Anon Nkt 1^II

Þat verðr skylt,
ef at skilum yrkja,
greppum þeim,
at gleði fyrða,
allra helzt,
ef eru færi
virðar þeir,
an verit hǫfðu.

Þat verðr skylt þeim greppum, ef yrkja at skilum, at gleði fyrða, allra helzt, ef þeir virðar eru færi, an verit hǫfðu.

It is the obligation of the poets, if they compose correctly, that they gladden people, above all, if those men are fewer than they have been.

Mss: Flat(144va)

Readings: [4] at gleði: at þeir gleði Flat

Editions: Skj AI, 579, Skj BI, 575, Skald I, 278, NN §3128; Flat 1860-8, II, 520.

Notes: [2] ef ‘if’: Skj B emends to es ‘who’, but that emendation violates the syntax because the rel. particle cannot occur separately in another cl. before the demonstrative (see NN §3128). — [4] at gleði ‘that they gladden’: The pronoun þeir ‘they’ (so Flat) is extrametrical and has been deleted in accordance with most earlier eds. — [6-8] ef þeir virðar eru færi, an verit hǫfðu ‘if those men are fewer than they have been’: The sense must be that the poet’s current audience is smaller than it was before. It is tempting to connect this rather obscure reference with the manndauðr mikill ‘great dying of people’, which, according to the Icel. annals, took place in 1192 (Storm 1888, s. a. 1192, p. 61). Between mid-October 1192 and the end of May 1193, more than 2000 people died of illness and hunger in the Northern Quarter of Iceland. Jón’s daughter, Solveig, also died in 1193. Alternatively, þeir virðar ‘those men’ could refer to the poets (þeim greppum, l. 3), and taken to mean that there were fewer poets who, at this time, were able to compose encomia. Hence it was the obligation of those poets who still possessed that skill, to entertain people.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Storm, Gustav, ed. 1888. Islandske annaler indtil 1578. Christiania (Oslo): Det norske historiske kildeskriftfond. Rpt. 1977. Oslo: Norsk-historisk kjeldeskrift-institutt.
6. Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.