RvHbreiðm Hl 19^III

Sigurð frák seðja
sára skára;
verð skóp vísi
vǫrgum mǫrgum.
Ruðr nam rjóða
randa branda;
sókn gerði sá
snarpa skarpa.

Frák Sigurð seðja {skára sára}; vísi skóp mǫrgum vǫrgum verð. {Ruðr randa} nam rjóða branda; sá gerði snarpa, skarpa sókn.

I heard that Sigurðr sated {the sea-gull of wounds} [RAVEN/EAGLE]; the leader created a meal for many wolves. {The shrub of shield-rims} [WARRIOR] began to redden blades; that one made a swift, sharp attack.

Mss: papp25ˣ(41r), R683ˣ(127r)

Readings: [3] skóp: ‘‑scap’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ;    vísi: vísir papp25ˣ, R683ˣ    [7] sókn: ‘g̣ịṛḍṛ ẹṇ’ papp25ˣ, ‘girdur en’ R683ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 516, Skj BI, 491-2, Skald I, 241; Hl 1941, 33, 55-6.

Context: The heading is inn grænlenzki háttr (‘hin Grænlanske hottr’) ‘the verse-form from Greenland’ (cf. SnSt Ht 71). Structurally this metre is like fornyrðislag, but the even lines have internal rhymes (aðalhending in positions 1 and 3) on two disyllabic words that end in the same syllable. The metre is otherwise attested only in Anon (TGT) 14, 23.

Notes: [All]: In Ht 71, the odd lines also have internal rhymes (skothending; see l. 5 above). — [All]: The stanza eulogises Sigurðr ormr-í-auga ‘Snake-in-the-Eyes’, another of Ragnarr loðbrók’s sons (see sts 11-18 above). Sigurðr had spots in his eyes, which caused them to resemble the eyes of a snake (see Saxo 2005, I, 9, 4, 12, pp. 592-3; ÍF 35, 85-6 n. 8). On Sigurðr, see also Rloð Lv 4^VIII (Ragn 8). — [3] skóp ‘created’: The ms. reading (‘-scap’; the word appears to be written together with the preceeding verð ‘meal’) must be a misreading of skóp ‘created’ (so all previous eds). — [3] vísi (m. nom. sg.) ‘the leader’: Both mss read vísir ‘leader’, declined as a m. ja-stem, but the oblique form vísa in sts 4/4, 33/7, 34/8, 43/8, 74/6, 80/2 shows that the poets must have used the earlier, weak form vísi (see ANG §§371, 401). The normalised form has been adopted passim in the present edn. — [7-8]: The meaning of ‘girdr (or ‘girdur’) en’ in l. 7 is unclear (gyrðr, en ‘girdled, but’ (?)). In papp25ˣ the words are given with dots beneath each letter, which indicates that Rugman was uncertain about the transcription. As it stands in the mss, the line is unmetrical with one syllable too many, and there is no alliteration between ll. 7 and 8. (a) In the present edn, these words have been emended to sókn (f. acc. sg.) ‘attack’, qualified by skarpa, snarpa (f. acc. sg.) ‘swift, sharp’ (l. 8) as the object of gerði ‘made’ in a Type E-line. (b) Skj B and Skald render ll. 7-8 as follows: gumi gœddi sá | garpa snarpa ‘that man advanced the swift warriors’. That reading retains only two of the original words in the lines. (c) As Jón Helgason (Hl 1941) points out, this mistranscribed part of l. 7 most likely contained a word meaning ‘battle’. However, his suggestions sverðhríð ‘sword-storm’ or snerru ‘battle’ are incompatible with the metre, which requires only one metrical position.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
5. ÍF 35 = Danakonunga sǫgur. Ed. Bjarni Guðnason. 1982.
6. Saxo 2005 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2005. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum / Danmarkshistorien. Trans. Peter Zeeberg. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Det danske sprog- og litteraturselskab & Gads forlag.
7. Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
8. Internal references
9. Not published: do not cite (Rloð^VIII)
10. Tarrin Wills (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Third Grammatical Treatise 14’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 547.
11. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 68’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1180.
12. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 71’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1182.
13. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 38 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Ragnars saga loðbrókar 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 699.
14. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 8 (Ragnarr loðbrók, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 639.