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.
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.
Mss: R(50r), Tˣ(52v), W(147), U(55r) (SnE)
Readings: [2] bens: ben U; ylgi: ylgjar U [4] gráð: gaf W; dag margan: margan dag W; dag: ‘dog’ U [5] undir: und Tˣ [6] ‑bitnar: ‑bitnum U [7] hann: so all others, herr R; sér: er W, U; fitjar: fitja Tˣ [8] ‑loðnar: boðnar U
Editions: Skj AII, 67, Skj 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.
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.
Notes: [All]: The heading in Tˣ 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. — [All]: Stanzas 56 and 57 are given in the reverse order in W. This is the last stanza recorded in U. — [1] byrsta blóði ‘bristled with blood’: Kock (NN §3261) takes blóði ‘with blood’ as a parallel construction to rauðsylgjum bens ‘with the red slurps of the wound’ (l. 2). — [3] of gildi ‘would satisfy’: This is the 3rd pers. sg. pret. subj. of the weak verb gilda with the proclitic expletive particle of. Fritzner: gilda gives the following meanings: 1) udrede, præstere, betale ‘pay out, supply, pay’; 2) gjøre god, fremstille eller omtale som god ‘make good, depict or describe as good’. The sense of gilda in the present context has sparked considerable debate, however (see the overview in NN §1317). Möbius (SnE 1879-81, I, 98) has auszahlen, darreichen, befriedigen ‘pay out, hand out, satisfy’ and Konráð Gíslason (1895-7) translates it as vækker ‘awakens, stirs’, but points out that the literal meaning is foröge ‘increase’. Skj B has forøgede ‘increased’ (LP: gilda 1, ‘göre tyk, dröj’, forøge ‘“make thick, long-lasting,” increase’). Kock suggests a translation tilgodose ‘attend to, look after’ (NN §1317). Faulkes (SnE 2007, 114) provides ‘make strong, increase, encourage; satisfy, do justice to (?)’. In the present edn, gilda is taken in the meaning ‘satisfy’ (= gjalda ‘pay compensation to sby for sth.’: ‘to compensate the wolf for its hunger’; see Fritzner: gjalda 1). — [7] hann ‘he’: Herr ‘the army’ has been altered in R to hann ‘he’ (R*). That is also the reading of the other ms. witnesses, and it has been adopted in the present edn. It looks as though the scribe of R mistook an abbreviated hann for herr. See the similar confusion in sts 7/3, 68/8. — [7] fitjar ‘the hands’: For the meaning fit ‘hand’, see Note to st. 42/5 above. — [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). — [8] framm ‘at the tips’: For this meaning of the adv., see Fritzner: fram 14.
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.
This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.
This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.