RvHbreiðm Hl 69III
Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 69’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1078.
Knútr ‘Knútr’
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Knútr (noun m.): Knútr
sásk ‘feared’
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2. sjá (verb): see
herr ‘the army’
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herr (noun m.; °-s/-jar, dat. -; -jar, gen. -ja/herra): army, host
hjósk ‘exchanged blows’
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hǫggva (verb): to strike, put to death, cut, hew
hlífð ‘shield’
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hlífð (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): shield
notes
[2] hlífð ‘shield’: For this word, see Note to st. 39/6. The clause hvít hlífð gnast ‘the white shield cracked’ also occurs in that stanza (ll. 6, 8). See also sts 42/6, 74/2 and 76/5.
gnast ‘cracked’
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gnesta (verb): emit crashing sound
rǫnd ‘shield-rim’
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rǫnd (noun f.; °dat. -/-u; rendr/randir): shield, shield-rim
brast ‘crashed’
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1. bresta (verb; °brestr; brast, brustu; brostinn): burst, split
guðr ‘battle’
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guðr (noun f.): battle
svall ‘increased’
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1. svella (verb): swell
folk ‘men’
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folk (noun n.): people
fell ‘fell’
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falla (verb): fall
fátt ‘little’
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3. fár (adj.; °compar. fǽrri/fárri(Mág² 11), superl. fǽstr): few
mart ‘many’
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2. margr (adj.; °-an): many
hvít* ‘the white’
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hvítr (adj.; °-an; -ari, -astr): white
[4] hvít*: hvítt papp25ˣ, R683ˣ
notes
[4] hvít* (f. nom. sg.) ‘white’: Hvítt (n. nom. or acc. sg.) ‘white’ has been emended to hvít (f. nom. sg.) because the adj. qualifies hlífð (f. nom. sg.) ‘shield’ (l. 2). For the possible spelling <tt> for <t> in final position, see Note to st. 39/8.
svǫrt ‘the black’
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svartr (adj.): black
Bargsk ‘saved themselves’
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1. bjarga (verb; °bergr (biærgr Alk619 77⁹; biargr ÓH619 119¹); barg, burgu; borginn): to save, preserve
[5] Bargsk: ‘barsc’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ
notes
[5] bargsk ‘saved themselves’: The mss. have ‘barsc’ which can be normalised as barsk (inf. berask) ‘befell’. This appears to be an instance of loss of medial [g], however (see Hl 1941, 113). The line is repeated as l. 5 in st. 77, which contains the word bargsk (‘bargs’) in this very position in an identical clause (bargsk ǫld ‘people saved themselves’).
beit ‘bit’
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bíta (verb; °bítr; beit, bitu; bitinn): bite
skjǫld ‘the shield’
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skjǫldr (noun m.; °skjaldar/skildar, dat. skildi; skildir, acc. skjǫldu): shield
ben ‘wound’
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1. ben (noun f.; °-jar, dat. -; -jar , gen. -a(var. EiðKrC 402¹³: AM 77 4° D)): wound < benskóð (noun n.): [wound-weapon]
kennings
breið benskóð‘the broad wound-weapon ’
= SWORD
the broad wound-weapon → SWORD
notes
[6] benskóð ‘wound-weapon [SWORD]’: This noun is n., and according to the adj. it is qualified by, breið ‘broad’ (l. 8), it should be n. pl. or f. sg. However, the verb beit ‘bit’ (l. 5) is in the sg. Skj B suggests an impersonal construction (beit skjǫld ‘the shield was bitten’), but the verb bíta is otherwise not attested in impersonal constructions, and, furthermore, st. 77/5-6 contains an almost identical clause: þuðr brandr beit skjǫld ‘the slender sword bit the shield’. Holtsmark (Hl 1941) emends beit (3rd pers. sg. pret. indic.) to bitu (3rd pers. pl. pret. indic.), which results in an unmetrical line (resolution in position 3). It is possible that skóð ‘weapon’ could have had a variant f. form (see bráð ‘haste’ st. 66/3).
skóð ‘weapon’
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2. skóð (noun n.): harmer, scathe < benskóð (noun n.): [wound-weapon]
kennings
breið benskóð‘the broad wound-weapon ’
= SWORD
the broad wound-weapon → SWORD
notes
[6] benskóð ‘wound-weapon [SWORD]’: This noun is n., and according to the adj. it is qualified by, breið ‘broad’ (l. 8), it should be n. pl. or f. sg. However, the verb beit ‘bit’ (l. 5) is in the sg. Skj B suggests an impersonal construction (beit skjǫld ‘the shield was bitten’), but the verb bíta is otherwise not attested in impersonal constructions, and, furthermore, st. 77/5-6 contains an almost identical clause: þuðr brandr beit skjǫld ‘the slender sword bit the shield’. Holtsmark (Hl 1941) emends beit (3rd pers. sg. pret. indic.) to bitu (3rd pers. pl. pret. indic.), which results in an unmetrical line (resolution in position 3). It is possible that skóð ‘weapon’ could have had a variant f. form (see bráð ‘haste’ st. 66/3).
notes
[6] rann (3rd pers. sg. pret. indic.) ‘ran’: Both mss have rauð (3rd pers. sg. pret. indic.) ‘reddened’. If that reading is retained, the verb needs an object, and, following Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848, 246), Skj B construes þjóð rauð benskóð ‘people reddened the wound-weapon’ (so also Skald). That line is suspect because it contains three internal rhymes, and Holtsmark (Hl 1941) emends to the intransitive rann ‘ran’ in accordance with st. 78/5. Her emendation has been adopted in the present edn.
þjóð ‘people’
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þjóð (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -/-u; -ir): people
hvasst ‘violently’
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hvass (adj.; °-an; -ari, -astr): keen, sharp
flugu ‘flew’
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fljúga (verb): fly
hjalm ‘helmet’
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1. hjalmr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i; -ar): helmet < hjalmreyr (noun n.)
[7] hjalm‑: halm‑ R683ˣ
kennings
mjó hjalmreyr‘slender helmet-reeds ’
= ARROWS
slender helmet-reeds → ARROWS
reyr ‘reeds’
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2. reyr (noun n.): reed < hjalmreyr (noun n.)
kennings
mjó hjalmreyr‘slender helmet-reeds ’
= ARROWS
slender helmet-reeds → ARROWS
hó ‘Noble’
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3. hár (adj.; °-van; compar. hǽrri, superl. hǽstr): high
notes
[8] hó ‘noble’: Lit. ‘high’. The vowel ([o:]) is apparently ensured by internal rhyme (see ANG §98.2), but it is also possible (and perhaps more likely) that both rhyme words had the vowel [a:] (há ‘noble’ and mjá ‘slender’; see Finnur Jónsson 1901, 69).
lôg ‘ignoble’
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lágr (adj.; °comp. lǽgri, superl. lǽgstr): low
breið ‘the broad’
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breiðr (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): broad, wide
kennings
breið benskóð‘the broad wound-weapon ’
= SWORD
the broad wound-weapon → SWORD
mjó ‘slender’
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mjór (adj.; °mjóvan; comp. mjór(r)i/mjár(r)i, superl. -str/mjóvastr): slender
kennings
mjó hjalmreyr‘slender helmet-reeds ’
= ARROWS
slender helmet-reeds → ARROWS
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
In papp25ˣ this stanza follows st. 82 below, and the caption is Horum nomina desunt ‘The names of these are missing’ (Inscriptio deest ‘The title is missing’, R683ˣ). The metre is not named, but it corresponds roughly to SnSt Ht 78 (alhnept ‘completly curtailed’). Each line has 4 syllables; the odd lines have skothending and the even lines aðalhending. The last internal rhyme in each line falls on the final syllable. Unlike in Ht 78, ll. 4 and 8 contain refrún ‘fox-secret’ (see sts 39-40, 55-6 above).
The antitheses consist of the following words: fátt lit. ‘few’ : mart ‘many’; hvít ‘white’ : svǫrt ‘black’ (l. 4); hó ‘noble’ : lôg ‘ignoble’; breið ‘broad’ : mjó ‘slender’ (l. 8). If the adjectives are assigned to different clauses, the sense of the clauses is reversed (e.g. ‘Knútr feared many [things]’, ll. 1, 4; ‘few men fell’, ll. 3-4; ‘ignoble people saved themselves’, ll. 5, 8; ‘noble people ran’, ll. 6, 8). See Note to st. 55 [All]. — Knútr is Knútr inn ríki (Cnut the Great) Sveinsson, king of Denmark and England (d. 1035) and, in effect, king of Norway 1029-35 (see ÍF 35, 100-27, Hallv Knútdr, Ótt KnútdrI, Sigv KnútdrI, Þloft TøgdrI and his Biography in SkP I). By placing Knútr after his father Sveinn, the poets break the chronology of Norwegian rulers, skipping Óláfr Tryggvason and Óláfr Haraldsson (commemorated in sts 71-2 and 73-4, respectively). — [7]: This line has no internal rhyme, and it is structured differently than the other lines of this stanza, which leads to the suspicion that the second helmingr is garbled.
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