Tarrin Wills (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Hafliðamál 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 533.
Rístu nú, Fála, farðu í búð hinig;
þó es málsgengi mikit.
Rístu nú Fála, farðu í búð hinig; þó es mikit málsgengi.
Get up now, Fála, go over there to the booth; there is nonetheless great support for the case.
Mss: A(4v), W(103) (TGT)
Readings: [1] nú: tví‑ W [2] búð: so W, byggð A [3] þó es málsgengi (‘þo ær malsgængi’): þú est málfengi W
Editions: Skj AI, 590, Skj BI, 590, Skald I, 288; SnE 1818, 315, SnE 1848, 185, SnE 1848-87, II, 116-17, 410, III, 141, TGT 1884, 17, 77, 185-6, TGT 1927, 52, 95-6.
Context: Óláfr cites this half-stanza as an example of soloecismus involving a change of gender (kynja skipti; TGT 1927, 62): Hér er hvárginligt kyn sett fyrir karlmannligu kyni ‘Here the neuter gender is used instead of the masculine gender’. The only word treated as n. in the fragment is málsgengi ‘support for the case’ (A) or málfengi ‘chatterbox’ (W), but both would be n. in any case, making it unclear what constitutes the solecism here.
Notes: [All]: Ms. W’s reading for the whole fragment differs considerably from the above:
Ristu, tvífála, farðu í búð hinnig;
þú est málfengi mikit.
‘Rise, double(?)-slut, go over there to the booth; you are a great chatterbox’. Ms. A’s reading fits better with the context suggested by the poem’s title. — [1] Fála: The title of the poem and the name Fála here connect it with an episode in Stu. A Hallr Fáluson appears in connection with the legal conflict between Hafliði Másson and Þorgils Oddason (Stu 1878, I, 24-5), and Björn Magnússon Ólsen suggests that he is the person referred to here. However it seems more likely that Fála was Hallr’s mother. Fála occurs as a word for ‘axe’ or ‘giantess’ (LP: fála; cf. Þul Øxar l. 6 and Note to ll. 4, 6 as well as Þul Trollkvenna 3/2), and also perhaps for ‘disreputable woman, slut’ (cf. CVC: fála and supplement). Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, III, 141) and Finnur Jónsson (TGT 1927, 96) both considered that an axe was being addressed here. In the episode in Stu, Þorgils and Hafliði have axes, and Þorgils chops off Hafliði’s finger. Ms. W’s tvífála seems to be an error. — [2] búð ‘the booth’: Ms. A’s reading byggð ‘abode, habitation, settlement’ is possible, but búð gives better sense if this refers to an episode that takes place at the alþingi. — [3] málsgengi ‘support for the case’: Both readings málfengi (W) and málsgengi (A) are hap. leg.; further, the second elements of both these compounds are both normally n., which does not explain Óláfr’s comment on the change of gender. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (LP (1860): málfengi) translates the former as dubium, forte loquacitas, garrulitas ‘uncertain, perhaps verbosity, talkativeness’, and suggests (loc. cit.) that málsgengi in A was used for m. *málsgangr ‘progress of the case’, clarifying Óláfr’s comment about the change of gender. Björn Magnússon Ólsen (TGT 1884, 185) argued against this, giving instead the interpretation of málsgengi adopted in the present edn, procesfølge ‘support for the case’. Finnur Jónsson preferred W’s málfengi, suggesting the skald substituted the n. -fengi for the m. -fengr ‘advantage, benefit’.
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