SnSt Ht 90^III

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.

Mss: R(52v) (SnE)

Readings: [3] seima: seim R    [6] hat*a: ‘hatta’ R

Editions: Skj AII, 75, Skj 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.

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).

Notes: [All]: For this metre, see also RvHbreiðm Hl 33-4 and Anon Mhkv. — [2] es þar til allra dvala ‘accrues to all who stay there’: Lit. ‘is there for all sojourns’. — [3] svala seima ‘cool gold’: Lit. in the pl. ‘cool gold-threads’. Seim (m. acc. sg.) has been altered in R to seima (R*). — [6] kann hat*a gulli ‘knows how to hate gold’: This means ‘give away gold’ i.e. ‘be generous’. Kann ‘knows’ is not used purely as a pleonastic auxiliary here. Ms. R reads ‘hatta’, which must be a scribal error. — [7-8] veitk, at vǫrðr grundar gata œðri gjǫflund ‘I know that no guardian of the ground [RULER] got a nobler generous disposition’: Lit. ‘I know that a guardian of the ground did not get a nobler generous disposition’. Gata ‘did not get’ is 3rd pers. sg. pret. indic. of geta ‘get’ plus the suffixed negation ‑a.

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. Roberta Frank 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Málsháttakvæði’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1213. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1029> (accessed 23 April 2024)
10. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 33’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1042.