SnH Lv 11II
Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sneglu-Halli, Lausavísur 11’ 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, pp. 331-2.
Sýr ‘a sow’
(not checked:)
2. sýr (noun f.; °sýr/sýrar/sýrs(i cogn.), acc. sú): sow, Sýr
[1] Sýr: so 563aˣ, Dýr Flat
notes
[1] sýr es ávallt ‘there is always a sow’: The l. is difficult to interpret. Flat has dýr ‘animal’, which leaves the l. without alliteration and must be a scribal error. If the 563aˣ variant is kept, the l. implies ‘there is always a sow (i.e. a female beast) at hand’, suggesting that Þjóðólfr had been used as a female by his stallion. Sýr could also be a pun on the nickname of Haraldr’s father, Sigurðr sýr ‘Sow’ (cf. a similar allusion in Mgóði Lv 1 above; see also Hjǫrtr Lv 1-3), and then, indirectly, a reference to Haraldr himself (see Note to l. 4 below). Skj B emends to saurr ‘filth, semen’, and Kock (NN §2528) proposes the adj. súrr ‘sour, bitter, unfriendly’, which he translates as blöt, rinnande ‘soft, runny’ (a meaning which is unattested).
notes
[1] sýr es ávallt ‘there is always a sow’: The l. is difficult to interpret. Flat has dýr ‘animal’, which leaves the l. without alliteration and must be a scribal error. If the 563aˣ variant is kept, the l. implies ‘there is always a sow (i.e. a female beast) at hand’, suggesting that Þjóðólfr had been used as a female by his stallion. Sýr could also be a pun on the nickname of Haraldr’s father, Sigurðr sýr ‘Sow’ (cf. a similar allusion in Mgóði Lv 1 above; see also Hjǫrtr Lv 1-3), and then, indirectly, a reference to Haraldr himself (see Note to l. 4 below). Skj B emends to saurr ‘filth, semen’, and Kock (NN §2528) proposes the adj. súrr ‘sour, bitter, unfriendly’, which he translates as blöt, rinnande ‘soft, runny’ (a meaning which is unattested).
ávallt ‘always’
(not checked:)
ávallt (adv.): always
notes
[1] sýr es ávallt ‘there is always a sow’: The l. is difficult to interpret. Flat has dýr ‘animal’, which leaves the l. without alliteration and must be a scribal error. If the 563aˣ variant is kept, the l. implies ‘there is always a sow (i.e. a female beast) at hand’, suggesting that Þjóðólfr had been used as a female by his stallion. Sýr could also be a pun on the nickname of Haraldr’s father, Sigurðr sýr ‘Sow’ (cf. a similar allusion in Mgóði Lv 1 above; see also Hjǫrtr Lv 1-3), and then, indirectly, a reference to Haraldr himself (see Note to l. 4 below). Skj B emends to saurr ‘filth, semen’, and Kock (NN §2528) proposes the adj. súrr ‘sour, bitter, unfriendly’, which he translates as blöt, rinnande ‘soft, runny’ (a meaning which is unattested).
hefr ‘has’
(not checked:)
hafa (verb): have
saurugt ‘filthy’
(not checked:)
saurigr (adj.; °saurgan; compar. saurgari/saurugri, superl. -astr): [filthy]
[2] saurugt allt: sauruga ást 563aˣ
hestr ‘horse’
(not checked:)
hestr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i; -ar): horse, stallion
hanns ‘he is’
(not checked:)
hann (pron.; °gen. hans, dat. honum; f. hon, gen. hennar, acc. hana): he, she, it, they, them...
dróttins ‘a master’
(not checked:)
dróttinn (noun m.; °dróttins, dat. dróttni (drottini [$1049$]); dróttnar): lord, master
notes
[4] serðr dróttins ‘master-fucker’: Lit. ‘master’s fucker’. All earlier eds treat this as a cpd dróttinserðr, which is translated as ‘having been used sexually by the master’. However, the p. p. of the strong verb serða ‘use sexually’ is sorðinn, and the only possible cpd which could denote ‘having been used sexually by the master’ is dróttinsorðinn. Serðr dróttins ‘a master-fucker’ (so both mss) implies that it was the horse and not the master who was the aggressor. Serðr must be a nomen agentis, similar to brjótr ‘breaker, destroyer, conqueror’ (from brjóta ‘break’; see LP: brjótr), njótr ‘user, enjoyer, owner’ (from njóta ‘use, enjoy, own’; see LP: njótr), vinnr ‘performer, achiever’ (from vinna ‘perform, achieve’; see SnE 1998 I, 40, II, 427). It seems that Halli’s insult, which was certainly on the surface directed at Þjóðólfr, was indeed double-edged. Halli implies indirectly that Þjóðólfr, the master of the horse, was also a serðr dróttins (the cl. hanns serðr dróttins ‘he is a master-fucker’ could be applied to Þjóðólfr as well as to the horse), who had used his dróttinn, i.e. Haraldr, as a woman. This interpretation is also in keeping with the current reading and interpretation of l. 1 (see the Note to l. 1 above). For similar allusions in the prose of Snegl, see the verbal exchange between Halli and Haraldr at the beginning of the þáttr (see ÍF 9, 263-6; Andersson and Gade 2000, 243-4).
serðr ‘fucker’
(not checked:)
serðr (noun m.): bugger
notes
[4] serðr dróttins ‘master-fucker’: Lit. ‘master’s fucker’. All earlier eds treat this as a cpd dróttinserðr, which is translated as ‘having been used sexually by the master’. However, the p. p. of the strong verb serða ‘use sexually’ is sorðinn, and the only possible cpd which could denote ‘having been used sexually by the master’ is dróttinsorðinn. Serðr dróttins ‘a master-fucker’ (so both mss) implies that it was the horse and not the master who was the aggressor. Serðr must be a nomen agentis, similar to brjótr ‘breaker, destroyer, conqueror’ (from brjóta ‘break’; see LP: brjótr), njótr ‘user, enjoyer, owner’ (from njóta ‘use, enjoy, own’; see LP: njótr), vinnr ‘performer, achiever’ (from vinna ‘perform, achieve’; see SnE 1998 I, 40, II, 427). It seems that Halli’s insult, which was certainly on the surface directed at Þjóðólfr, was indeed double-edged. Halli implies indirectly that Þjóðólfr, the master of the horse, was also a serðr dróttins (the cl. hanns serðr dróttins ‘he is a master-fucker’ could be applied to Þjóðólfr as well as to the horse), who had used his dróttinn, i.e. Haraldr, as a woman. This interpretation is also in keeping with the current reading and interpretation of l. 1 (see the Note to l. 1 above). For similar allusions in the prose of Snegl, see the verbal exchange between Halli and Haraldr at the beginning of the þáttr (see ÍF 9, 263-6; Andersson and Gade 2000, 243-4).
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
Halli’s adversary, the poet Þjóðólfr Arnórsson (ÞjóðA), has presented King Haraldr with the gift of a fat Icel. horse. Haraldr goes up to it, and Halli is standing there looking at the horse, which has its phallus unsheathed. He comments on the sight with this helmingr.
The metre is runhent ‘end-rhymed’.
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