Anon Mhkv 30III
Roberta Frank (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Málsháttakvæði 30’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1243.
text and translation
Stjórnlausu hefk slungit saman,
svá vildak …
Hefk slungit saman stjórnlausu, svá vildak …
‘I have thrown together something rudderless, thus I wished … ’
notes and context
The poem ends here, at the bottom of fol. 55r, with six and a half lines of the final stanza missing. — [2]: Skj B completes the line with mér hitta gaman ‘to find pleasure for myself’. Finnur, in inserting gaman as the last word of the line (rhyming with saman), may have been inspired by the earlier saman : gaman pairings in the poem (sts 1/5-6, 5/1-2 and 22/3-4). If his completion of the line is correct, the ending of Mhkv would recall that of Svart Skauf 42VIII: Hefir bálk þennan | og barngælur | sett og samið | Svartr á Hofstöðum | mier til gamans | en meinþurðar | meingi ófróðu; | mun eg nú þagna ‘Svartr á Hofstöðum has composed and put together this poem and nursery rhyme for the pleasure of myself and [for] the entertainment of an ignorant multitude; now I shall be silent’.
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 [XIII], A. [1]. Málsháttakvæði 30: AII, 136, BII, 145, Skald II, 78; Möbius 1874, 12, Wisén 1886-9, I, 76.
Stanza/chapter/text segment
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
Information tab
- text: if the stanza has been published, the edited text of the stanza and translation are here; if it hasn't been published an old edition (usually Skj) is given for reference
- sources: a list of the manuscripts or inscriptions containing this stanza, with page and line references and links (eye button) to images where available, and transcription where available
- readings: a list of variant manuscript readings of words in the main text
- editions and texts: a list of editions of the stanza with links to the bibliography; and a list of prose works in which the stanza occurs, allowing you to navigate within the prose context
- notes and context: notes not linked to individual words are given here, along with the account of the prose context for the stanza, where relevant
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.