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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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SnSt Ht 97III

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 97’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1206.

Snorri SturlusonHáttatal
969798

text and translation

Lyptak ljósu         lofi þjóðkonungs;
upps fyr ýta         jarls mærð borin.
Hverr muni heyra         hróðr gjǫflata
seggr svá kveðinn         seims ok hnossa?

Lyptak ljósu lofi þjóðkonungs; mærð jarls [e]s borin upp fyr ýta. Hverr seggr muni heyra hróðr gjǫflata seims ok hnossa kveðinn svá?
 
‘I lifted up the bright praise of the mighty king; the splendour of the jarl is proclaimed before men. What man may hear a praise-poem about a miser with gold and treasures composed in such a way?

notes and context

The heading, added by R*, is bálkarlag ‘section’s metre’. It is a regularised variant of fornyrðislag (see st. 96 above) with two alliterating staves in the odd lines (Types A1 (ll. 1, 3, 5) and D2 (l. 7)). In the even lines, the main stave is placed in position 1 as in dróttkvætt (Types A (l. 8), A2k (l. 4) and D2 (ll. 2, 6)).

It is not quite clear what is implied by the name of this metre, bálkarlag ‘section’s metre’, and Faulkes (SnE 2007, 100-1: bálkr) suggests that Bálkr may have been a personal name. It is more likely, however, that the name is derived from longer, narrative poems (bálkar) in fornyrðislag, such as Sigurðar bálkr (Ív SigII) and Skaufhala bálkr (Svartr SkaufVIII), whose content can be divided into clearly delineated sections. For this metre, see also RvHbreiðm Hl 37-8. The name of the metre is also given in TGT (TGT 1884, 68), where the sample stanza (StarkSt Frag) lacks double alliteration in the first line. — Again, both rulers are included in the praise (see st. 96 above).

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 97: AII, 76, BII, 87, Skald II, 48; SnE 1848-87, I, 712-13, III, 134, SnE 1879-81, I, 15, 85, II, 33, SnE 1931, 251, SnE 2007, 38; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 65-6.

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