Judith Jesch (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl Kali Kolsson, Lausavísur 35’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 345.
Eigi veitk, nær ægi
óðflýtir má knýta;
dýr es fiskifœra
feigligt, þats vér eigum.
Eigi veitk, nær {óðflýtir} má knýta ægi; {dýr fiskifœra}, þats vér eigum, es feigligt.
‘I don’t know when the poem-conveyer [POET] will be able to bridle the ocean [= (marr ‘horse’)]; the animal of fishing-gear [= (taumar ‘reins’)] [HORSE] which we [I] own is dying. ’
See Context for Lv 34, above.
See Note to Lv 34 [All] above. Although the import of this quatrain is obscure, it plays with and inverts the common trope in which a ship is figured as a horse of the sea (cf. Rv Lv 31II), conjuring up parallel meanings by means of ofljóst. LaufE (LaufE 1979, 294) goes on to explain Þad er allt eitt og taumdyr, þui ad bædi h(eita) taumar fiski færi, og vidlóg hesta þessum figurum er marga vega breitt j skälldskap ‘It is all the same as a reined animal, because taumar means both fishing-gear and horses’ tackle; this figure is varied in many ways in poetry’.
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.
Eigi veitk, †hyr† ægi
óðflýtir má knýta;
dýr es fiskafœra
feigligt, þat vér eigum.
Eigi veitk, nær ægi
óðflýtir má knýta;
dýr es fiskafœra
feigligt, þat vér eigum.
Skj: Rǫgnvaldr jarl kali Kolsson, Lausavísur 35: AI, 512, BI, 487, Skald I, 239; SnE 1848-87, II, 633, III, 203-4; LaufE 1979, 294, 378; Bibire 1988, 239-40.
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