Ólhv Frag 3^III

Hermenn gátum hinnig
hugstinnan gram vinna.

Gátum hugstinnan gram vinna hermenn hinnig.

We [I] have found out that the single-minded lord defeated warriors there.

Mss: A(5r-v), W(105) (TGT)

Readings: [1] gátum: so W, ‘getu’ A

Editions: Skj AI, 599, Skj BI, 599, Skald I, 292; NN §2551; SnE 1818, 319, SnE 1848, 188, SnE 1848-87, II, 130-1, 414, TGT 1884, 20, 84, 197, TGT 1927, 59, 100.

Context: Cited as an example of amphibolia (‘amphibologia’) or ambiguity of diction (see Notes below).

Notes: [All]: The metre is dunhent ‘echoing-rhymed’ (cf. SnSt Ht 24). — [All]: The corresponding example in Donatus (Keil 1855-80, IV, 395) is audio secutorem retiarium superasse ‘I hear the secutor defeated the retiarius’ (secutor and retiarius are types of gladiator). Finnur Jónsson (TGT 1927, 59 n.) speculates on whether the couplet was composed by Óláfr, and the similarities between the two examples indicate strongly that the Old Norse was modelled on the Latin. — [All]: As Óláfr states, there is ambiguity here as to which of the two accusative participants is the object of vinna (an example of amphibolia); hence the couplet could be interpreted as Gátum hermenn vinna hugstinnan gram hinnig ‘We [I] have found out that the warriors defeated the single-minded lord there’. Kock (NN §2551) proposes an elaborate reinterpretation of the couplet based on emending gátum/getu to gátu (3rd pers. pl. pret. indic.), but in removing the ambiguity altogether it disregards Óláfr’s interpretation. — [1]: The line is unmetrical, because metrical position 3 is filled by a long rather than by a short syllable.

References

1. Bibliography
2. TGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
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. SnE 1848 = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1848. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, eða Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál og Háttatal. Reykjavík: Prentsmiðja landsins.
5. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
7. TGT 1927 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1927b. Óláfr Þórðarson: Málhljóða- og málskrúðsrit. Grammatisk-retorisk afhandling. Det kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filologiske meddelelser 13, 2. Copenhagen: Høst.
8. Keil, Heinrich, ed. 1855-80. Grammatici Latini. 8 vols. Leipzig: Teubner.
9. SnE 1818 = Rask, Rasmus Kristian, ed. 1818a. Snorra Edda ásamt Skáldu og þarmeð fylgjandi ritgjörðum. Stockholm: Elmen.
10. Internal references
11. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 24’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1130.