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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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SnSt Ht 13III

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 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. 1117.

Snorri SturlusonHáttatal
121314

text and translation

Manndýrðir fá mærðar
(mæt ǫld) fira gæti;
(lýtr auðgjafa ítrum
ǫll) stóð sær of fjǫllum.
Rjóðvendils gatk randa
rœki-Njǫrð at sœkja
— hœf ferð vas sú harða —
heim; skaut jǫrð ór geima.

Manndýrðir fá {gæti fira} mærðar; ǫll mæt ǫld lýtr ítrum auðgjafa; sær stóð of fjǫllum. Gatk at sœkja heim {rœki-Njǫrð {rjóðvendils randa}}; sú ferð vas harða hœf; jǫrð skaut ór geima.
 
‘Manly virtues give glory to the guardian of men [RULER = Hákon]; all splendid people bow to the magnificent wealth-giver; the sea stood above the mountains. I got to visit the tending-Njǫrðr <god> of the shields’ reddening-rod [SWORD > WARRIOR] in his home; that journey was very fitting; the earth shot up from the ocean.

notes and context

The syntactic peculiarity illustrated by this stanza is hjástælt ‘abutted’, where metrical positions 2-5 in ll. 4 and 8 are occupied by an independent clause, a ‘saying’ (orðtak) that relates ‘ancient memories’ (forn minni).

The headings are ‘uj. h.’ ‘the sixth verse-form’ () and hjástælt (U(47r) and added in R (R*)). — [4, 8]: The two ‘sayings’ apparently refer to one or two myths of creation. The first has no precedent in known Old Norse creation myths, but recalls Ps. 103.6 super montes stabunt aquae ‘waters stood above the mountains’. The second seems to correspond to Vsp 59 – the new world emerging from the sea after ragnarǫk. Cf. Vsp 59/1-3 (NK 14): Sér hon upp koma | ǫðro sinni | iǫrð ór ægi ‘She sees the earth emerge from the ocean a second time’. The syntactic peculiarity of hjástælt is otherwise carried out systematically only in KormǪ Sigdr (see Marold 1990a). — [5-8]: Snorri visited Hákon and Skúli in Norway during the years 1218-20.

readings

sources

Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.

editions and texts

Skj: Snorri Sturluson, 2. Háttatal 13: AII, 55-6, BII, 64, Skald II, 37; SnE 1848-87, I, 618-19, II, 370, 379-80, III, 114, SnE 1879-81, I, 3, 75, II, 8, SnE 1931, 221, SnE 2007, 10; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 9.

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