Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 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. 1077.
Hjaldrkyndill beit hildar
— harðr brandr es þat — garða;
ljós varð hǫggs í hausum
— hjǫr kallak svá — gjalla.
Hart skar hildar kerti
— hjalms grand es þat — randir,
þvít benlogi brynju
beit; nefnik svá hneiti.
{Hjaldrkyndill} – þat es harðr brandr – beit {garða hildar}; {ljós hǫggs} – svá kallak hjǫr – varð gjalla í hausum. {Hart kerti hildar} – þat es {grand hjalms} – skar randir, þvít {benlogi} – svá nefnik hneiti – beit brynju.
{The battle-candle} [SWORD] – that is a hard sword – bit {farm-yards of battle} [SHIELDS]; {the light of the sword-blow} [SWORD] – thus I call the sword – had to resound against skulls. {The hard taper of battle} [SWORD] – that is {the harm of the helmet} [SWORD] – cut shields, because {the wound-flame} [SWORD] – thus I name the sword – bit the byrnie.
Mss: papp25ˣ(38v), R683ˣ(132v)
Readings: [3] hǫggs: ‘hogs’ papp25ˣ, haugs R683ˣ; hausum: ‘husum’ R683ˣ
Editions: Skj AI, 525, Skj BI, 504, Skald I, 247, NN §§491, 1163; Hl 1941, 30, 88.
Context: As st. 67 above.
Notes: [1] hjaldrkyndill ‘the battle-candle [SWORD]’: Cf. Anon Krm 7/7VIII hrækyndill ‘corpse-candle [SWORD]’. — [2] harðr (m. nom. sg.) ‘hard’: Skj B treats harðr ‘hard’ as an adj. qualifying hjaldrkyndill ‘battle-candle’ (l. 1), but that word order violates the pattern of tilsagt (see NN §1163). — [3] hǫggs (n. gen. sg.) ‘of the sword-blow’: Skj B emends hǫggs ‘of the sword-blow’ (papp25ˣ ‘hogs’; R683ˣ ‘haugs’) to hjaldrs (m. gen. sg.) ‘battle’ (ljós hjaldrs ‘the light of battle’). For the spelling <g> for <gg>, see Hl 1941, 107. Kock (NN §491) retains the reading of R683ˣ and suggests ljós haugs ‘the light of the grave-mound’ referring to swords buried with their owners. However, papp25ˣ has hǫggs (‘hogs’, possibly corrected from ‘gogs’), and ‘the light of the sword-blow’ is in keeping with the imagery of the stanza. — [8] hneiti ‘the sword’: See Note to st. 17/2. This is the only line in which the ‘annotation’ occurs in metrical positions 2-6 rather than in positions 1-4.
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