SnSt Ht 76^III

Hrannir strýkva hlaðinn bekk;
haflauðr skeflir;
kasta náir kjalar stíg
kalt hlýr sǫltum.
Svǫrtum hleypir svana fjǫll
snjallmæltr stillir
hlunna of Haka veg
hríðfeld skíðum.

Hrannir strýkva hlaðinn bekk; haflauðr skeflir; kalt hlýr náir kasta {sǫltum stíg kjalar}. Snjallmæltr stillir hleypir {svǫrtum skíðum hlunna} {hríðfeld fjǫll svana} of {veg Haka}.

Waves stroke the loaded ship; sea-foam piles up breakers; the cold prow throws aside {the salty path of the keel} [SEA]. The wise-spoken ruler makes {the black skis of rollers} [SHIPS] run {along the stormy mountains of swans} [WAVES] across {the road of Haki <sea-king>} [SEA].

Mss: R(51v), W(149-150) (SnE)

Readings: [1] strýkva: strýkja W;    bekk: borð W    [7] of: á W

Editions: Skj AII, 72, Skj BII, 82, Skald II, 45; SnE 1848-87, I, 692-3, III, 130, SnE 1879-81, I, 12, 83, II, 28, SnE 1931, 246, SnE 2007, 32; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 48-9.

Context: The metre is hnugghent ‘deprived-rhymed’. According to the commentary, the odd lines consist of seven syllables and have no internal rhymes. The difference between these odd lines and the odd lines in the previous stanza (st. 75) is that the penultimate word is a disyllabic short-stemmed word. If we assume resolution under primary stress (as indicated by the alliteration), these lines, too, can be treated as hexasyllabic, except l. 7 (barring emendation). The structure of the even lines is similar to those of sts 74-5 above, except that the internal rhyme, which here falls in positions 1 and 3, is skothent rather than aðalhent, except in l. 8 (and l. 4, if we assume aðalhending on a : ǫ, which is unlikely given the time of composition). All even lines have alliteration in position 1, and the odd lines have two alliterating staves: in position 1 and on the short-stemmed disyllabic word in penultimate position.

Notes: [All]: This metre is not attested elsewhere. — [All]: The rubric in R is lxviiii. — [1] bekk ‘ship’: Lit. ‘bench’. Taken here as pars pro toto for ‘ship’ (see LP: 2. bekkr 2; Falk 1912, 87; Meissner 96). Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, Skj B and Skald adopt the W variant hlaðin borð ‘stacked boards’ to avoid an apparent skothending (-ýk- : ‑ekk). — [7]: The line contains only six syllables, and Rask (SnE 1818, 262) added the adv. fram ‘forwards’ after hlunna ‘rollers’, which has been adopted by subsequent eds (aside from SnE 1848-87, SnE 1931 and SnE 2007). — [8]: Hríð- : skíð- form aðalhending rather than skothending, and Konráð Gíslason (1895-7) suggested the reading stóðum ‘stud-horses’ (svǫrtum stóðum hlunna ‘the black stud-horses of the rollers,’ i.e. ‘the black ships’; adopted in Skj B and Skald).

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. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
6. 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.
7. Falk, Hjalmar. 1912. Altnordisches Seewesen. Wörter und Sachen 4. Heidelberg: Winter.
8. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
9. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
10. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
11. SnE 1818 = Rask, Rasmus Kristian, ed. 1818a. Snorra Edda ásamt Skáldu og þarmeð fylgjandi ritgjörðum. Stockholm: Elmen.
12. SnE 1879-81 = Möbius, Theodor, ed. 1879-81. Hattatal Snorra Sturlusonar. 2 vols. Halle an de Saale: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.