Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 60’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1169.
(not checked:)
almr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i; -ar): bow, elm-bow
(not checked:)
almr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i; -ar): bow, elm-bow
(not checked:)
drós (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): lady
(not checked:)
drós (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): lady
(not checked:)
íss (noun m.; °íss; dat. ísi/ís; ísar): ice
(not checked:)
2. ár (noun n.; °-s; -): year, year’s abundance
(not checked:)
fleiri (adj. comp.; °superl. flestr): more, most
(not checked:)
meginbára (noun f.): [a mighty wave]
(not checked:)
sárr (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): sore, painful; wounded
(not checked:)
2. kœnn (adj.; °superl. kǿnstr/kǿnastr): wise, skilful
(not checked:)
láta (verb): let, have sth done
(not checked:)
hræ (noun n.; °; -): corpse, carrion
[3] hræs: so W, ‘hre[…]’ R, hress Tˣ
[3] hræs ‘of carrion’: So W. In R something has been erased after the first three letters (‘hre[…]’) and the word has been altered (R*), but the alteration is difficult to make out (Skj A reads hraustr). Hress ‘healthy, strong, eager’ (Tˣ) makes no sense in the context. In both Skj B and SnE 1931, Finnur Jónsson emended what he considered to be R*’s correction of R’s reading to hvatt ‘quickly’, but that cannot now be corroborated.
(not checked:)
hræ (noun n.; °; -): corpse, carrion
[3] hræs: so W, ‘hre[…]’ R, hress Tˣ
[3] hræs ‘of carrion’: So W. In R something has been erased after the first three letters (‘hre[…]’) and the word has been altered (R*), but the alteration is difficult to make out (Skj A reads hraustr). Hress ‘healthy, strong, eager’ (Tˣ) makes no sense in the context. In both Skj B and SnE 1931, Finnur Jónsson emended what he considered to be R*’s correction of R’s reading to hvatt ‘quickly’, but that cannot now be corroborated.
(not checked:)
3. á (prep.): on, at
(not checked:)
hrǫnn (noun f.; °; dat. -um): wave
(not checked:)
1. hjalmr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i; -ar): helmet < hjalmsvell (noun n.): [helmet ice-sheet]
(not checked:)
svell (noun n.; °; -): ice < hjalmsvell (noun n.): [helmet ice-sheet]
(not checked:)
jǫfurr (noun m.): ruler, prince
(not checked:)
1. gella (verb): [scream]
(not checked:)
fellir (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i): slayer, feller
[4] fella (m. gen. pl.) ‘of the fellers’: Following Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, III), Möbius (SnE 1879-81) and Konráð Gíslason (1895-7) construe this as an unattested adv. (= ferliga ‘terribly’), and Kock (NN §2184) takes it as a verb, as part of an asyndetic construction gella, fella translated as skrälla, fälla ‘crash, fell’, but the transitive verb fella makes little sense here (we would expect the intransitive falla ‘fall’; see SnE 2007, 64). Fellir m. ‘feller’ is an agent noun from the weak verb fella ‘fell, kill’ and the word is not uncommon as a base-word in kennings (LP: fellir).
(not checked:)
fellir (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i): slayer, feller
[4] fella (m. gen. pl.) ‘of the fellers’: Following Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, III), Möbius (SnE 1879-81) and Konráð Gíslason (1895-7) construe this as an unattested adv. (= ferliga ‘terribly’), and Kock (NN §2184) takes it as a verb, as part of an asyndetic construction gella, fella translated as skrälla, fälla ‘crash, fell’, but the transitive verb fella makes little sense here (we would expect the intransitive falla ‘fall’; see SnE 2007, 64). Fellir m. ‘feller’ is an agent noun from the weak verb fella ‘fell, kill’ and the word is not uncommon as a base-word in kennings (LP: fellir).
(not checked:)
styrr (noun m.; °dat. -): battle < styrjǫkull (noun m.): [battle-glaciers]
(not checked:)
jǫkull (noun m.; °-s, dat. jǫkli; jǫklar): glacier < styrjǫkull (noun m.): [battle-glaciers]
(not checked:)
knega (verb): to know, understand, be able to
(not checked:)
stinnmen (noun n.): [stiff necklace]
[6] stinnmens (m. gen. sg.) ‘of the stiff necklace’: Most earlier eds emend to stinnr (m. nom. sg.) ‘stiff’ and take it as an adj. qualifying stiklir mens ‘dispenser of the necklace’, hence stinnr stiklir mens ‘the unbending/unyielding dispenser of the necklace’. However, stinnr is never used as an adj. to qualify a person, but it can be used in connection with objects of metal (see NN §2184; LP: stinnr). Faulkes (SnE 2007) retains the ms. form stinn, which he construes with fólk (n. acc. pl.) taken in the meaning ‘warriors’, although he does not dismiss the possibility that the adj. could qualify stiklir mens (SnE 2007, 151).
(not checked:)
2. venja (verb): accustom, train
(not checked:)
1. ben (noun f.; °-jar, dat. -; -jar , gen. -a(var. EiðKrC 402¹³: AM 77 4° D)): wound
(not checked:)
láta (verb): let, have sth done
(not checked:)
stillir (noun m.): ruler
[7] frør (n. acc. sg.) ‘the frost’: Ms. R reads ‘frꜹr’ (with dots above and below the last part of the ligature (R*)), and Tˣ has ‘fro᷎r’. Both of these readings can be normalised as frør ‘frost’ (‘frǫr’ is not an Old Norse word), and a short-stemmed word is required by the metre. For the spelling <ꜹ> for [ø] in R, see SnE 1848-87, III, xvii. All previous eds adopt the R* alteration frár (m. nom. sg.) ‘swift, keen’ as an adj. qualifying stillir ‘leader’ (l. 7). Frár is unmetrical, however, because in a nominal phrase (here: stillir frár) the alliteration cannot fall on the second word if the first does not also alliterate (lætr frár stillir fylla would be the acceptable order). (a) In keeping with the imagery of the previous six lines, the original ms. reading in R (supported by the reading of Tˣ) has been retained here, and frør ‘frost’ is taken as the base-word in a kenning for ‘sword’ (frør unda ‘the frost of wounds’, ll. 7, 8). This is the only attestation of frør used as a base-word in a sword-kenning (though see comparable kennings in st. 61 below), but Snorri must have exhausted most of the conventional base-words denoting ‘sth. cold, shiny’ in the previous lines (íss ‘ice’ (l. 1); svell ‘ice-sheet’ (l. 4); jǫkull ‘glacier’ (l. 5); see Meissner 151-2). The emended form frár ‘swift, keen’ has caused problems for the interpretation of the last couplet (see the discussion in SnE 2007, 65). (b) Skj B reads frár stillir lætr unda sund hjarar lunda fylla folk translated as den raske fyrste lader krigernes blod fylde sværdene ‘the swift lord makes the warriors’ blood fill the swords’ (a similar word order is provided by Sveinbjörn Egilsson in SnE 1847-87, III, and by Konráð Gíslason 1895-7). The meaning fólk ‘sword’ is highly dubious, however, and there is only one possible attestation in Old Norse poetry (Þul Sverða 10/8, see Note there). (c) Kock (NN §2184) suggests folksund ‘mighty ocean’ where the first element acts as an intensifier: frár stillir lætr fylla folksund unda hjarar lunda translated as käcke fursten låter fylla krigarsårens stora hav ‘the swift lord makes the mighty ocean of the warriors’ wounds be filled’. (d) While listing the interpretations of Skj B and Skald, Faulkes (SnE 2007, 65) tentatively suggests (frár stillir) lætr stinn fólk fylla sund unda ‘(the swift ruler) lets unyielding warriors fill a sea of wounds’. According to that interpretation, lunda hjarar ‘of trees of the sword [WARRIORS]’ can go with sund ‘ocean’ or with unda ‘wounds’ or with fólk ‘people, warriors’ (SnE 2007, 131: lundr).
(not checked:)
fylla (verb): fill
(not checked:)
folk (noun n.): people < folksund (noun n.): [battle-sea]
(not checked:)
sund (noun n.; °-s; -): sound, strait; swimming < folksund (noun n.): [battle-sea]
(not checked:)
hjǫrr (noun m.): sword
(not checked:)
1. lundr (noun m.; °-ar, dat. -i/-; -ar): grove, tree
(not checked:)
1. und (noun f.; °; -ir): wound
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
Most years a mighty wave of wounds [BLOOD] rinses icicles of the elm-bow-woman [VALKYRIE > SWORDS]; the wise prince makes the helmet’s ice-sheet [SWORD] scream in waves of the fellers of carrion [SWORDS > BLOOD]. The dispenser of the stiff necklace [GENEROUS MAN] accustoms battle-glaciers [SWORDS] to the ocean of wounds [BLOOD]; the leader makes the frost of wounds [SWORD] replenish the battle-sea [BLOOD] of the trees of the sword [WARRIORS].
As st. 59 above, but kimblaband ‘bundle-bond’ occurs in all even lines (it meira kimblaband ‘the greater bundle-bond’).
The heading in Tˣ is 52. — [5-8]: The interpretation of the second helmingr is difficult. Throughout the entire stanza Snorri employs an imagery of swords, in which the base-word is something cold (ice, ice-sheet, glacier), and blood, which is depicted as waves or a sea of wounds. The present edn attempts to preserve that imagery and also to avoid emendation.
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.