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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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RvHbreiðm Hl 4III

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1012.

Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr ÞórarinssonHáttalykill
345


… †arðar†
vatni blœtt
of vísa …

… †endi†
heiðar hvals
til hjarta …

… †arðar† blœtt vatni of vísa … †endi† til hjarta {hvals heiðar} …

… … bleeding with water above the leader … … to the heart {of the whale of the heath} [SERPENT] …

Mss: papp25ˣ(42r), R683ˣ(125r)

Readings: [3] blœtt: ‘blæt’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ    [8] hjarta: so R683ˣ, ‘hiar …’ papp25ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 513, Skj BI, 488, Skald I, 239, NN §3113; Hl 1941, 34, 37-9.

Context: As st. 3 above.

Notes: [All]: The stanza is incomplete and beyond reconstruction, yet different attempts have been made to restore it (see below). All these attempts are purely conjectural, but the reference to the serpent, apparently wounded by a sword, suggests that the hero mentioned in sts 3-4 was Sigurðr (see Note to st. 3 [All]). Sigurðr is the protagonist of the eddic Sigurðr cycle (see Gríp, Reg, Fáfn, Sigrdr, Brot, Sigsk, Guðr I-II, Helr, as well as Vǫlsunga saga and Þiðr) and the Old Norse counterpart of Sigfried of the Middle High German Nibelungenlied. For his slaying of the dragon Fáfnir, see SnE 1998, I, 45-7, Fáfn and Vǫls chs 18-20. — [1-4]: Hl 1941 suggests the following reading of ll. 1-4: [Dróttins man | dverga fj]arðar | vatni blœtt | yfir vísa [gein], i.e. man dróttins fjarðar dverga, blætt vatni, gein yfir vísa ‘the beloved of the lord of the dwarfs’ fjord [MEAD OF POETRY > = Óðinn > = Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)], bleeding water, yawned above the leader’. — [3] blœtt ‘bleeding’: Both mss read ‘blæt’ which cannot be construed to make any sense (see Hl 1941). Blœtt is taken here as p. p. n. nom. sg. (lit. ‘bled’) of the verb blœða ‘bleed’. In both mss, final <t> frequently represents the geminate <tt> (Hl 1941, 106 and Introduction above). — [5-8]: Kock (NN §3113) reconstructs this helmingr as follows: [En grimt vápn | ór grams h]endi | heiðar hvals | til hjarta [stóð] ‘And the terrible weapon from the lord’s hand stood in the heart of the heath’s whale [SERPENT]’.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  4. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  5. Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
  6. Vǫls = Vǫlsunga saga.
  7. Þiðr = Þiðreks saga af Bern.
  8. Internal references
  9. Not published: do not cite ()
  10. Not published: do not cite ()
  11. Not published: do not cite ()
  12. Not published: do not cite ()
  13. Not published: do not cite ()
  14. Not published: do not cite ()
  15. Not published: do not cite ()
  16. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Vǫlsunga saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 790. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=10832> (accessed 29 March 2024)
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