Hallv Knútdr 4^III

Rauðljósa sér ræsir
(rít brestr sundr in hvíta)
baugjǫrð brodda ferðar
(bjúgrend) í tvau fljúga.

{Ræsir {ferðar brodda}} sér {rauðljósa baugjǫrð} fljúga í tvau; in hvíta, bjúgrend rít brestr sundr.

{The impeller {of the journey of missiles}} [BATTLE > WARRIOR] sees {the bright red ring-land} [SHIELD] split in two; the white, curve-edged shield bursts apart.

Mss: R(34r), Tˣ(35v), W(78), U(33r), A(11v), C(5v) (SnE)

Readings: [1] ‑ljósa: ljóma C;    ræsir: ‘ræsi[…]’ U    [2] rít: ‘ritr’ U    [3] ‑jǫrð: ‑gjǫrð A    [4] ‑rend: ‘l[…]it’ U, rǫnd A, ‘[…]’ C;    í: ‘[…]’ U;    tvau: ‘tau’ Tˣ, ‘[…]’ C

Editions: Skj AI, 317, Skj BI, 294, Skald I, 149; SnE 1848-87, I, 428-9, II, 329-30, 440, 590, III, 81, SnE 1931, 152, SnE 1998, I, 70; Frank 1994b, 121, Jesch 2000, 247.

Context: This stanza is quoted in Skm to illustrate the shield-kenning baugjǫrð ‘ring-land’.

Notes: [1] rauðljósa ‘bright red’: Lit. ‘red-bright’, seemingly alluding to red paint on the shield rather than to blood; this is complemented by hvíta ‘white’ in l. 2 (see Falk 1914b, 128-32, 143-4). — [2] rít ‘shield’: A heiti for ‘shield’, occurring in Þul Skjaldar 1/7 (see Note there) and elsewhere (LP: rít). — [3] baugjǫrð ‘ring-land [SHIELD]’: Baugr as a heiti for shield is also recorded in Þul Skjaldar 3/3 (see Note there). Although baugr (lit. ‘circle, ring’) can function as a pars pro toto term for ‘shield’ (see SnE 1998, I, 67), it also forms the determinant in shield-kennings; hence ‘the land of the baugr’, as here, is a shield. However, the kenning was clearly not transparent: ms. A, which generally preserves an excellent text of Hallvarðr’s poem, has bauggjǫrð ‘ring-belt, shield-belt’ (cf. sikulgjǫrð ‘sword-belt’, st. 2/2). — [4] bjúgrend ‘curve-edged’: A cpd adj. in which the second element is related to the more common noun rǫnd ‘rim, shield’, which the scribe of A has substituted as a lectio facilior. Bjúgrend presumably refers to the shape of the shield, though the adj. is not discussed in Falk (1914b). The strong form of the adj. bjúgrend is used here, even though one might have expected the weak form bjúgrenda since there is a def. art. (in hvíta, bjúgrenda rít). The strong form must have been chosen for metrical reasons (bjúgrenda makes the line hypermetrical), and was syntactically acceptable since it is separated from the rest of the noun phrase. — [4] fljúga í tvau ‘split in two’: Lit. ‘fly into two’.

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. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
5. Jesch, Judith. 2000. ‘Knútr in Poetry and History’. In Dallapiazza et al. 2000, 243-56.
6. Falk, Hjalmar. 1914b. Altnordische Waffenkunde. Videnskapsselskapets skrifter, II. Hist.-filos. kl. 1914, 6. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
7. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
8. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. Frank, Roberta. 1994b. ‘King Cnut in the Verse of his Skalds’. In Rumble 1994, 106-24.
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 27 April 2024)
12. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Skjaldar heiti 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. 823.
13. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Skjaldar heiti 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 826.