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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Þul Sverða 12III

Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 12’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 812.

Anonymous ÞulurSverða heiti
1112

Sverð ok gelmingr         ok samnagli,
hugró, sigrhnoð,         hjalt ok tangi,
mundriðr, hǫggstaðr         ok meðalkafli.

Sverð ok gelmingr ok samnagli, hugró, sigrhnoð, hjalt ok tangi, mundriðr, hǫggstaðr ok meðalkafli.

Sword and clamourer and link-rivet, clinch-plate, victory-knob, hilt and tang, hand-waver, strike-place and middle-stick.

Mss: R(43r), Tˣ(45r), C(12r), A(18v), B(8v), 744ˣ(69r-v) (SnE)

Readings: [1] ok: om. C    [3] ‑hnoð: ‑hnoðir B    [5] ‑riðr: ‑riði C, A, B;    hǫggstaðr: so A, ‘havgfaðr’ R, ‘haugfadr’ Tˣ, ‘hauggfadr’ C, ‘ho᷎[…]stadr’ B, ‘ho᷎gstaðr’ 744ˣ    [6] ‑kafli: ‘‑k[…]fle’ B, ‘‑kafle’ 744ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 665, Skj BI, 664, Skald I, 329; SnE 1848-87, I, 568, II, 477, 560, 620, SnE 1931, 202, SnE 1998, I, 121.

Notes: [1] sverð (n.) ‘sword’: The very fact that the most common term for ‘sword’ (sverð) is found in the section with terms for sword-parts shows that the division between Sverða heiti and Heiti á sverði in the present list is not consistent. — [1] gelmingr (m.) ‘clamourer’: This word is a hap. leg. and its meaning (‘clamourer, noise-maker’) indicates that it is a heiti for ‘sword’ rather than a term for a part of a sword (cf. galmr ‘clanging one’, st. 2/5). — [2] samnagli (m.) ‘link-rivet’: The word denotes a sword-hilt decorated with rows of rivets (Falk 1914b, 31), from sam- ‘together-’ and nagli m. ‘nail, spike’ (cf. naglfari ‘nail-studded one’, st. 8/4). — [3] hugró (f.) ‘clinch-plate’: A clinch on a sword-hilt, probably the same as efra hjalt ‘upper hilt’ (Falk 1914b, 26-7; CVC: höggró). Cf. also hug- in huglognir ‘clinch-failer’ (st. 5/6). The word does not occur in poetry. — [3] sigrhnoð (n.) ‘victory-knob’: An otherwise unattested cpd from sigr m. ‘victory’ and hnoða f. ‘knob’, the uppermost part of a sword-hilt (Falk 1914b, 26). — [5] mundriðr (m.) ‘hand-waver’: Or mundriði (so C, A, B). This is the handle of a short sword (between the crossbars or plates; see Falk 1914b, 10 and Note to mundriði ‘hand-swinger’, st. 3/3). — [5] hǫggstaðr (m.) ‘strike-place’: So A, B (744ˣ) (adopted by Falk 1914b, 16-17, Skj B and Skald). The first element of the cpd is hǫgg n. ‘strike, blow’ and the second is staðr m. ‘place’. This is a term for the broadest part of the blade. Cf. Karlamagnús saga (Unger 1860, 116): En þat sverð var faðms langt í millum hjalts ok hǫggstaðar ‘And that sword was a fathom long between the hilt and the strike-place’. The R, , C variant (adopted in SnE 1998) hǫggfáðr lit. ‘strike-coloured’, i.e. ‘blood-stained’, does not occur elsewhere. — [6] meðalkafli (m.) ‘middle-stick’: The part of a sword-handle between the two hjǫlt (hilt-plates), from meðal ‘between’ and kafli m. ‘piece cut off, round stick’ (cf. SnE 1998, II, 353). This cpd is found in both prose and poetry (see LP: meðalkafli).

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. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
  4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  5. Unger, C. R., ed. 1860. Karlamagnus saga og kappa hans. Christiania (Oslo): H. J. Jensen.
  6. 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.
  7. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
  8. Falk, Hjalmar. 1914b. Altnordische Waffenkunde. Videnskapsselskapets skrifter, II. Hist.-filos. kl. 1914, 6. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
  9. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
  10. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  11. Internal references
  12. Not published: do not cite ()
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