SnSt Ht 50^III

Yggs drósar rýfr eisa
ǫld móðsefa tjǫld;
glóð støkkr í hof Hlakkar
hugtúns firum brún.
Geðveggjar svífr glugga
glæs dynbrími hræs;
hvattr es hyrr at slétta
hjaldrs gnapturna aldrs.

{Eisa {drósar Yggs}} rýfr {tjǫld móðsefa} ǫld; {brún glóð Hlakkar} støkkr í {hof {hugtúns}} firum. Svífr {dynbrími hræs} {glugga {glæs geðveggjar}}; {hyrr hjaldrs} es hvattr at slétta {gnapturna aldrs}.

{The fire {of Yggr’s <= Óðinn’s> woman}} [VALKYRIE > SWORD] rips {the tents of the mind} [CHESTS] of people; {the burnished ember of Hlǫkk <valkyrie>} [SWORD] leaps into {the temples {of the mind-meadow}} [BREAST > HEADS] of men. {The crashing flame of carrion} [SWORD] flashes through {the windows {of the clear mind-wall}} [BREAST > WOUNDS]; {the fire of battle} [SWORD] is whetted to level {jutting towers of life} [HEADS].

Mss: R(49v), Tˣ(52r), W(146), U(54r-v) (SnE)

Readings: [2] ǫld: ‘ell’ U;    móðsefa: so all others, ‘með seva’ R    [3] hof: haf W, U    [5] ‑veggjar svífr: veggr synir U    [6] glæs (‘gles’): so Tˣ, U, ‘gless’ R, ‘glæss’ W;    dyn‑: dun‑ W;    hræs (‘hres’): so U, hress R, Tˣ, ‘hræss’ W    [7] hvattr: so all others, hvatt R    [8] aldrs: aldr W

Editions: Skj AII, 65-6, Skj BII, 75, Skald II, 42, NN §§2823, 2824; SnE 1848-87, I, 662-3, II, 393, III, 123, SnE 1879-81, I, 8, 80, II, 20, SnE 1931, 237, SnE 2007, 23; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 30.

Context: The variant is called inn meiri stúfr ‘the greater apocopated’, and in all the even lines the final syllable (in regular dróttkvætt) has been left off, making the lines pentasyllabic and catalectic (see st. 49 above).

Notes: [All]: It is noteworthy that all the base-words in the four kennings for ‘sword’ are terms for ‘fire’ (eisa ‘fire’, l. 1; glóð ‘ember’, l. 3; dynbrimi ‘crashing flame’, l. 6; hyrr ‘fire’, l. 7) and that the base-words in all the kennings for body parts are terms for man-made structures (tjǫld ‘tents’, l. 2; hof ‘temples’, l. 3; ‑veggjar ‘-wall’, l. 5; ‑turna ‘towers’, l. 8). If all these kennings are taken without their determinants, the stanza consists of four sentences depicting fire attacking buildings (or tents), i.e. a town being sacked (cf. the double layering of imagery in the previous stanza). — [All]: For this variant, see also Þórsnep Lv^IV and RvHbreiðm Hl 61-2 (alstýft ‘completely apocopated’). — [All]: The heading in Tˣ is inn meiri stúfr. 42 ‘the greater apocopated. 42’. — [2] móðsefa ‘of the mind’: In R, ‘með seva’ ‘with mind’ has been corrected to ‘moð seva’ (R*). The cpd móðsefi is otherwise unattested in Old Norse, but cf. OE mōdsefa ‘mind, spirit, heart, character’ (Beowulf 2008, 414). — [3, 4] hof hugtúns ‘the temples of the mind-meadow [BREAST > HEADS]’: This kenning has been taken by earlier eds to mean ‘chests’ (see LP: hugtún). However, hugtún in itself means ‘breast’ (see LP: hugtún and GSúrs Lv 9/4^V (Gísl 12)), and its hof ‘temple’ must be the building that is erected on top of it, i.e. ‘head’ or ‘heads’ (hof is n. acc. sg./pl.). The W, U variant haf would yield a kenning haf hugtúns ‘ocean of the breast’, which is not immediately clear, but might possibly be a kenning for ‘blood’. — [5] svífr ‘flashes’: The verb is used impersonally with dynbrími hræs ‘crashing flame of carrion [SWORD]’ (l. 6) as the dat. object. — [6] glæs (m. or n. gen. sg.) ‘clear’: In the present edn this is an adj. qualifying geðveggjar ‘of the mind-wall’ (l. 5) (so also Skj B and SnE 2007). If taken as the noun glæs (m. gen. sg. of glær ‘ocean’) it could be construed as a part of a kenning dynbrími glæs hræs ‘the crashing flame of the ocean of carrion [BLOOD > SWORD]’ (l. 6) (so Konráð Gíslason 1895-7 and NN §2823). — [6] hræs; glæs ‘of carrion; of the clear’: In R ‘hress’ and ‘gless’ have been altered to ‘hrę́ss’ and ‘glę́ss’ (R*). — [7] es ‘is’: Altered to kann ‘can’ in R (R*). — [8] gnapturna aldrs ‘jutting towers of life [HEADS]’: For the word turn ‘tower’, see RvHbreiðm Hl 40/3.

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. 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. Beowulf 2008 = Fulk, Robert D., Robert E. Bjork and John D. Niles, eds. 2008. Klaeber’s Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg. 4th rev. edn of Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed. Fr. Klaeber. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.
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. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
11. SnE 1879-81 = Möbius, Theodor, ed. 1879-81. Hattatal Snorra Sturlusonar. 2 vols. Halle an de Saale: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
12. Internal references
13. Not published: do not cite (Þórsnep Lv^IV)
14. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2022, ‘Gísla saga Súrssonar 12 (Gísli Súrsson, Lausavísur 9)’ 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. 567.
15. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 40’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1048.
16. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 61’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1070.