Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Þórarinn loftunga, Glælognskviða 4’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 869.
Hafði sér
harðla ráðit
Haralds sonr
til himinríkis,
áðr seimbrjótr
at sætti varð.
{Sonr Haralds} hafði harðla ráðit sér til himinríkis, áðr {seimbrjótr} varð at sætti.
{The son of Haraldr} [= Óláfr] had powerfully taken himself to the heavenly kingdom, before {the treasure-breaker} [GENEROUS MAN] became a mediator.
Mss: Kˣ(486v-487r), 39(11ra) (Hkr); Holm2(71v), 61(128vb), 325V(86rb), 325VII(40r), Bb(203rb), Flat(127va), Tóm(159r) (ÓH)
Readings: [3] sonr: mǫgr 325VII, son Flat [4] himin‑: himi‑ Flat, ‘hini’ Tóm [5] seim‑: seimi Bb; ‑brjótr: broti Tóm [6] at: om. 325V; sætti: setti Kˣ, 39, Bb, ‘set’ Holm2, sætu 61, Flat, Tóm, om. 325V, sæti 325VII; varð: om. Holm2, varð Kristi þekkr konungr in œzti 61
Editions: Skj AI, 325, Skj BI, 300, Skald I, 153, NN §965; Hkr 1893-1901, II, 520, IV, 175, ÍF 27, 407 (ÓHHkr ch. 245); ÓH 1941, I, 603 (ch. 245), Flat 1860-8, II, 377; Magerøy 1948, 11, 17, 22.
Context: See Context to st. 2 above.
Notes: [All]: As it stands, this stanza has only six lines, and so it must be assumed that at least two lines have been lost at the end (so Skj B; Skald; Magerøy 1948; ÍF 27). Hence it must remain uncertain as to whether the clause beginning at l. 5 is grammatically complete, even though it can be construed as such (especially with emendation); moreover, the syntactic connection between sts 4 and 5 is unclear, especially in those mss which read svát ‘so that’ in st. 5/1. The stanza is completed in 61 with the lines Kristi þekkr | konungr inn œzti ‘the highest king, pleasing to Christ’, but the authority of this reading must be doubted. — [2] ráðit ‘taken’: The phrasal verb is ráða(sk) til ‘to move, decide to move’ (Fritzner: ráða 7; CVC: ráða B. 3). — [3] Haralds ‘of Haraldr’: Haraldr inn grenski ‘from Grenland’ Guðrøðarson. — [4] himinríkis ‘the heavenly kingdom’: See Note to st. 3/4 above. — [6] sætti ‘a mediator’: Given the incomplete state of the helmingr, no interpretation can be more than tentative. (a) Skj B’s reading (which would seem to assume the agent noun sættir ‘mediator, reconciler’) is adopted here (see also Hkr 1893-1901, IV). It ties in well with the theme of the poem (cf. st. 9, where Óláfr intercedes with God for the benefit of humans) and, although an emendation, makes sense of the ms. readings. (b) Other solutions have been proposed. LP: sætti suggests a n. noun sætti ‘(means) of reconciliation’ here, but also notes that the text is corrupt, and this lexeme is usually f. sátt/sætt (the idiom verða at sætt is recorded, e.g., in Gylf, SnE 2005, 23). (c) Kock (NN §965), linking up with his reading kykvasætr in st. 3/7, suggests the noun involved is sætr n. ‘seat, residence’ or sæti n. ‘seat’; Skald prints sætri. (d) ÍF 27 simply retains the Kˣ reading of setti, and assumes that the clause cannot be construed as it stands since the last two lines of the stanza are missing.
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