Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 49’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1158.
Hjaldrremmir tekr Hildi
— hringr brestr at gjǫf — festa;
hnígr und Hǫgna meyjar
hers valdandi tjald.
Heðins mála býr hvílu
hjálmlestanda flestum;
morðaukinn þiggr mæki
mund Hjaðninga sprund.
{Hjaldrremmir} tekr festa Hildi; hringr brestr at gjǫf; valdandi hers hnígr und {tjald {meyjar Hǫgna}}. {Mála Heðins} býr {flestum hjálmlestanda} hvílu; {sprund Hjaðninga} þiggr mund, morðaukinn mæki.
‘The battle-strengthener [WARRIOR] begins to betroth himself to Hildr; the ring breaks as bride-payment; the ruler of the army bends down beneath the tent of Hǫgni’s <legendary hero’s> daughter [= Hildr (hildr ‘battle’) > SHIELD]. Heðinn’s <legendary hero’s> beloved [= Hildr (hildr ‘battle’)] prepares a bed for most helmet-damagers [WARRIORS]; the woman of the Hjaðningar <Heðinn’s followers> [= Hildr (hildr ‘battle’)] receives a bride-payment, a battle-renowned sword. ’
The dróttkvætt variant is stýft ‘apocopated’. The last syllable in ll. 4 and 8 is left off, creating catalectic, pentasyllabic lines.
The heading in Tˣ is 41. This particular variant is not attested elsewhere. — The imagery in this stanza is taken from the story of Hildr Hǫgnadóttir and Heðinn Hjarrandason as told in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 72-3; see also Bragi Rdr 8-11 and RvHbreiðm Hl 45-6). Hildr means ‘battle’, and Snorri plays on the double entendre throughout the stanza in a series of ofljóst ‘too transparent’ constructions. On Snorri’s use of valkyrie imagery in this and other stanzas of Ht, see Quinn 2007. — [3-4]: The last clause in this helmingr plays on the imagery of warriors bending down beneath a woman’s tent, where the tent is a part of a kenning for ‘shield’. — [5-8]: The word-play (and sexual imagery) from the first helmingr continues in the second, where the woman, Hildr (‘battle’), prepares a bed for warriors, i.e. causes their death on the battlefield (ll. 5-6), and receives a sword as a bride-payment (a weapon left as a part of spoils of war) (ll. 7-8), or in less innocuous sense, she is being deflowered.
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.
Hjaldrremmir tekr Hildi
— hring- brestr at gjǫf — festa;
hnígr und Hǫgna meyjar
hers valdandi tjald.
heiðins mála býr hvílu
hjálm-lestandi flestum;
morðaukinn þiggr mæki
mund Hjaðninga sprund.
Hjaldrremmir tekr Hildi
— hringr brestr at gjǫf — flesta;
hnígr und Hǫgna meyjar
hers valdandi tjald.
Heðins málu býr hvílu
hjálm-lestandi flestum;
morðaukinn þiggr mæki
mund Hjaðninga sprund.
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