RvHbreiðm Hl 79^III

Ǫrt rauð Óláfr snyrtis
egg; gall hjǫrr við leggi;
dunði bitr á brynjur
brandr; skôru spjǫr randir.
Bitu rammslegin rimmu
reyr; knôttu ben dreyra;
ferð, þars fylkir barðisk,
fell; hné drótt at velli.

Óláfr rauð ǫrt egg snyrtis; hjǫrr gall við leggi; bitr brandr dunði á brynjur; spjǫr skôru randir. {Rammslegin reyr rimmu} bitu; ben knôttu dreyra; ferð fell, þars fylkir barðisk; drótt hné at velli.

Óláfr swiftly reddened the sword’s edge; the sword rang against legs; the sharp blade resounded against byrnies; spears cut shields. {Hard-hammered reeds of battle} [SWORDS] bit; wounds bled; the company fell where the ruler fought; the retinue sank to the ground.

Mss: papp25ˣ(39v), R683ˣ(134r)

Readings: [2] við: ‘ṣc̣ạṛ’ papp25ˣ, skar R683ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 527, Skj BI, 507, Skald I, 249, NN §2084; Hl 1941, 31, 96-7.

Context: The verse-form is called álagsháttr (‘Alaxs hottʀ’) ‘extension’s form’ (cf. SnSt Ht 27), and it is characterised by sentence boundaries after metrical position 1 in all even lines, with a new clause beginning in position 2 and extending over positions 2-6. The word in metrical position 1 in the even line belongs syntactically to the previous odd line.

Notes: [All]: As was the case with tilsegjandi ‘annotating’ (sts 67-8), the clause arrangement in this verse-form is also frequently attested in dróttkvætt poetry, but never as systematised as in these stanzas and in Ht. — [All]: The king commemorated is Óláfr kyrri ‘the Quiet’ Haraldsson, a son of Haraldr harðráði and king of Norway 1066-93. He died of an illness on 22 or 23 September 1093. See Anon Nkt 40-1^II and his Biography in SkP II. — [1] snyrtis (m. gen. sg.) ‘the sword’s’: Skj B emends to snyrti (m. acc. sg.) ‘sword’ as the object of rauð ‘reddened’. That reading is in violation of the metrical peculiarity illustrated by álagsháttr (see NN §2084). For snyrtir ‘sword’ see Note to st. 67/5. — [2] við ‘against’: (a) The present edn follows Hl 1941. The reading is conjectural and both mss have skar ‘cut’. Rugman may have mistaken a prep. (við ‘against’ + acc. pl. (?)) for the verb skar ‘cut’. Admittedly, it is difficult to see how við could be read as skar, but Rugman’s transcription of the word in papp25ˣ (‘ṣc̣ạṛ’), shows that he was uncertain about all of the letters in that word (see the discussion in Hl 1941). The verb skar with the object legg ‘leg’ occurs in st. 77/1, 4 as well, and could have influenced Rugman’s interpretation of a word he was unable to make out (see also beit egg manns legg ‘an edge bit a man’s leg’ in st. 78/2, the stanza directly preceding this one).  (b) Skj B renders the line as egg gall; hjǫrr skar leggi ‘the edge resounded; the sword cut legs’, which is in violation of álagsháttr (positions 2-6 ought to form one independent clause; see Note to l. 1 above). (c) Kock also construes two clauses (positions 2-6): hjǫrr gall; skar leggi ‘the sword resounded; [it] cut the legs’ which creates an awkward, tripartite line and again violates the syntactic pattern of álagsháttr. — [3]: For this line, see Note to st. 75/5.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
6. SkP II = Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Ed. Kari Ellen Gade. 2009.
7. Internal references
8. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Háttatal’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=165> (accessed 1 May 2024)
9. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Anonymous Poems, Nóregs konungatal 40’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 787.
10. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 27’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1133.