SnSt Ht 17^III

Síks glóðar verr sœkir
slétt skarð hafi jarðar;
hlífgranda rekr hendir
heit kǫld loga ǫldu.
Fljótt válkat skilr fylkir
friðlæ (rǫðuls sævar
ránsið ræsir stǫðvar)
reiðr (glaðr frǫmum meiðum).

{Sœkir {glóðar síks}} verr {skarð jarðar} slétt hafi; {hendir {loga ǫldu}} rekr kǫld heit {hlífgranda}. Reiðr fylkir skilr fljótt {válkat friðlæ}; glaðr ræsir stǫðvar ránsið {frǫmum meiðum {rǫðuls sævar}}.

{The attacker {of the ember of the brook}} [GOLD > GENEROUS MAN = Hákon] defends {the clefts of the earth} [FJORDS], smoothed by the ocean; {the distributor {of the flame of the wave}} [GOLD > GENEROUS MAN] drives away the cold threat {of defence-damagers} [WEAPONS]. The angry leader quickly understands {pondered peace-destruction} [BATTLE]; the cheerful ruler puts an end to the practice of plundering {for outstanding trees {of the sun of the sea}} [GOLD > GENEROUS MEN].

Mss: R(46v), Tˣ(49r), W(141), U(47r) (l. 1), U(50r) (SnE)

Readings: [2] hafi: ‘ha[…]i’ U    [6] rǫðuls: so U, rǫðul all others

Editions: Skj AII, 57, Skj BII, 65, Skald II, 37, NN §1297; SnE 1848-87, I, 622-3, II, 370, 381, III, 115, SnE 1879-81, I, 3, 76, II, 10, SnE 1931, 223, SnE 2007, 12; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 11-12.

Context: The structural peculiarity that characterises this stanza is refhvǫrf ‘fox-turns, fox-tricks’, that is, antitheses. Two pairs of words with opposite meaning are juxtaposed at the onset and at the end of each line. The antitheses often depend on puns, i.e. homonyms having a different sense and grammar for the purposes of the antitheses than the ones they have in the poetic context (see also sts 19-23 below). The stanza is paraphrased and explained in the accompanying prose, which calls the variant in mestu refhvǫrf ‘the greatest fox-turns’.

Notes: [All]: The headings are refhvǫrf x. háttr ‘fox-turns, the tenth verse-form’ (Tˣ) and refhvǫrf  (U(47r)). For this variant, see also refrún ‘fox-secret’, RvHbreiðm Hl 39-40, 55-6, 69-70. Snorri apparently did not conceive of this metrical variant in the same way as the poets of Hl (see Notes to RvHbreiðm Hl 39 [All] and 55 [All]). — [All]: The words that constitute the antitheses are the following: síks (n. gen. sg.) ‘brook’ : glóðar (f. gen. sg.) ‘ember’; verr ‘defends’ : sœkir ‘attacks’ (taken as 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of sœkja ‘attack’ rather than as the noun sœkir ‘attacker’) (l. 1); slétt (n. acc. sg.) ‘smoothed’ : skarð ‘cleft’ (n. acc. sg.; taken as an adj. rather than as a noun); hafi (n. dat. sg.) ‘ocean’ : jarðar (f. gen. sg.) ‘earth’ (l. 2); hlíf- ‘protect’ (taken as imp. sg. of hlífa ‘protect’ rather than as the first element of the cpd hlífgranda ‘of defence-damagers’) : ‑granda ‘damage’ (taken as imp. sg. of granda ‘damage’ rather than as the second element of the previous cpd); rekr ‘drives away’ : hendir ‘catches’ (taken as 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of henda ‘catch’ rather than as the agent noun hendir ‘distributor’) (l. 3); heit ‘hot’ (taken as an adj. rather than as the noun heit ‘threat’) : kǫld ‘cold’; loga (m. gen. sg.) ‘flame’ : ǫldu (f. gen. sg.) ‘wave’ (l. 4); fljótt ‘quickly’ : válkat ‘pondered’; skilr ‘divides’ : fylkir ‘marshals’ (taken as 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of fylkja ‘marshal’ rather than as the agent noun fylkir ‘leader’) (l. 5); frið ‘peace’ : læ ‘destruction’; rǫðuls (m. gen. sg.) ‘sun’ : sævar (m. gen. sg.) ‘sea’ (l. 6); rán ‘plundering’ : sið ‘accepted practice’; ræsir ‘puts in motion’ (taken as 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of ræsa ‘put in motion’ rather than as the agent noun ræsir ‘ruler’) : stǫðvar ‘puts an end to’ (l. 7); reiðr ‘angry’ : glaðr ‘merry’; frǫmum ‘(we) advance’ (taken as 1st pers. pl. pres. indic. of fremja ‘advance’ rather than as the adj. frǫmum m. dat. pl. ‘outstanding’) : meiðum ‘(we) damage’ (taken as 1st pers. pl. pres. indic. of meiða ‘damage’ rather than as the noun meiðum m. dat. pl. ‘trees’) (l. 8). — [2] skarð jarðar slétt hafi ‘the clefts of the earth [FJORDS], smoothed by the ocean’: Skarð ‘cleft’ is taken as a collective here, based on the prose commentary (SnE 2007, 12): þat eru Firðir, svá heitir fylki í Nóregi ‘those are Fjordane, that is the name of a district in Norway’. The district is Fjordane (ON Firðir ‘the Fjords’), now a part of modern Sogn og Fjordane, located on the western coast of Norway. Konráð Gíslason (1895-7) retained the sg. meaning. He suggested that skarð jarðar ‘the cleft of the earth’ referred to Viken, the areas around Oslofjorden, and that the stanza celebrated Hákon’s victory over the Ribbungar at the battles of Værne and Oslo in 1221 (see Sturl Hákkv 6^II and Sturl Hákfl 1-2^II). — [3] hlífgranda ‘of defence-damagers [WEAPONS]’: In R originally written as two separate words but later joined by a hyphen (R*). — [3] rekr ‘drives away’: The verb reka is taken in the meaning ‘drive away sth. so that it is no longer present’ (see Fritzner: reka 4). — [5] válkat ‘pondered’: This is the p. p. of the weak verb válka ‘move to and fro, wallow, think about sth., ponder’. — [8] reiðr; glaðr ‘angry; merry’: Konráð Gíslason (1895-7) and Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) construe these adjectives with ræsir ‘ruler’ (l. 7) and fylkir ‘leader’ (l. 5), which creates an awkward tripartite line (l. 8).

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 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
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. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
7. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
8. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
9. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
10. SnE 1879-81 = Möbius, Theodor, ed. 1879-81. Hattatal Snorra Sturlusonar. 2 vols. Halle an de Saale: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
11. Internal references
12. Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘ Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1001. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1347> (accessed 23 April 2024)
13. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 39’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1047.
14. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, Hákonarkviða 6’ 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. 703-4.
15. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, Hákonarflokkr 1’ 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, p. 746.