SnSt Ht 15^III

þeim, es grundar grímu
gjaldseiðs ok vas faldinn,
— drótt man enn þann* — átti
áðr hans faðir ráða.
Gunnhættir kná grýttu
— gramr býr of þrek — stýra
— stórt ræðr hann, en hjarta
hvetr — buðlunga setri.

þeim, es faðir hans átti ráða áðr ok vas faldinn grímu {gjaldseiðs grundar}; drótt man þann* enn. {Gunnhættir} kná stýra {grýttu setri buðlunga}; gramr býr of þrek; hann ræðr stórt, en hjarta hvetr.

that one [kingdom] which his father ruled earlier, and was clad in the helmet {of the compensation-pollack of the field} [SERPENT = Fáfnir]; people remember that one still. {The battle-darer} [WARRIOR] governs {the rocky seat of sovereigns} [= Norway]; the lord is imbued with endurance; he rules mightily and his heart urges [him] on.

Mss: R(46v), Tˣ(48v), W(140-141), U(47r) (l. 1), U(50r) (SnE); W(106), A(6r) (TGT, ll. 7-8)

Readings: [1] grímu: grimmu U(47r), U(50r)    [2] ‑seiðs: ‑seiðr W    [3] drótt man: ‘dratt mvn’ U(50r);    þann*: ‘þannz’ R, ‘þaz’ Tˣ, ‘þats’ W, þess U(50r)    [5] Gunn‑: í gunn‑ Tˣ;    ‑hættir: so W, heitir R, ‘hettir’ Tˣ, U(50r);    kná: kann W    [6] of: við U(50r)    [7] en: ok A

Editions: Skj AII, 56, Skj BII, 65, Skald II, 37, NN §§1296, 2570, 3260B; SnE 1848-87, I, 620-1, II, 370, 380, III, 114, SnE 1879-81, I, 3, 75, II, 9, SnE 1931, 222, SnE 2007, 11; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 10-11; SnE 1848-87, II, 146-7, 418, TGT 1884, 24, 94, 206-7, TGT 1927, 68, 102-3.

Context: The stanza illustrates the syntactic variation tiltekit ‘linked’ (see st. 39) or afleiðingum ‘with antecedents’, in which the first helmingr is linked syntactically to the last helmingr of the preceding stanza (st. 14 above). The first word in st. 15, þeim ‘that one’, has as its antecedent the last word in st. 14 (konungdómi ‘kingdom’) (see SnE 2007, 52-3). In TGT the last two lines (ll. 7-8) are given in conjunction with st. 16/1 below to illustrate anadiplosis ‘reduplication’ or ‘linkage of the end of one stanza to the beginning of another’ (ON drǫgur ‘drawings’; see st. 16).

Notes: [All]: The couplet is attributed to Snorri in both mss of TGT. — [All]: The heading is afleiðingum ‘with antecedents’ (U(47r)), but tiltekit ‘linked’ has been added in R (R*). This syntactic variant is otherwise attested only in ESk Geisl 1-2^VII (see SnE 2007, 79). — [1-2] grímu gjaldseiðs grundar ‘in the helmet of the compensation-pollack of the field [SERPENT = Fáfnir]’: The kenning refers to the dragon Fáfnir and his œgishjálmr ‘helmet of terror’ (see Note to ESk Frag 2/1), but the significance of the first element of the cpd gjaldseiðr ‘compensation-pollack’ is not transparent (see LP: gjaldrseiðr; NN §3260B; SnE 2007, 52, 114). ‘Pollack of the field’ is in itself a kenning for ‘snake’ and Faulkes (SnE 2007, 114) suggests ‘fish of money of ground or fish of the ground where money is buried; fish whose ground is gold’ as possible explanations for the puzzling first element of the cpd. It is more likely that gjald ‘compensation’ refers to the fact that the gold on which Fáfnir lay was the compensation (gjald) for his brother, Otr, which Fáfnir had obtained by killing his own father (see Reg; SnE 1998, I, 45-7; Note to st. 41/2 below; see also Marold 1998). — [2] -seiðs ‘-pollack’: See Note to st. 2/8 above. — [3]: The line is unmetrical because the syntactic break ought to fall after enn ‘still’ in position 3 and not after position 4. Þann ‘that one’ is unstressed, and it is curious that, in all mss, the word is rendered as a dem. with a cliticised rel. particle (and hence with the syntactic break after enn). It is impossible, however, to obtain a syntactically meaningful reading with a rel. in that position. Skj B emends to þat ‘that’ (‘people still remember that’). — [4] faðir hans ‘his father’: Hákon Sverrisson (d. 1 January 1204). — [5] -hættir ‘-darer’: So W(140-141) and, normalised, Tˣ, U. Ms. R has -heitir ‘-threatener, -heater’ which has been altered to ‘-hęttir’ (R*). — [7] en ‘and’: Altered to þvít ‘because’ in R (R*).

References

1. Bibliography
2. TGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
4. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
5. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
7. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
8. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
9. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
10. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
11. TGT 1927 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1927b. Óláfr Þórðarson: Málhljóða- og málskrúðsrit. Grammatisk-retorisk afhandling. Det kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filologiske meddelelser 13, 2. Copenhagen: Høst.
12. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
13. Marold, Edith. 1998a. ‘Die Augen des Herrschers’. In Meier 1998, 7-29.
14. SnE 1879-81 = Möbius, Theodor, ed. 1879-81. Hattatal Snorra Sturlusonar. 2 vols. Halle an de Saale: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
15. Internal references
16. (forthcoming), ‘ Óláfr hvítaskáld Þórðarson, The Third Grammatical Treatise’ in Tarrin Wills (ed.), The Third Grammatical Treatise. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=32> (accessed 26 April 2024)
17. Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Geisli 1’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 7.
18. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Fragments 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. 153.
19. Not published: do not cite ()