SnSt Ht 73^III

Ræsir glæsir
Rǫkkva stǫkkva
hvítum rítum
hreina reina.
Skreytir hreytir
skafna stafna
hringa stinga
hjǫrtum svǫrtum.

Ræsir glæsir {stǫkkva hreina {reina Rǫkkva}} hvítum rítum. {Hreytir hringa} skreytir skafna stafna {svǫrtum hjǫrtum stinga}.

The ruler adorns {the swift reindeer {of Rǫkkvi’s <sea-king’s> land-strips}} [SEA > SHIPS] with white shields. {The scatterer of rings} [GENEROUS MAN] decorates the smoothed bows {of the black deer of rods} [SHIPS].

Mss: R(51v), W(149) (SnE); A(6v) (ll. 1-4), W(107) (ll. 1-2) (TGT)

Readings: [2] stǫkkva: døkkva all others    [6] skafna: hrafna W

Editions: Skj AII, 71, Skj BII, 81, Skald II, 45; SnE 1848-87, I, 688-91, III, 129-30, SnE 1879-81, I, 12, 82, II, 28, SnE 1931, 245, SnE 2007, 31; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 46; SnE 1848-87, II, 152-3, TGT 1884, 25, 98, 209-10, TGT 1927, 71, 103.

Context: The metre is called inn nýi háttr ‘the new verse-form’. Each line consists of two disyllabic long-stemmed syllables, and the internal rhymes in odd and even lines are structured as those in the even lines of st. 71 above (extended to include identity of the enclitic endings). The odd lines have one alliterating stave in metrical position 1, and in the even lines the main stave also falls in position 1. In TGT the first helmingr illustrates homoeoteleuton (‘omolemiton’), that is, syllables ending in the same sound, and the rhymes are compared to the rhymes in the even lines of riðhent ‘rocking-rhymed’ (st. 32 above).

Notes: [All]: The rubric in R is lxvi. — [All]: In TGT the helmingr is attributed to Snorri in both mss. The metre is also attested in two anonymous stanzas in FoGT (Anon (FoGT) 24, Anon (FoGT) 27), which could have been modelled on Snorri’s stanza. — [2] Rǫkkva; stǫkkva ‘of Rǫkkvi’s <sea-king’s>; the swift’: The R reading ‘stavkqa’ (altered in R to ‘davkqa’ (R*)), m. acc. pl. of the adj. stǫkkr ‘swift’ (from Proto-Nordic *stankva-; AEW: stǫkkr), has been retained in the present edn (so also LP: støkkr 2, where the vowel is rendered incorrectly).  Other eds adopt the adj. døkkva ‘dark’ (so R*, W(149), W(107), A). However, the internal rhyme ‑ǫkk- : ‑økk- is technically not an aðalhending, and both Skj B and Skald give dǫkkva rather than the regular døkkva. The form dǫkk- is unattested (døkkr < Gmc *dankwia (?), AEW: døkkr). It is possible that the two sounds ǫ and ø were sufficiently similar at this point (c. 1220) to allow for such a rhyme (see SnE 2007, 69; ANG §115.2), but it is equally plausible that the R variant represents the original reading (lectio difficilior), and that the W, A (and R*) readings are later attempts to make sense of an unfamiliar adj. For the noun stǫkkr ‘flight’, see st. 35/5 above. — [7] stinga (m. gen. pl.) ‘of rods’: The meaning of this word is unclear, but it must refer to a part of a ship (see Note to Ólhv Hryn 8/6^II). Finnur Jónsson (LP: stingr = brandr) offers a possible ofljóst construction stingr ‘stinger’ = brandr ‘sword’ = brandr ‘prow’. Following Falk (1912, 37), Faulkes (SnE 2007, 151) suggests that the word may refer to spikes fitted onto the prow of a ship to prevent the enemy from boarding, and that interpretation has been adopted in the present edn.

References

1. Bibliography
2. TGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
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. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
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. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
9. Falk, Hjalmar. 1912. Altnordisches Seewesen. Wörter und Sachen 4. Heidelberg: Winter.
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. TGT 1927 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1927b. Óláfr Þórðarson: Málhljóða- og málskrúðsrit. Grammatisk-retorisk afhandling. Det kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filologiske meddelelser 13, 2. Copenhagen: Høst.
13. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
14. SnE 1879-81 = Möbius, Theodor, ed. 1879-81. Hattatal Snorra Sturlusonar. 2 vols. Halle an de Saale: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
15. Internal references
16. (forthcoming), ‘ Óláfr hvítaskáld Þórðarson, The Third Grammatical Treatise’ in Tarrin Wills (ed.), The Third Grammatical Treatise. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=32> (accessed 28 April 2024)
17. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, The Fourth Grammatical Treatise’ 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=34> (accessed 28 April 2024)
18. Lauren Goetting (ed.) 2009, ‘Óláfr hvítaskáld Þórðarson, Hrynhenda 8’ 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. 664-5.
19. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise 24’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 601.
20. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise 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. 604.