ErrSt Lv 1^III

R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2017, ‘Erringar-Steinn, Lausavísa 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 180.

Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses

The helmingr is cited in Skm (SnE) to illustrate the use of the kenning marr Geitis ‘steed of Geitir’ to mean ‘ship’.

Contemplating retaining all the readings of R, Faulkes (SnE 1998, I, 199) remarks that ‘one might perhaps understand the verb to be in line 1 and take line 2 as a parenthesis. This would make each line a separate statement’ (áttmælt ‘eight-times spoken’, SnSt Ht 10). This leaves some matters unexplained, however, including the grammatical connections of þenna ‘this’ (l. 4) and the juxtaposition of enn ‘but’ or ‘still’ and þótt ‘though’ (l. 1). — [2]: Jón Þorkelsson (1890, 9) remarks that the hending on -ll- : -ld- in ǫll and skaldi is unparalleled, and he suggests emending to aldir segi skaldi ‘men say to the skald’, though this is unmetrical. Moreover, the hending is not necessarily objectionable, as the initial þ- in þjóð would make an approximate rhyme (-llþ- : ‑ld-). The aðalhending of a and ǫ is a feature of poets of the late C10th and early C11th (Hreinn Benediktsson 1963a, 1). — [3, 4]: Kock (NN §897) suggests attaching þenna ‘this’ (l. 4) to mar ‘steed’ in l. 3 (as assumed in the present analysis), as opposed to having it qualify ófrið ‘disturbance’ in l. 1 (the assumption of Skj B). But he would regard l. 3 (along with þenna ‘this’ in the next line) as the main clause rather than a parenthesis; all but the last word of the final line would then be a parenthesis. The meaning of the helmingr would then be, ‘Although all people tell the poet about disturbance from the south, we [I] still freight this steed of Geitir <sea-king> [SHIP] with stone; we [I] travel cheerfully’. Such an arrangement, however, seems less probable, as the caution implied by the act of lading one’s ship with stone (see the following Note) does not well fulfill the contrast implied by þótt ‘though’.