RvHbreiðm Hl 17^III

Bjǫrn ǫrn bræddi; fjǫrnis
beit reit firum hneitir;
bauðsk — rauðsk brynju váði —
bjǫrg mǫrg frekum vargi.
Ypt lypt átti at skipta
egg legg í tvau seggja;
hrátt brátt hafði at slíta
hrafn tafn af því jafnan.

Bjǫrn bræddi ǫrn; hneitir beit {reit fjǫrnis} firum; mǫrg bjǫrg bauðsk frekum vargi; {váði brynju} rauðsk. Ypt, lypt egg átti at skipta legg seggja í tvau; hrafn hafði jafnan hrátt tafn at slíta brátt af því.

Bjǫrn fed the eagle; the sword bit men’s {land of the helmet} [HEAD]; much nourishment was offered to the greedy wolf; {the danger of the byrnie} [SWORD] was reddened. The drawn, uplifted edge divided men’s legs in two; the raven always had raw food to tear quickly because of that.

Mss: papp25ˣ(41r), R683ˣ(126v-127r)

Readings: [1] fjǫrnis: fjǫrni papp25ˣ, R683ˣ    [2] firum: ‘firo’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ    [3] bauðsk: baugs papp25ˣ, braut by later correction in the hand of Rugman R683ˣ;    rauðsk: rautt papp25ˣ, þaut by later correction in the hand of Rugman R683ˣ;    váði: ‘…’ papp25ˣ, ‘nautur’ or ‘nauti’ by later correction in the hand of Rugman R683ˣ    [4] bjǫrg mǫrg: bjarg marg by later correction in the hand of Rugman R683ˣ    [5] Ypt: opt papp25ˣ, R683ˣ;    lypt: ‘lijst’ papp25ˣ, ‘list’ R683ˣ    [7] slíta: slátra by later correction in the hand of Rugman R683ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 515, Skj BI, 491, Skald I, 241, NN §1159; Hl 1941, 33, 53-4.

Context: The metre is called inn dýri háttr (‘hinn Dijri hattʀ’) ‘the ornate form’ (cf. SnSt Ht 37). It is a variant of dróttkvætt, not attested outside the two claves metricae, in which all lines have three internal rhymes in positions 1, 2 and 5. The even lines have three aðalhendingar, and the odd lines two aðalhendingar in positions 1 and 3, which can form either aðalhending or skothending with the syllable in position 5 (see Hl 1941, 129). In Ht 37, all internal rhymes are aðalhendingar.

Notes: [All]: Rugman’s later corrections in R683ˣ represent attempts to create aðalhendingar and must be disregarded. — [All]: The hero commemorated is Bjǫrn járnsíða ‘Ironside’, another of Ragnarr loðbrók’s sons (see sts 11-16). — [1] bræddi ‘fed’: See also Anon Krm 9/3^VIII. — [1, 2] fjǫrnis; firum ‘of the helmet; men’s’: These emendations were first suggested by Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848, 240), and they have been adopted by all subsequent eds. Firum ‘men’s’ is a poss. dat. — [2] hneitir ‘the sword’: Lit. ‘cutter’. A heiti for ‘sword’ (Þul Sverða 2/7) and the name of Óláfr Haraldsson’s sword (see ESk Geisl 43/1^VII and Note to [All]). — [3-4]: (a) In the present edn, which follows Hl 1941, váði ‘danger’ (l. 3) is taken as the base-word in a kenning for ‘sword’ (váði brynju ‘danger of the byrnie’), which functions as the subject in a passive construction with rauðsk ‘was reddened’ (l. 3). Bauðsk ‘was offered’ is taken as the verb in a passive construction with mǫrg bjǫrg (f. nom. sg.) ‘much nourishment’ as the subject. (b) The texts in Skj B and Skald are based on Rugman’s later corrections in R683ˣ and they provide the following reading: brátt, þrátt, brynju neytir | barg margfrekum vargi. Skj B places the adv. þrátt ‘often, persistently’ (l. 3) in the first clause of the helmingr (bræddi þrátt ‘fed often’) and the second adv. brátt ‘quickly’ (l. 3) in the second clause (beit brátt ‘bit quickly’. Kock (NN §1159) objected to that tortuous syntax and construed brátt, þrátt, brynju neytir barg margfrekum vargi, translated as snabbt, beständigt brynjebärarn räddade den glupske varj ‘quickly, stubbornly, the byrnie’s wearer (i.e. warrior) saved the greedy wolf’. — [3] váði ‘the danger’: This reconstruction, which follows Hl 1941, is conjectural, which is also the case with bauðsk ‘was offered’ and rauðsk ‘was reddened’, but with more support from the ms. witnesses. The original reading of this line in papp25ˣ and R683ˣ, baugs rautt brynju ... ‘of the ring you reddened the byrnie’ (?), provides no internal rhyme and cannot be construed to make any sense in the context. — [5] ypt, lypt ‘the drawn, uplifted’: With most earlier eds, opt ‘often’ has been emended to ypt ‘drawn’ and ‘lijst’ (papp25ˣ) or ‘list’ (R683ˣ) has been emended to lypt ‘uplifted’ to restore the aðalhending. — [6] legg ‘legs’: Lit. ‘leg’ (sg.).

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. SnE 1848 = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1848. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, eða Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál og Háttatal. Reykjavík: Prentsmiðja landsins.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
7. Internal references
8. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Krákumál 9’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 734.
9. Not published: do not cite (Rloð^VIII)
10. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 791.
11. Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Geisli 43’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 42-3.
12. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 35’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1142.
13. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 37’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1145.