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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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SnSt Ht 26III

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 26’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1132.

Snorri SturlusonHáttatal
252627

text and translation

Fúss brýtr fylkir eisu
fens; bregðr hǫnd á venju;
ránhegnir gefr Rínar
rǫf; spyrr ætt at jǫfrum.
Mjǫk trúir ræsir rekka
raun; sér gjǫf til launa;
ráð á lofðungr lýða
lengr; vex hverr af gengi.

Fúss fylkir brýtr {eisu fens}; hǫnd bregðr á venju; {ránhegnir} gefr {rǫf Rínar}; ætt spyrr at jǫfrum. Ræsir trúir mjǫk raun rekka; gjǫf sér til launa; lofðungr á ráð lýða lengr; hverr vex af gengi.
 
‘The eager leader breaks fire of the fen [GOLD]; the hand moves according to custom; the plunder-punisher [JUST RULER] gives amber of the Rhine <river> [GOLD]; people ask about princes. The lord trusts the warriors’ experience very much; a gift looks for rewards; the ruler has power over the people longer; each gains from his following.

notes and context

Snorri calls this variant orðskviðu háttr ‘proverb’s form’. Positions 2-6 in each even line contain an independent clause with a proverb or a gnomic statement.

The headings are xix ‘the nineteenth’ () and orðskviðu háttr (U(47r)). As with st. 13, this syntactic pattern occurs quite often in dróttkvætt stanzas, but it is never systematised as in the present stanza, and proverbs are not common.

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 26: AII, 59, BII, 68, Skald II, 39; SnE 1848-87, I, 636-7, II, 371, 385, III, 117, SnE 1879-81, I, 4, 77, II, 13, SnE 1931, 228, SnE 2007, 15; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 17.

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