SnSt Ht 72^III

Gull kná (greppar)
glóa (róa);
váss eru seggir
samir framir.
Eik má und jǫfri
una bruna;
þá nýtr vísi
viðar skriðar.

Gull kná glóa; greppar róa; framir seggir eru samir váss. Eik má una bruna und jǫfri; þá nýtr vísi skriðar viðar.

Gold glows; men row; the outstanding fellows are suited to hardship. The oak-ship rejoices in speeding beneath the prince; then the leader enjoys the swiftness of the ship.

Mss: R(51v), W(149) (SnE)

Readings: [1] kná: so W, ‘kna er’ R    [5] má: kná W    [7] þá: þar W

Editions: Skj AII, 71, Skj BII, 81, Skald II, 45; SnE 1848-87, I, 688-9, III, 129, SnE 1879-81, I, 12, 82, II, 27, SnE 1931, 245, SnE 2007, 31; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 45-6.

Context: The metre is called ‘the short verse-form’ (inn skammi háttr). The odd lines have one or two alliterating staves and lack internal rhyme, and the even lines are structured similarly to those in st. 71 above, except that the syllables carrying internal rhyme are short (bimoraic) rather than long.

Notes: [All]: The rubric in R is lxv. — [All]: The odd lines are regular fornyrðislag (Sievers’s Types A1 (ll. 1, 5) and A3 (ll. 3, 7)), and the even lines have suspended resolution in metrical positions 1-2 and 3-4. An approximate version of this metre, but without internal rhyme, is found in Anon (HSig) 5^II. — [1] gull ‘gold’: The golden ornaments on the ship. Gull has been altered in R to gunn (R*); see the next Note. — [1, 2] kná glóa ‘glows’: So W. In R ‘kna er’ has been altered to ‘kna-er’ (R*). Kná ‘can’ is pleonastic here. The R* alterations in this line look like an attempt at syntactic simplification: gunnknáir greppa … róa ‘battle-strong men … row’. — [5, 6] má una bruna ‘rejoices in speeding’: Lit. ‘can rejoice to speed’ (both una ‘rejoice’ and bruna ‘speed’ are infinitives). — [8] viðar ‘of the ship’: Lit. ‘of the wood’. Taken here as pars pro toto for ‘ship’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. 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.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
5. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
6. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
7. SnE 1879-81 = Möbius, Theodor, ed. 1879-81. Hattatal Snorra Sturlusonar. 2 vols. Halle an de Saale: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
8. Internal references
9. Kari Ellen Gade and Diana Whaley (eds) 2009, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Haralds saga Sigurðarsonar 5’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 818-19.