Ótt Hfl 5^I

Skôruð skǫfnu stýri
(skaut) sylgháar bylgjur
(lék við hún á hreini
hlunns, þats drósir spunnu).

Skôruð sylgháar bylgjur skǫfnu stýri; skaut, þats drósir spunnu, lék við hún á {hreini hlunns}.

You cut the high, engulfing waves with a smoothed rudder; the sail, which women had spun, played against the mast-top on {the reindeer of the roller} [SHIP].

Mss: R(38v), Tˣ(40r), A(13v), B(6r), 744ˣ(36r), C(7v) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Skôruð: ‘sk[…]’ B, skôruð 744ˣ    [2] skaut: ‘[…]ut’ B, ‘skạụt’ 744ˣ;    sylg‑: ‘sylgia’ B;    bylgjur: ‘bylgir’ Tˣ    [3] lék við: ‘læ[…]’ B, lék við 744ˣ;    hreini: ‘hrefne’ B    [4] þats (‘þat er’): so A, þar er R, Tˣ, B, C;    drósir: ‘d[…]’ B, ‘dr.sir’ 744ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 296, Skj BI, 272, Skald I, 139; SnE 1848-87, I, 500-1, II, 452, 535, 600, SnE 1931, 176, SnE 1998, I, 95.

Context: The helmingr is quoted in SnE (Skm) to illustrate the use of bylgja ‘wave’ as a heiti for ‘sea’.

Notes: [All]: Ms. 744ˣ, a copy of B by Jón Ólafsson, has been used selectively to supply readings (whether these match or differ from the main text) where B is not legible.  — [All]: As the prose context is non-narrative, it is uncertain where this stanza should be placed within the poem; see further Introduction. — [1] skǫfnu ‘smoothed’: This is the n. dat. sg. p. p. from skafa ‘to scrape, shave, smooth’, here, presumably, with a plane. — [2] skaut ‘the sail’: For discussion of this term see Jesch (2001a, 163-4). The use of skaut ‘triangle, corner’ as a pars pro toto for ‘sail’ seems to be distinctive to Óttarr, and occurs also in the term skauthreinn ‘sail-reindeer [SHIP]’ in his Knútdr 2/3.

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. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
5. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
6. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
7. Internal references
8. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
9. (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 19 April 2024)