RvHbreiðm Hl 38^III

Vas rǫnd roðin;         riðu skelkingar;
fellu fyrðar         í flogi vápna.
Ôtu ernir         af jǫfurs dolgum;
hreyfðusk hrafnar         of hrækesti.

Rǫnd vas roðin; skelkingar riðu; fyrðar fellu í flogi vápna. Ernir ôtu af dolgum jǫfurs; hrafnar hreyfðusk of hrækesti.

The shield-rim was reddened; swords swung; men fell in the flight of weapons. Eagles ate from the prince’s enemies; ravens gloated above the carrion-pile.

Mss: papp25ˣ(34r), R683ˣ(129r)

Readings: [5] Ôtu: ‘atto’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ    [6] af: of corrected from af R683ˣ    [8] hrækesti: ‘rægkæste’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 519, Skj BI, 496, Skald I, 243; Hl 1941, 25, 67.

Context: As st. 37 above. In this stanza, ll. 1, 4, 6, and 8 have anacruses (Types C3, C2 and C1), and thus they, too, differ from Snorri’s version of the metre.

Notes: [2] skelkingar ‘swords’: Both mss read ‘scælkingar’, i.e. skelkingar, and the word occurs as a heiti for ‘sword’ in Þul Sverða 7/1 with the variant forms skelkvingr and skelkingr. Skj B reads skǫlkingar (most likely because Finnur Jónsson misread <æ> in R683ˣ as <ꜹ>). In Skald, Kock gives skølkvingar (SnE 1848, 242 has ‘skolkíngar’). For skelkingr, which may mean ‘fearsome one’, see Hl 1941 and Note to Arn Þorfdr 5/2^II. — [5] ôtu ‘ate’: The ms. form of this word (‘atto’) reflects a lack of u-umlaut (Norwegian) and the spelling <tt> for <t> (see Hl 1941, 106-9). — [7] hreyfðusk ‘gloated’: Lit. ‘puffed themselves up’. See also Sturl Hrafn 10/5^II. — [8] hrækesti ‘the carrion-pile’: The spelling ‘rægkeste’ shows Norwegian loss of initial h- and the <g> is likely to be the result of hypercorrection (see Hl 1941, 101).

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. SnE 1848 = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1848. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, eða Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál og Háttatal. Reykjavík: Prentsmiðja landsins.
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.
6. Internal references
7. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 7’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 802.
8. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Þorfinnsdrápa 5’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 235-6.
9. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, Hrafnsmál 10’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 735-6.