RvHbreiðm Hl 41III
Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 41’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1049.
Hringr ‘A sword’
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1. hringr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -; -ar): ring; sword
notes
[1] hringr ‘a sword’: Lit. ‘ring’. This is a heiti for ‘sword’ (Þul Sverða 7/7), where the ring in the hilt of a sword is used pars pro toto for ‘sword’. Hringr is also a pers. n. Rugmann added Gladius ‘Sword’ above the word in papp25ˣ, but translated hringr brast as Arcus sonuit ‘A bow resounded’ in R683ˣ. The verb brast ‘crashed’ was likely added at some point by someone who mistook the pers. n. Hringr for the common noun (perhaps caused by hjǫrr brast ‘a sword cracked’ in l. 7 below). The original reading cannot be recovered (Jón Helgason (Hl 1941) suggests Hringr vá ‘Hringr fought’).
brast ‘crashed’
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1. bresta (verb; °brestr; brast, brustu; brostinn): burst, split
hjoggusk ‘exchanged blows’
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hǫggva (verb): to strike, put to death, cut, hew
[1] hjoggusk: so R683ˣ, ‘higgost’ papp25ˣ
drengir ‘warriors’
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drengr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -; -ir, gen. -ja): man, warrior
hjalmr ‘a helmet’
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1. hjalmr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i; -ar): helmet
gnast ‘cracked’
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gnesta (verb): emit crashing sound
bitu ‘bit’
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bíta (verb; °bítr; beit, bitu; bitinn): bite
malmar ‘weapons’
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malmr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i; -ar): metal
rǫnd ‘a shield-rim’
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rǫnd (noun f.; °dat. -/-u; rendr/randir): shield, shield-rim
notes
[3] skar rǫnd ‘a shield-rim was cut’: Skera ‘cut’ (skar 3rd pers. sg. pret. indic.) used impersonally with rǫnd ‘shield-rim’ as the acc. object.
skar ‘was cut’
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skera (verb): cut
notes
[3] skar rǫnd ‘a shield-rim was cut’: Skera ‘cut’ (skar 3rd pers. sg. pret. indic.) used impersonally with rǫnd ‘shield-rim’ as the acc. object.
rekkar ‘warriors’
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rekkr (noun m.; °; -ar): man, champion
týndusk ‘died’
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týna (verb): lose, destroy
ruðusk ‘were reddened’
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rjóða (verb): to redden
notes
[4] sverð ruðusk ‘swords were reddened’: See st. 42/1.
sverð ‘swords’
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sverð (noun n.; °-s; -): sword
notes
[4] sverð ruðusk ‘swords were reddened’: See st. 42/1.
hnigu ‘fell’
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hníga (verb): sink, fall
ferðir ‘companies’
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ferð (noun f.; °-ar; -ir/-arMork 196¹²)): host, journey
Brandr ‘A blade’
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brandr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i; -ar): sword, prow; fire
reið ‘swung’
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1. ríða (verb): ride
blœddu ‘bled’
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blœða (verb; °-dd-): bleed
undir ‘gashes’
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1. und (noun f.; °; -ir): wound
notes
[6] ben sullu ‘wounds swelled’: Cf. sts 42/2 and 74/2. In the latter, ben is f. rather than n.
sullu ‘swelled’
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sulla (verb): surge
notes
[6] ben sullu ‘wounds swelled’: Cf. sts 42/2 and 74/2. In the latter, ben is f. rather than n.
spjǫr ‘spears’
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spjǫr (noun n.): spear
gullu ‘resounded’
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gjalla (verb): to scream, shriek; to repay, return, pay for
brast ‘crashed’
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1. bresta (verb; °brestr; brast, brustu; brostinn): burst, split
hjǫrr ‘a sword’
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hjǫrr (noun m.): sword
brynjur ‘byrnies’
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1. brynja (noun f.; °-u (dat. brynnoni Gibb 38⁹); -ur): mailcoat
lestusk ‘were damaged’
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lesa (verb): read
beit ‘bit’
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bíta (verb; °bítr; beit, bitu; bitinn): bite
skjómi ‘a sword’
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skjómi (noun m.): sword
dreif ‘there was a blizzard’
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2. drífa (verb; °drífr; dreif, drifu; drifinn): drive, rush
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
The heading is sextánmælt (‘Sextanmælt’) ‘sixteen-times spoken’, a dróttkvætt stanza that contains sixteen clauses with two clauses per line (cf. SnSt Ht 9).
In the corpus of skaldic poetry, there are examples of dróttkvætt lines containing two independent clauses as here, but this syntactic peculiarity never occurs systematically as in this stanza and in Ht 9. Holtsmark (Hl 1941, 127) adduces Latin models. — Although it does not emerge from the present version, the hero commemorated must be Hringr Randvésson, King of Sweden, the nephew of Haraldr hilditǫnn ‘War-tooth’ and his opponent at the battle of Brávellir (see sts 39-40 above; ÍF 35, 58-78; Saxo 2005, I, 7, 10, 11, pp. 498-9, 7, 11, 12-13, 12, 2, pp. 506-9, 8, 1, 1-5, 1, pp. 510-23, 8, 7, 3-4, pp. 526-9). — [5-8]: Some of the clauses in this helmingr have close parallels in SnSt Ht 9/5-8: brandr reið ‘a sword was swung’ (l. 5), spjǫr gullu ‘spears resounded’ (l. 6), brynjur lestusk ‘byrnies were damaged’ (l. 7); cf. brandr gellr ‘the blade resounds’ (Ht 9/7), spjǫr braka ‘spears crash’ (Ht 9/8), brynjur sundrask ‘byrnies are sundered’ (Ht 9/7).
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