ESk Frag 10^III

Margr ríss, en drífr dorgar
dynstrǫnd í svig lǫndum,
(spend verða stǫg stundum)
stirðr keipr (fira greipum).

Margr stirðr keipr ríss, en {dynstrǫnd dorgar} drífr í svig lǫndum; stǫg verða stundum spend greipum fira.

Many a firm rowlock lifts, and {the roaring beach of the trolling-line} [SEA] surges into the bays of the lands; the stays are at times strained in men’s grips.

Mss: R(26v), Tˣ(27v), W(57), U(29v), B(5r), 744ˣ(31v) (SnE)

Readings: [2] dynstrǫnd: dynr stǫng 744ˣ;    svig: svik U;    lǫndum: lǫngum 744ˣ    [3] stǫg: so all others, stǫng R    [4] stirðr: so all others, stirð R;    keipr: so Tˣ, W, 744ˣ, ‘sceipr’ R, ‘kipr’ U;    fira: fyrr á 744ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 481, Skj BI, 453, Skald I, 223; SnE 1848-87, I, 326-7, II, 316, 529, III, 52, SnE 1931, 117, SnE 1998, I, 38.

Context: In Skm, as st. 9 above. The sea-kenning here is dynstrǫnd dorgar ‘roaring beach of the trolling-line’.

Notes: [All]: In R, Tˣ and 744ˣ, the stanza is preceded by Ok enn kvað hann ‘And again he said’ (W has ok enn ‘and again’). — [1] dorgar ‘of the trolling-line’: A fish-line that is pulled behind a boat (etymologically related to draga ‘drag, pull’; see AEW: dorg). — [3] stǫg (n. nom. pl.) ‘the stays’: So all other mss. Stǫng ‘pole’ (R) violates both the syntax (the subject is sg. and verb is pl.) and the metre because metrical position 4 cannot be occupied by a long nominal syllable in lines of this type (see Gade 1995a, 85-7). The stay is a rope that supports the mast (see Falk 1912, 59; Jesch 2001a, 165). — [4] stirðr keipr ‘firm rowlock’: During rowing the oars rested in crescent-shaped wooden pieces inserted into the top strake (see Falk 1912, 70; Jesch 2001a, 155). It is not quite clear how these could be ‘lifted’, but here it seems to denote the oars themselves being lifted in the rowlocks.

References

1. Bibliography
2. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
5. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
6. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
7. Falk, Hjalmar. 1912. Altnordisches Seewesen. Wörter und Sachen 4. Heidelberg: Winter.
8. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
9. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
10. Internal references
11. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 4 May 2024)