Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

SnSt Ht 59III

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 59’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1168.

Snorri SturlusonHáttatal
585960

Hjálmlestir skekr Hristar
hreggǫld Sigars veggi;
gramr lætr í byr brjóta
brands hnigþili randa stranda.
Stálhrafna lætr stefnir
styrvind of sik þyrja;
þiggr at Gǫndlar glyggvi
gagn oddviti bragna sagna.

{Hjálmlestir} skekr {veggi Sigars} {hreggǫld Hristar}; gramr lætr {hnigþili brands} brjóta í {byr {stranda randa}}. {Stefnir {stálhrafna}} lætr {styrvind} þyrja of sik; oddviti sagna bragna þiggr gagn at {glyggvi Gǫndlar}.

{The helmet-damager} [WARRIOR] shakes {walls of Sigarr <legendary king>} [SHIELDS] {during the storm-age of Hrist <valkyrie>} [BATTLE]; the ruler makes {bending boards of the sword} [SHIELDS] break in {the fair breeze {of the shores of shields}} [SHIELD-RIMS > BATTLE]. {The impeller {of prow-ravens}} [SHIPS > SEAFARER] makes {tumult-wind} [BATTLE] rage around him; the leader of troops of men receives victory at {the gale of Gǫndul <valkyrie>} [BATTLE].

Mss: R(50v), Tˣ(52v), W(147) (SnE)

Readings: [1] skekr: so Tˣ, W, skerr R;    Hristar: ‘hristar \mistar/’ Tˣ    [3] byr: bǫð W    [4] hnig‑: hring Tˣ;    stranda: standa W    [7] at: af W;    Gǫndlar: so Tˣ, W, ‘glavndlar’ R;    glyggvi: ‘glyggi’ W    [8] gagn: so Tˣ, W, gang R

Editions: Skj AII, 68, Skj BII, 77, Skald II, 43; SnE 1848-87, I, 672-5, III, 126, SnE 1879-81, I, 10, 81, II, 23, SnE 1931, 240, SnE 2007, 26; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 35-6.

Context: This dróttkvætt variant is called kimblaband ‘bundle-bond’, and it is characterised by an additional cadence (a word with a long-stemmed syllable plus a short inflectional ending) with aðalhending added after metrical position 6 in ll. 4 and 8.

Notes: [All]: The heading in is 51. For the name of the metre, see also RvHbreiðm Hl 27-8. Other than in Hl and Ht, the variant is not attested in skaldic poetry, and that is also the case with it meira kimblaband ‘the greater bundle-bond’ (st. 60) and in mestu kimblabǫnd ‘the greatest bundle-bonds’ (st. 61). — [1] skekr ‘shakes’: The R variant skerr ‘cuts’ gives an equally good reading, but appears to be secondary. — [1-2] hreggǫld Hristar ‘during the storm-age of Hrist <valkyrie> [BATTLE]’: This is a dat. of time. — [3-4]: Following SnE 1848-87, Möbius (SnE 1879-81, I, 81) and Konráð Gíslason (1895-7) render the kennings contained in these lines as hnigþili stranda randa ‘the bending boards of the shores of shields [SHIELD-RIMS > SHIELDS]’ and í byr brands ‘in the fair breeze of the sword [BATTLE]’, but Konráð remarks that the first kenning is an odd shield-kenning which may refer to a shield-wall rather than to shields. Skj B, Skald and SnE 2007 construe the following kennings: hnigþili randa ‘bending boards of shield-rims [SHIELDS]’ and í byr stranda brands ‘in the fair breeze of the shores of the sword [SHIELDS > BATTLE]’. According to Faulkes (SnE 2007, 123), hnigþili randa ‘bending boards of shield-rims’ could either be a kenning for ‘shields’ or refer to the boards of which shields are made. However, hnigþili ‘bending boards’ in itself can serve as the base-word in a shield-kenning, and the present reading avoids both an ambiguous kenning and a syntactic break between the last two words of l. 4.

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. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
  6. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
  7. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  8. SnE 1879-81 = Möbius, Theodor, ed. 1879-81. Hattatal Snorra Sturlusonar. 2 vols. Halle an de Saale: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
  9. Internal references
  10. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Háttatal’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=165> (accessed 29 March 2024)
  11. Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘ Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1001. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1347> (accessed 29 March 2024)
  12. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 27’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1035.
Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close

Stanza/chapter/text segment

Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.

Information tab

Interactive tab

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.

Full text tab

This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.

Chapter/text segment

This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.