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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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SnSt Ht 56III

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 56’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1165.

Snorri SturlusonHáttatal
555657

text and translation

Hverr ali blóði byrsta
bens rauðsylgjum ylgi,
nema svát gramr of gildi
gráð dag margan vargi?
Gefr oddviti undir
egg nýbitnar vitni;
hann sér Fenris fitjar
framm klóloðnar roðna.

Hverr ali ylgi, byrsta blóði, {rauðsylgjum bens}, nema svát gramr of gildi vargi gráð margan dag? Oddviti gefr vitni undir, nýbitnar egg; hann sér {fitjar Fenris}, klóloðnar, roðna framm.
 
‘Who might nourish the she-wolf, bristled with blood, with red slurps of the wound [BLOOD], unless the ruler would satisfy the wolf’s hunger many a day? The war-leader gives the wolf wounds, newly bitten by the blade; he sees the hands of Fenrir <wolf> [PAWS], claw-shaggy, turn red at the tips.

notes and context

This variant is called Egils háttr ‘Egill’s verse-form’. It is characterised by a lack of internal rhymes in the odd lines and by aðalhending and riðhent ‘rocking-rhymed’ (see st. 32) in the even lines.

The heading in is Egils háttr. 48. This variant does occur in the poetry of Egill Skallagrímsson (Egill Lv 8/1-2V (Eg 12), 35/1-2V (Eg 64), 42/7-8V (Eg 122), but not systematically. — Stanzas 56 and 57 are given in the reverse order in W. This is the last stanza recorded in U. — [8]: This line has caused problems for earlier eds, and the problems were compounded by the fact that Skj A contains an error in the transcription (‘kloðloðnar’ for ‘kloloðnar’ R). See the discussion by Fidjestøl (1982, 72-3) and the literature cited there. The present edn follows Fidjestøl (loc. cit.) and Faulkes (SnE 2007).

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 56: AII, 67, BII, 76, Skald II, 42, NN §§1317, 1318, 2183, 2573, 3261; SnE 1848-87, I, 670-1, II, 395-6, III, 125, SnE 1879-81, I, 9, 80, II, 22, SnE 1931, 239, SnE 2007, 25; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 33-4.

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