Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 6

Kari Ellen Gade

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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RvHbreiðm Hl 6^III

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1014.

Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson Háttalykill

5 6 7

[1] œrit: ‘b …’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ

notes

[1] œrit ‘much’: Lit. ‘sufficiently’. This form is conjectural. The mss have ‘b …’ but an initial vowel is required by alliteration and ‑r- is required by internal rhyme. Skj B and Hl 1941 supply œrit. Kock (Skald) suggests ǫrvir ‘brave’, which is less likely from the point of view of internal rhyme.

Atla ‘Atli’s’

(not checked:)
Atli (noun m.): Atli

notes

[2] menn Atla ‘Atli’s men’: This is Atli Buðlason, the brother-in-law of Hǫgni and Gunnarr (see Note to [All] in the previous stanza). Atli is the Old Norse name for Attila (MHG Etzel), king of the Huns (d. 453; see also Am, Akv, Vǫls and Þiðr).

menn ‘men’

(not checked:)
maðr (noun m.): man, person

notes

til ‘too’

(not checked:)
til (prep.): to

hvatla ‘quickly’

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hvatla (adv.): [quickly]

harðir ‘the harsh’

(not checked:)
harðr (adj.; °comp. -ari; superl. -astr): hard, harsh

kennings

harðir Nirðir hjǫrva,
‘the harsh Nirðir of swords, ’
= WARRIORS
the harsh Nirðir of swords, → WARRIORS

hjǫrva ‘of swords’

(not checked:)
hjǫrr (noun m.): sword

kennings

harðir Nirðir hjǫrva,
‘the harsh Nirðir of swords, ’
= WARRIORS
the harsh Nirðir of swords, → WARRIORS

Nirðir ‘Nirðir’

(not checked:)
Njǫrðr (noun m.): Njǫrðr

kennings

harðir Nirðir hjǫrva,
‘the harsh Nirðir of swords, ’
= WARRIORS
the harsh Nirðir of swords, → WARRIORS

notes

[3] Nirðir ‘Nirðir <gods>’: This is m. nom. pl. of the name of the Old Norse god Njǫrðr. Skj B emends to Nirði (m. dat. sg.), apparently to avoid apposition, and takes the kenning to refer to Hǫgni, qualified by the adj. ógnarbjǫrtum ‘battle-cheerful’ (l. 4).

hjarta ‘the heart’

(not checked:)
hjarta (noun n.; °-; *-u): heart

ógnar ‘the battle’

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ógn (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): terror, battle < ógnarbjartr (adj.)

bjǫrtum ‘cheerful one’

(not checked:)
bjartr (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): bright < ógnarbjartr (adj.)

Heldr ‘very much’

(not checked:)
heldr (adv.): rather

Gunnari ‘to Gunnarr’

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Gunnarr (noun m.): Gunnarr

[5] Gunnari: ‘gunna …’ papp25ˣ, ‘guma …’ R683ˣ

notes

[5] hœldu ... Gunnari ‘praised ... to Gunnarr’: These readings are conjectural and follow a suggestion by Holtsmark (Hl 1941). The emendation is not entirely satisfactory, because it violates the word order in an independent clause (the finite verb appears in syntactic position 3). Such a violation seems unavoidable here, however, because the verb is clearly contained in metrical positions 5-6 and preceded by two words that apparently do not form a syntactic unit. Skj B construes helju Hǫgna seldu ‘(they) gave Hǫgni to Hel’ without support from the ms. witnesses. Kock (NN §490) suggests heldr gumna vin heldu ‘well (they) kept for the friend of the people’. This is not supported by the main ms. and it is even less likely from the point of view of the metre (such Type E-lines are extremely rare and not used in sentence introduction, see Gade 1995a, 73). The reading seldu ‘gave’ is metrically incorrect (h- is required by alliteration). Jón Helgason (Hl 1941) supplies hjaldrgims hristi seldu ‘to the shaker of the battle-fire [SWORD > WARRIOR] they gave’, which is metrically unlikely (a tvískelft line with a finite verb in positions 5-6) and not supported by the ms. witnesses.

hœldu ‘praised’

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hœla (verb): boast

[5] hœldu: seldu papp25ˣ, R683ˣ