Matthew Townend (ed.) 2017, ‘Óttarr svarti, Óláfsdrápa sœnska 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. 337.
Braut, en breki þaut,
borð — óx viðar morð —
— meðr fengu mikit veðr —
mjó fyr ofan sjó.
Braut mjó borð fyr ofan sjó, en breki þaut; {morð viðar} óx; meðr fengu mikit veðr.
The slender planks were broken above the sea, and the breaker resounded; {the destruction of the tree} [WIND] increased; men got severe weather.
Mss: A(13v), R(38v) (ll. 1-2), Tˣ(40r), 744ˣ(36v-37r), C(7v) (ll. 1-2) (SnE)
Readings: [1] Braut en: ‘Brạụt eṇ’ 744ˣ; en: ek Tˣ [2] borð: hǫrð Tˣ; óx: so R, Tˣ, C, ‘vǫx’ A, vex 744ˣ [3] meðr: ‘medor’ Tˣ, ‘mer þar’ 744ˣ; fengu: ‘fenngum’ 744ˣ; mikit veðr: om. Tˣ [4] mjó: ‘ṃio’ 744ˣ
Editions: Skj AI, 289, Skj BI, 267, Skald I, 137, NN §§620, 720; SnE 1848-87, I, 504-5, II, 452, 535-6, III, 105, SnE 1931, 177, SnE 1998, I, 96.
Context: This stanza is quoted in Skm to illustrate the use of breki as one of many heiti for ‘sea’.
Notes: [All]: The stanza describes a sea-voyage in stormy weather, but saga accounts shed no light on its occurrence or significance in Óláfr’s career. — [1] braut ‘were broken’: Lit. ‘broke’. The verb brjóta ‘break’ is used impersonally with mjó borð ‘slender planks’ (ll. 2, 4) as the acc. object. — [3] meðr ‘men’: This is a variant form of menn (see ANG §261). — [4] mjó (n. acc. pl.) ‘slender’: This adj. can only qualify borð ‘planks’ (l. 2), though the lengthy separation between noun and adj. seems uncharacteristic of Óttarr’s syntax in this poem.
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.
This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.
This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.