Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

SnSt Ht 16III

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 16’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1120.

Snorri SturlusonHáttatal
151617

text and translation

Setr of vísa vitran
vígdrótt, en þar hníga,
— ýr dregsk — við skotskúrum
skjaldborg, í gras aldir.
Vápnrjóðr stikar víða
(vellbrjótr á lǫg) spjótum
(þryngr at sverða sǫngvi
sóknharðr) þrǫmu jarðar.

Vígdrótt setr skjaldborg of vitran vísa við skotskúrum; ýr dregsk, en þar hníga aldir í gras. {Vápnrjóðr} stikar víða þrǫmu jarðar spjótum; {sóknharðr vellbrjótr} þryngr á lǫg at {sǫngvi sverða}.
 
‘The battle-retinue sets up a shield-wall around the wise leader against the showers of shots; the yew-bow is pulled, and there people sink down in the grass. The weapon-reddener [WARRIOR = Hákon] encloses the wide edges of the earth with spears; the battle-strong gold-breaker [GENEROUS MAN] advances on the ocean towards the song of swords [BATTLE].

notes and context

The stanza illustrates the syntactic variation drǫgur ‘drawings’, in which the first word (setr ‘sets’) echoes the last word in the preceding stanza (setri ‘seat’; st. 15/8 above). In TGT, l. 1 is used to exemplify anadiplosis, which is the same figure (see st. 15 above).

The heading is drǫgur (U(47r) and added in R (R*)). This device is also known from Old French, Middle English, and Old Irish poetry, but it is very rare in Old Norse poetry (see Hl 1941, 129, SnE 2007, 53 and the literature cited there).

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 16: AII, 56, BII, 65, Skald II, 37; SnE 1848-87, I, 620-3, II, 370, 380-1, III, 114-15, SnE 1879-81, I, 3, 76, II, 9, SnE 1931, 222, SnE 2007, 11; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 11; SnE 1848-87, II, 146-7, 418, TGT 1884, 24, 94, 206-7, TGT 1927, 68, 102-3.

Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close

Stanza/chapter/text segment

Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.

Information tab

Interactive tab

The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.

Full text tab

This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.

Chapter/text segment

This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.