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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

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 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.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
  3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
  4. 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.
  5. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  6. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  7. 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.
  8. Fidjestøl, Bjarne. 1982. Det norrøne fyrstediktet. Universitet i Bergen Nordisk institutts skriftserie 11. Øvre Ervik: Alvheim & Eide.
  9. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
  10. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
  11. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
  12. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  13. SnE 1879-81 = Möbius, Theodor, ed. 1879-81. Hattatal Snorra Sturlusonar. 2 vols. Halle an de Saale: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
  14. Internal references
  15. Not published: do not cite (EgillV)
  16. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 64 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Lausavísur 35)’ 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. 279.
  17. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 122 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Lausavísur 42)’ 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. 367.
  18. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 12 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Lausavísur 8)’ 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. 185.
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