Anon (LaufE) 2^III

Spíru semi hǫnd hér
hringa; birtisk virðing.

Semi hǫnd {spíru hringa} hér; birtisk virðing.

May the hand {of the sapling of rings} [WOMAN] arrange [things] here; may honour be shown.

Mss: papp10ˣ(48r), 2368ˣ(117), 743ˣ(89r) (LaufE)

Editions: Skj AI, 600, Skj BI, 600, Skald I, 293, NN §1236; SnE 1848-87, II, 632, III, 199, LaufE 1979, 293, 377.

Context: The base-word in the woman-kenning illustrated by this couplet is spíra ‘sapling’.

Notes: [All]: The couplet is fragmentary and can be interpreted in different ways. It is clear that spíru hringa ‘sapling of rings’ (ll. 1, 2) is a women-kenning, but the case of spíru (oblique, sg.) cannot be established with any certainty. (a) In the present edn, spíru is taken as a gen. attributive to hǫnd ‘hand’, which is construed as the subject of the verb semja ‘arrange, look after, take care of’ (semi is 3rd pers. sg. pres. subj.). The remainder of l. 2 is then a separate clause with the verb birtisk ‘may … be shown’ also in the 3rd pers. pres. subj. and the subject is virðing ‘honour, esteem’. (b) Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, III) gives semi hèr hönd; spíru hrínga birtist virðíng ‘may the hand arrange here; the sapling of rings is shown honour’, which creates a more complex word order. (c) Skj B tentatively construes the couplet as follows: Hǫnd semi …; hér birtisk virðing hringa spíru translated as Hånden ordne(?) …; her vises kvindens hæder ‘May the hand arrange(?) …; here the honour of the woman is shown’. (d) Kock (Skald; NN §1236) emends semi ‘may arrange’ to sem í lit. ‘(just) as in’ and translates the phrase í hǫnd as jenast ‘at once’. According to his interpretation, the couplet means såsom ringprydd kvinnas ära uppenbaras jenast her ‘just as the honour of a ring-adorned woman is shown here at once’. — [All]: The metre is hálfhnept ‘half-curtailed’ (see SnSt Ht 77).

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. LaufE 1979 = Faulkes, Anthony, ed. 1979. Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar (Laufás Edda). RSÁM 13. Vol. I of Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1977-9.
7. Internal references
8. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 77’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1188.