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

Anon Eirm 7I

R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Anonymous Poems, Eiríksmál 7’ 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. 1011.

Anonymous PoemsEiríksmál
678

text and translation

‘Hví namt þú hann sigri þá,         es þér þótti hann snjallr vesa?’
‘Því at óvíst es at vita *,         nær ulfr inn hǫsvi
        sœkir á sjǫt goða.’

‘Hví namt þú hann sigri þá, es hann þótti þér vesa snjallr?’ ‘Því at óvíst es at vita *, nær inn hǫsvi ulfr sœkir á sjǫt goða.’
 
‘‘Why did you deprive him of victory then, when he seemed to you to be valiant?’ ‘Because it cannot be known for certain when the grey wolf will attack the home of the gods.’

notes and context

As for st. 1 (Fsk).

The stanza comprises a málaháttr couplet and three lines of ljóðaháttr. — [1]: The speaker is presumably Sigmundr, though there is no overt indication of this in the mss. — [3]: Sahlgren (1927-8, I, 7, and similarly Skald and Lindquist 1929, 10) supplies after l. 2, Vas þó verðr gagns frá goðum ‘Yet he was worthy of victory from the gods’ (cf. Eyv Hák 12/3). This is unnecessary, however: see Note to st. 6/3. — [3] því es óvíst at vita * ‘because it cannot be known for certain’: Lit. ‘because it is uncertain to know’. Óðinn is identified as the speaker in the mss, though the identification, being extrametrical, is omitted here. See Introduction to the poem.

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: Anonyme digte og vers [X], I. A. [1]. Eiríksmál 7: AI, 175, BI, 165, Skald I, 89; Fsk 1902-3, 29 (ch. 7), ÍF 29, 79 (ch. 8); Möbius 1860, 232, Gordon 1957, 149, Jón Helgason 1968, 23.

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.