SnSt Ht 40^III

Hverr fremr hildi barra?
Hverrs mælingum ferri?
Hverr gerir hǫpp at stœrri?
Hverr kann auð at þverra?
Veldr hertogi hjaldri;
hanns first blikurmanni;
hann á hǫpp at sýnni;
hann vélir blik spannar.

Hverr fremr barra hildi? Hverrs ferri mælingum? Hverr gerir at stœrri hǫpp? Hverr kann at þverra auð? Hertogi veldr hjaldri; hanns first blikurmanni; hann á hǫpp at sýnni; hann vélir {blik spannar}.

Who promotes violent battle? Who is far from [being] a niggard? Who gains the greater good luck? Who knows how to diminish wealth? The war-leader causes battle; he is farthest from [being] a miser; he clearly has good luck; he tricks {the gleam of the grip} [GOLD].

Mss: R(49r), Tˣ(51r), W(145), W(168) (ll. 7-8), U(53r) (SnE); W(106-107), A(6r) (TGT, ll. 1-4)

Readings: [2] mælingum: so all others, by correction R;    ferri: færri W(145), fyrri U, ‘fęrrí’ W(106)    [3] gerir: so Tˣ, W(145), U, gerir(?) R, á W(106), A    [4] kann: kom U    [6] first: firstr W(145);    blikur‑: so Tˣ, U, bliknir R, blikurs W(145)    [7] á: er of W(145);    hǫpp: happ U    [8] vélir: vellir W(168);    spannar: corrected from spakar W(168)

Editions: Skj AII, 63, Skj BII, 72, Skald II, 40; SnE 1848-87, I, 650-1, II, 390, 498, III, 121, SnE 1879-81, I, 7, 79, II, 17, SnE 1931, 233, SnE 2007, 20; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 25; SnE 1848-87, II, 146-7, 418, TGT 1884, 24, 95, 207, TGT 1927, 68, 103.

Context: This alternation of questions and answers is called greppaminni ‘poets’ reminder’. The metre is dróttkvætt. In TGT the first helmingr illustrates anaphora, that is, the repetition of the same word at the beginning of each line. In the additions to Skm (W(168)), ll. 7-8 are given (slightly incorrectly) as an example of a man-kenning whose determinant is ‘gold’.

Notes: [All]: Similar question-answer sequences occur in RvHbreiðm Hl 45-6 (see Hl 1941, 125-6). See also FoGT (SnE 1848-87, II, 248), Anon Lil 62^VII, SvB Lv 4^V (Gr 36) and Grett Lv 20^V (Gr 37) (for further literature see Vésteinn Ólason 1969, Foote 1982, 114, SnE 2007, 61 and Lönnroth 2009). — [All]: The heading in Tˣ is 32. — [1-4]: In ms. A the lines were originally given in the order 1-4-3. Line 2 was added in the left margin in the same hand, and the correct order of lines is indicated by superscript notations. — [1] hildi ‘battle’: Altered in R to hjaldr ‘battle, noise’ (R*); cf. hjaldri ‘battle’ (l. 5). — [2] mælingum ‘a niggard’: Lit. ‘niggards’. The first four letters in ‘męlingvm’ are blotched in R, and the word has been altered (R*). It is not possible to establish what the original reading would have been. Mælingr lit. ‘one who measures out goods (in small portions)’, a hap. leg., is derived from the weak verb mála ‘measure’ (see AEW: mælingr). — [3] gerir ‘gains’: Lit. ‘does’. In R the original word, which is difficult to discern, has been altered to ‘a’ (R*) in keeping with the reading of l. 7, which is also the reading of W(106) and A (TGT). — [5] hertogi ‘the war-leader’: Skúli received the title of hertogi ‘duke’ in 1237. This was the first time that honorific was used in Norway, and it is doubtful whether Snorri could have used the word in that meaning as early as 1223. See also Sturl Hákkv 23/8^II. — [6] blikurmanni ‘a miser’: So Tˣ, U (hap. leg.). R has ‘blicner’, but the superscript abbreviation ‑er has been altered (R*), and the new abbreviation appears to stand for ‑ar, although it could possibly be an abbreviated ‑ur. The metre requires a short first syllable (blik- rather than blikn-). Blikurmaðr is derived from the impersonal weak verb blikra ‘become scared’ (lit. ‘become pale with fear’; cf. LP: blikurmaðr and AEW: blikra). — [8] vélir blik spannar ‘tricks the gleam of the grip [GOLD]’: This means that the war-leader causes gold to get lost, i.e. is generous.

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. 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. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
6. 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.
7. Foote, Peter G. 1982. ‘Latin Rhetoric and Icelandic Poetry: Some Contacts’. Saga och sed, 107-27. Rpt. in Foote 1984a, 249-70.
8. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
9. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
10. 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.
11. Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
12. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
13. Lönnroth, Lars. 2009. ‘Greppaminni Revisited’. In Margrét Eggertsdóttir et al. 2009, 269-77.
14. SnE 1879-81 = Möbius, Theodor, ed. 1879-81. Hattatal Snorra Sturlusonar. 2 vols. Halle an de Saale: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
15. Vésteinn Ólason. 1969. ‘Greppaminni’. In Jakob Benediktsson 1969, 198-205.
16. Internal references
17. (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 19 April 2024)
18. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, The Fourth Grammatical Treatise’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=34> (accessed 19 April 2024)
19. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 19 April 2024)
20. Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Lilja 62’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 633-4.
21. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 45’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1053.
22. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, Hákonarkviða 23’ 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. 716-17.
23. Jonathan Grove (ed.) 2022, ‘Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar 37 (Grettir Ásmundarson, Lausavísur 20)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 724.
24. Jonathan Grove (ed.) 2022, ‘Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar 36 (Sveinn á Bakka, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 722.