Ótt Knútdr 4I
Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Óttarr svarti, Knútsdrápa 4’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 772.
Brunnu ‘burned’
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2. brenna (verb; °brennr/brenn; brann, brunnu; brunninn): (strong, intransitive)
byggðir ‘settlements’
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byggð (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): dwelling, settlement
manna ‘of people’
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maðr (noun m.): man, person
[1] manna: so with ‘mann membr’ in margin JÓ
fyr ‘before’
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fyr (prep.): for, over, because of, etc.
þér ‘you’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
ungum ‘in your youth’
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ungr (adj.): young
opt ‘often’
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opt (adv.): often
lézt ‘you caused’
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láta (verb): let, have sth done
kennings
heiptir húss.‘the destroyer of the house. ’
= FIRE
the destroyer of the house. → FIRE
notes
[3] of heiptir húss ‘on account of the destroyer of the house [FIRE]’: Emendation seems necessary in this line, and no solution is entirely satisfactory. (a) The proposal of Kock (NN §734; Skald, and followed by ÍF 35) is adopted here, namely to emend hús ok to húss of, thus creating a fire-kenning with heiptir (f. acc. pl.) ‘destroyer’, lit. ‘hatreds, hostilities’ (cf. Meissner 100-1), with of as a causal prep. ‘on account of’. Such an emendation creates a parallelism between the two couplets in this helmingr. (b) Skj B and Knýtl 1919-25 emend heiptir to heiptar (hence herkall heiptar ‘a war-cry of destruction’), but retain ms. ok, taking hús ok with byggðir manna in l. 1, hence ‘people’s settlements and houses’. However, herkall heiptar seems somewhat pleonastic, and such syntax seems strained, and out of keeping with Óttarr’s practice in the rest of this poem, where he tends to favour end-stopped two-line clauses.
notes
[3] of heiptir húss ‘on account of the destroyer of the house [FIRE]’: Emendation seems necessary in this line, and no solution is entirely satisfactory. (a) The proposal of Kock (NN §734; Skald, and followed by ÍF 35) is adopted here, namely to emend hús ok to húss of, thus creating a fire-kenning with heiptir (f. acc. pl.) ‘destroyer’, lit. ‘hatreds, hostilities’ (cf. Meissner 100-1), with of as a causal prep. ‘on account of’. Such an emendation creates a parallelism between the two couplets in this helmingr. (b) Skj B and Knýtl 1919-25 emend heiptir to heiptar (hence herkall heiptar ‘a war-cry of destruction’), but retain ms. ok, taking hús ok with byggðir manna in l. 1, hence ‘people’s settlements and houses’. However, herkall heiptar seems somewhat pleonastic, and such syntax seems strained, and out of keeping with Óttarr’s practice in the rest of this poem, where he tends to favour end-stopped two-line clauses.
heiptir ‘the destroyer’
(not checked:)
heift (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): hatred, enmity
kennings
heiptir húss.‘the destroyer of the house. ’
= FIRE
the destroyer of the house. → FIRE
notes
[3] of heiptir húss ‘on account of the destroyer of the house [FIRE]’: Emendation seems necessary in this line, and no solution is entirely satisfactory. (a) The proposal of Kock (NN §734; Skald, and followed by ÍF 35) is adopted here, namely to emend hús ok to húss of, thus creating a fire-kenning with heiptir (f. acc. pl.) ‘destroyer’, lit. ‘hatreds, hostilities’ (cf. Meissner 100-1), with of as a causal prep. ‘on account of’. Such an emendation creates a parallelism between the two couplets in this helmingr. (b) Skj B and Knýtl 1919-25 emend heiptir to heiptar (hence herkall heiptar ‘a war-cry of destruction’), but retain ms. ok, taking hús ok with byggðir manna in l. 1, hence ‘people’s settlements and houses’. However, herkall heiptar seems somewhat pleonastic, and such syntax seems strained, and out of keeping with Óttarr’s practice in the rest of this poem, where he tends to favour end-stopped two-line clauses.
herkall ‘a war-cry’
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herkall (noun n.): [a war-cry]
búendr ‘the residents’
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búandi (noun m.; °-a; búendr (bøendr var. ÓH 47¹²: AM 325 VII 4° 325 VII), dat. búǫndum/búandum/búendum): farmer, resident
gerva ‘to make’
(not checked:)
1. gera (verb): do, make
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