RvHbreiðm Hl 26^III

… við geira
galdr allvalda
hafs …
herr unni verr.
Þats of hilmi
harðráðan …
…
… var snarast.

… við {galdr geira} allvalda … hafs … herr verr unni. Þats of harðráðan hilmi … var snarast.

… at {the incantation of spears} [BATTLE] of the mighty rulers … of the ocean … the army defends with the sword. That is about the hard-ruling lord … was the bravest.

Mss: papp25ˣ(43r), R683ˣ(127v-128r)

Readings: [2] galdr: ‘glodr’ papp25ˣ, ‘gladur’ R683ˣ    [4] herr unni: ‘… unni’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 517, Skj BI, 493, Skald I, 242; Hl 1941, 35, 61-2.

Context: As st. 25 above.

Notes: [All]: Rugman’s transcriptions of this stanza are hopelessly garbled. Skj A follows R683ˣ and has faulty line-divisions in the first helmingr (so also Skj B; corrected in Skald). — [1] við ‘at’: The exact meaning of the prep. við ‘at, by, because of’ cannot be determined because the verb is missing. — [2] galdr ‘the incantation’: The reading is supported by the internal rhyme. — [4] herr ‘the army’: The reading is conjectural. The line must have begun with a monosyllable with an initial h- and the root ‑err (other possibilities would be her (acc. or dat. sg.) ‘army’ or hverr ‘every’). Unni is either ‘sword’ (m. dat. sg.) or ‘granted’ (3rd pers. sg. pret. indic. of unna). If the latter interpretation is adopted, verr ‘defends’ (3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of verja) would have to be taken as verr (adv. comp.) ‘worse’: herr unni verr ‘the army granted worse’ (?). — [8] snarast ‘the bravest’: This is most likely sup. n. sg. of snarr ‘brave’, but it could also be construed as snarask ‘turn, rush forth’.  If so, var (‘var’ both mss) cannot be a form of vera ‘be’. The metre also indicates that the word in position 2 (‘var’) ought to be long (varr or ‑varr, Type A2k), but since the stanza is so fragmentary, any emendation would be conjectural.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.