rask87ˣ, Hefi 603;    íhentað: hent Rask87ˣ    [4] snepla: ‘‑snapa’ Rask87ˣ    [5] allir: ýtar Rask87ˣ    [6] einskis dyl: dyl einskis 603, nýt einskis Rask87ˣ    [7] ýtar: allir Rask87ˣ

Editions: Kölbing 1876, 245, Jón Þorkelsson 1888, 234, CPB II, 384, Jón Þorkelsson 1922-7, 158, Páll Eggert Ólason 1947, 67.

Notes: [1] hef eg ‘I’ve’: Lit. ‘have I’. So Rask87ˣ (‘Hefi eg’). Ms. 603 has hefi. The normalisation is in keeping with the 603 readings of sts 30/1, 31/1 and 32/1 (see also Note to st. 20/1). — [1] íhentað ‘fetched’: Hap. leg. Hent ‘fetched’ (Rask87ˣ followed by Jón Þorkelsson 1922-7 and Páll Eggert Ólason 1947) is less preferable from a metrical point of view, and looks like a lectio facilior. — [2] hákallslykkjur ‘shark-loops’: Hákarl is a shark (Somnius microcephalus). CPB II, 610 glosses hákarlslykkjur as ‘the flesh of sharks hung and dried’. — [4] hvinna ‘thieves’’: Hvinnr was a person guilty of petty theft. See Note to Mgóð Lv 1/2^II. — [5] eiga (3rd pers. pl. pres. indic.) ‘have’: On the form eiga, earlier eigu, see ANG §532.4 and Bandle (1956, 423). — [5, 7] allir; ýtar ‘all; people’: Rask87ˣ has these words in the reverse order (ýtar (l. 5) and allir (l. 7)), which is also possible. — [6]: As it stands in 603, ef eg dyl einskis ‘if I deny nothing’ (so also Kölbing 1876, CPB and Jón Þorkelsson 1888), the line is unmetrical because the main stave falls on the second lift (einskis ‘nothing’). That is also the case with the Rask87ˣ variant ef eg nýt einskis ‘if I enjoy nothing’ (so Páll Eggert Ólason 1947). The present edn follows Jón Þorkelsson (1922-7). The clause ‘if I deny nothing’ is somewhat obscure, but it must refer to the fox’s own discourse – he is confessing or bragging or some mixture of the two. The Rask87ˣ variant ‘if I enjoy nothing’ makes no sense in the context.

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. 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. Jón Þorkelsson [J. Thorkelsson]. 1888. Om digtningen på Island i det 15. og 16. århundrede. Copenhagen: Høst & søns forlag.
6. Kölbing, Eugen. 1876. Beiträge zur vergleichenden Geschichte der romantischen Poesie und Prosa des Mittelalters unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der englishen und nordischen litteratur. Breslau: Koebner.
7. Páll Eggert Ólason, ed. 1947. Kvæðasafn 1300-1600. Vol. 2 of Einar Ólafur Sveinsson et al., eds. Íslands þúsund ár. 4 vols. Reykjavík: Helgafell.
8. Internal references
9. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Magnús inn góði Óláfsson, Lausavísur 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 5-6.