Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

SnSt Ht 90III

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 90’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1200.

Snorri SturlusonHáttatal
899091

text and translation

Mǫrg þjóð ferr til siklings sala;
sœmð es þar til allra dvala;
tiggi veitir seima svala;
satt es bezt of hann at tala.
Bresta spyrjum bauga flata
— bragna vinr kann gulli hat*a —
— œðri, veitk, at gjǫflund gata
grundar vǫrðr — fyr hringa skata.

Mǫrg þjóð ferr til sala siklings; sœmð es þar til allra dvala; tiggi veitir svala seima; es bezt at tala satt of hann. Spyrjum flata bauga bresta fyr {skata hringa}; {vinr bragna} kann hat*a gulli; veitk, at {vǫrðr grundar} gata œðri gjǫflund.
 
‘Many people travel to the halls of the sovereign; honour accrues to all who stay there; the ruler gives out cool gold; it is best to tell the truth about him. We [I] learn that flat circlets burst before the chieftain of rings [GENEROUS MAN]; the friend of men [= Skúli] knows how to hate gold; I know that no guardian of the ground [RULER] got a nobler generous disposition.

notes and context

This variant is based on octosyllabic hrynhent ‘flowing-rhymed’ (see sts 62-4), except that the cadence consists of two short syllables rather than the expected sequence of a long plus a short syllable. The identical end-rhymes are restricted to the helmingr (in minni runhenda ‘the lesser end-rhyme’; see sts 81, 87).

For this metre, see also RvHbreiðm Hl 33-4 and Anon Mhkv.

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 90: AII, 75, BII, 85, Skald II, 47; SnE 1848-87, I, 706-9, III, 133, SnE 1879-81, I, 14, 84, II, 32, SnE 1931, 250, SnE 2007, 36; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 60.

Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close

Stanza/chapter/text segment

Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.

Information tab

Interactive tab

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.

Full text tab

This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.

Chapter/text segment

This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.