Innsteinn Innkv 6^VIII (Hálf 24)

Þat dreymði mik         þriðja sinni,
at vér í kaf niðr         komnir værim.
Eiga mun allstórt         um at véla;
hvat kveðr þú, þengill,         þann draum vita?

Þat dreymði mik þriðja sinni, at vér værim komnir niðr í kaf. Allstórt mun eiga um at véla; hvat kveðr þú, þengill, þann draum vita?

The third time I dreamed that we were deeply immersed in water. Something very great will have to be dealt with; what do you say, king, that dream means?

Mss: 2845(36r) (Hálf)

Readings: [7] kveðr: kvað 2845

Editions: Skj AII, 260, Skj BII, 280-1, Skald II, 147; Hálf 1864, 19-20, Hálf 1909, 105, FSGJ 2, 112, Hálf 1981, 118, 181-2; Edd. Min. 35.

Context: This stanza is introduced by the words: Innsteinn kvað ‘Innsteinn said’.

Notes: [4] vér værim ‘we were’: All previous eds have normalised the ms.’s værum to the pret. subj. 1st pers. pl. værim; cf. Note to Hálf 16/6. — [4, 3] komnir niðr í kaf ‘deeply immersed in water’: Lit. ‘come down into the deep sea’. The noun kaf means what lies below the surface of the water, and refers to the deep sea or ocean. This prediction does not relate literally to a prospective drowning of Hálfr’s men, unlike Innsteinn’s two previous prophecies of death by fire, but seems to be a metaphor for death or dying. — [5-6] allstórt mun eiga um at véla ‘something very great will have to be dealt with’: An impersonal construction, lit. ‘it will very greatly have to be done with’ (cf. LP: véla 3).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
4. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
5. Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
6. Hálf 1981 = Seelow, Hubert, ed. 1981. Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka. RSÁM 20. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar.
7. Hálf 1864 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1864. Saga af Hálfi ok Hálfsrekkum. Norrøne Skrifter af sagnhistorisk Indhold 1. Christiania (Oslo): Det Nordiske Oldskriftselskab.
8. Hálf 1909 = Andrews, A. Le Roy, ed. 1909. Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka. ASB 14. Halle: Niemeyer.
9. Internal references
10. Hubert Seelow (ed.) 2017, ‘Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka 16 (Innsteinn Gunnlaðarson, Innsteinskviða 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 318.