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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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SnSt Ht 77III

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 77’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1188.

Snorri SturlusonHáttatal
767778

text and translation

Snyðja lætr í sólroð
snekkjur á Manar hlekk
(árla sér ungr jarl)
allvaldr (breka fall).
Lypta kná lýðr opt
lauki of kjalar raukn;
greiða náir glygg váð;
greipum mœta dragreip.

Allvaldr lætr snekkjur snyðja á {hlekk Manar} í sólroð; árla sér ungr jarl fall breka. Lýðr kná opt lypta lauki of {raukn kjalar}; glygg náir greiða váð; dragreip mœta greipum.
 
‘The mighty ruler makes warships hasten on the chain of Man <island> [SEA] at dawn; early the young jarl sees the falling of the breakers. People often lift the mast on the draught-animals of the keel [SHIPS]; the storm unfolds the sail; halyards meet hands.

notes and context

The metre is hálfhnept ‘half-curtailed’. According to the commentary, each line contains six syllables, but as a licence they may have five or seven. The odd lines have skothending and the even lines aðalhending. The second hending in all lines always falls on a monosyllable in line-final position (see the odd lines in st. 75 above), which is then considered hnept ‘curtailed, shortened’, whereas the first hending falls on a disyllabic word and is not hnept. The pattern of alliteration in odd and even lines is the same as in st. 76.

This metre is very difficult to account for in terms of metrical patterns. See Section 4 of the General Introduction in SkP I. For this verse-form, see also RvHbreiðm Hl 49-50. — [5-6]: Line 5 is partly damaged in R, and what can be read can be rendered as follows: ‘lypta[…]a lyðr opt’. Ms. W has ‘lyptaz kna of liði opt’, which gives the following version of ll. 5-6: lauki kná opt lyptask of liði við raukn kjalar ‘the mast is often lifted above the crew near the draught-animals of the keel’. Lyptask ‘is lifted’ is then used impersonally with a passive meaning and lauki ‘mast’ as the dat. object. Ms. R furnishes the subject lýðr ‘people’ which means that the m. v. is no longer possible: lýðr kná opt lyptask lauki of raukn kjalar ‘people can often be lifted with the mast on the draught-animals of the keel’ makes little sense. (a) The present edn follows SnE 1848-87, Konráð Gíslason (1895-7) and Skald, assuming an original R reading of l. 5 as lypta kná lýðr opt lit. ‘lift can people often’ with lauki ‘mast’ (l. 6) as the dat. object. (b) Skj B opts for a combination of the R and W readings and renders ll. 5-6 (prose order) as lauki kná opt lypta of liði of kjalar raukn translated as masten rejses ofte på skibene over mandskabet ‘the mast is often raised on the ships above the crew’. (c) Faulkes (SnE 2007) gives the inf. of the first verb as lyptask, but he otherwise retains the R readings of the two lines, taking lyptask in a passive meaning (‘be lifted’) and lauki ‘mast’ as a dat. instr. (‘people are often lifted with the mast on the ships’), which is difficult to understand (see above).

readings

sources

Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.

editions and texts

Skj: Snorri Sturluson, 2. Háttatal 77: AII, 72, BII, 82, Skald II, 45, NN §§1321, 2247C; SnE 1848-87, I, 694-5, III, 130, SnE 1879-81, I, 13, 83, II, 29, SnE 1931, 246, SnE 2007, 32; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 49.

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