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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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SnSt Ht 54III

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 54’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1163.

Snorri SturlusonHáttatal
535455

text and translation

Skýtr at Skǫglar veðri,
en skjaldagi haldask,
Hildar hlemmidrífu
of hvítum þrǫm rítar.
Enn í sœfis sveita
at sverðtogi ferðar
rýðr aldar vinr odda
— þats jarlmegin — snarla.

Skýtr {hlemmidrífu Hildar} of hvítum þrǫm rítar at {veðri Skǫglar}, en skjaldagi haldask. Enn {vinr aldar} rýðr odda snarla í {sveita sœfis} at {sverðtogi} ferðar; þats jarlmegin.
 
‘The rumbling blizzard of Hildr <valkyrie> [ARROWS] is shot over the white rim of the shield at the storm of Skǫgul <valkyrie> [BATTLE], and the shields do not endure. And the friend of the people [RULER] reddens spear-points quickly in the sweat of the sword [BLOOD] at the sword-drawing [BATTLE] of the company; that is the power of the jarl.

notes and context

The dróttkvætt variant is called Ragnars háttr ‘Ragnarr’s verse-form’, and this and the following four stanzas (sts 55-8) illustrate metrical peculiarities that occur in the poetry of ancient skalds (fornskáld). Ragnarr is the legendary king Ragnarr loðbrók ‘Hairy-breeches’ (RloðVIII); see Ragnars saga loðbrókar (Ragn). The stanza is characterised by a lack of internal rhymes in the odd lines and by alliteration in position 2 rather than in position 1 in the even lines (anacrusis: Sievers’s Types B (l. 4) and C3 (ll. 2, 6, 8)).

The heading in is Ragnars háttr. 46. The metrical features that characterise Ragnars háttr are fairly common in the earliest dróttkvætt poetry (including a stanza attributed to Ragnarr (Rloð Lv 7/7-8VIII (Ragn 23)), but they are never carried through as systematically as in the present stanza.

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 54: AII, 66-7, BII, 76, Skald II, 42, NN §2276; SnE 1848-87, I, 666-9, II, 395, III, 125, SnE 1879-81, I, 9, 80, II, 21, SnE 1931, 238, SnE 2007, 24; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 32-3.

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