RvHbreiðm Hl 13III
Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 13’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1021.
Ella ‘Ælla’
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Ella (noun m.): Ella, Ælla, Ælle
var ‘was’
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
notes
[1] var ‘was’: Earlier vas ‘was’. The rhyme shows that -s has been rhotacised in this word (so also in sts 33/7, 48/1, 77/1, 78/3), whereas the rhyme in st. 8/2 requires a non-rhotacised consonant. The quality of [z] must have been highly unstable at this point, but it could also be that Rǫgnvaldr, who spent his early life in Norway, used rhotacised forms in his poetry.
†a ‘…’
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(non-lexical)
… ‘…’
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(non-lexical)
ss† ‘’
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(non-lexical)
þar ‘there’
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þar (adv.): there
bani ‘slayer’
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bani (noun m.; °-a; -ar): death, killer
rómu ‘of battle’
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róma (noun f.): battle
kennings
trani rómu‘the crane of battle ’
= EAGLE
the crane of battle → EAGLE
trani ‘the crane’
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2. trani (noun m.; °-a): crane
kennings
trani rómu‘the crane of battle ’
= EAGLE
the crane of battle → EAGLE
… ‘…’
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(non-lexical)
†erð† ‘…’
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(non-lexical)
ferð ‘the company’
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ferð (noun f.; °-ar; -ir/-arMork 196¹²)): host, journey
gekk ‘destroyed’
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2. ganga (verb; geng, gekk, gengu, genginn): walk, go
at ‘’
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3. at (prep.): at, to
frið ‘the peace’
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friðr (noun m.): peace
fylkis ‘the ruler’s’
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fylkir (noun m.): leader
[8] fylkis: ‘fylgis’ papp25ˣ, ‘filgis’ R683ˣ
lið ‘troop’
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lið (noun n.; °-s; -): retinue, troop
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
The metre is called belgdrǫgur (‘Belg drogur’) ‘bellows-drawings’ (hap. leg.), possibly because the rhythm could be perceived as imitating the blasts of bellows in a smithy (Hl 1941). Each line consists of three syllables (corresponding to the odd lines in catalectic kviðuháttr) or four with resolution on the second lift (ll. 3-4), which is highly unusual (note the suspension of resolution on the first lift in st. 14/4 below). Each couplet has end-rhyme, and in that respect the metre resembles that of SnSt Ht 82 (in minnsta runhenda ‘the least end-rhyme’, not otherwise attested in Old Norse poetry).
The text in R683ˣ indicates missing words after ferð ‘company’ in l. 6 (not so papp25ˣ). Skj and Skald accordingly have faulty line-divisions and also incorporate lines from st. 14 in st. 13, because neither Finnur Jónsson nor Kock realised that the metre was trisyllabic runhent. — The king commemorated is Ælla of Northumbria (d. 867), the slayer of Ragnarr loðbrók (see sts 11-12 above). He was killed by the sons of Ragnarr. For Ælla, see Ragn, RagnSon, ÍF 35, 79-90, Saxo 2005, I, 9, 4, 34-5, 5, pp. 606-11 as well as Sigv Knútdr 1/1I and Note there. — [2]: The missing word must be the verb going with the subject trani rómu ‘the crane of battle’ (l. 4). In Hl 1941, Jón Helgason suggests at gall þar | rómu trani ‘there the crane of battle shrieked at that,’ whereas Holtsmark gives the reading át gat þar ‘food got there’. — [5]: The line cannot be reconstructed, but Jón Helgason (Hl 1941) conjectures sungu sverð ‘swords sang’.
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