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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Rv Lv 34III

Judith Jesch (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl Kali Kolsson, Lausavísur 34’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 343.

Rǫgnvaldr jarl Kali KolssonLausavísur
333435

text and translation

Akr verðk opt fyr sjúkri
eyfitja þó sitja
— rjóð es mér in mæra
menbrík — Njǫrun síka
heiðis fylgjask hauðri
(hauk tínik svá) mínu
(setrs leitandi sútar
slœgr á hverju dœgri).

Verðk þó opt sitja akr fyr {sjúkri Njǫrun {síka eyfitja}} – {in mæra menbrík} es mér rjóð – fylgjask {mínu hauðri heiðis}; tínik svá hauk, slœgr, leitandi setrs sútar á hverju dœgri.
 
‘I nonetheless often have to sit in my ploughed field [= (salr ‘hall’)] beside the sick Njǫrun <goddess> of the fishes of the island-meadows [SERPENTS (hringar ‘rings’) > WOMAN] – the excellent neck-ring-table [WOMAN] looks red to me – to be with my land of the hawk [ARM/HAND (mund ‘dowry’)]; I proclaim in this way my hawk [= (harmr ‘sorrow’)], cunning, looking for the seat of grief every day.

notes and context

Both redactions of LaufE mention a figure called rekit, which is said often to be used in riddles, exemplified in LaufE Y by Refr Frag 2 and a proverbial statement in prose, and in LaufE X (LaufE 1979, 294) by Refr Frag 2. It is further explained that Þad hafa menn mióg j qvedskap þeir er mirt vilia qveda [Y: yrckia], ad nefna þann hlut er heiti ä vid hinn er merker soguna ‘Those people who want to recite obscurely often compose in such a way that they call the thing which is named by that which signifies the statement’, followed by the citation of Rv Lv 34-5 in LaufE Y and Rv Lv 35 in LaufE X. See also Note to [All] below.

Structurally the stanza is highly unusual because the syntax obscures the metrical caesura between the two helmingar (cf. Kuhn 1983, 207-8), i.e. there is no syntactic break between the half-stanzas (see Note to l. 5 below). — Although the stanza is cited as an example of rekit (normally used of an extended kenning; see SnE 1998, I, 74, SnE 2007, 5, 134 as well as Context to RvHbreiðm Hl 33), the explanations (see Context, above) rather suggest ofljóst, a form of word-play in which a homonym of the intended solution is substituted by a synonym or circumlocutory phrase (SnE 1998, I, 109; SnE 2007, 12-13). The interpretation of this stanza largely follows that of Bibire (1988), which entails a minimum of emendation and best accords with the Context and the assumed riddling nature of the stanza. The situation described appears to be one in which the poet is sitting by the sick-bed of a woman, possibly his wife.

readings

sources

Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.

editions and texts

Skj: Rǫgnvaldr jarl kali Kolsson, Lausavísur 34: AI, 512, BI, 487, Skald I, 239, NN §§981, 982, 3111; SnE 1848-87 II, 633, III, 202-3; LaufE 1979, 378; Bibire 1988, 239.

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