ESk Geisl 59^VII

Lustu sundr á sandi
seggs marglitendr eggja
(hǫrð grœr fjón af fyrða)
fót (aldrtrega rótum);
ok prest, þeirs lǫg lestu
líknar krǫfð, ór hǫfði
— hætt mál vas þat — heila
himintungl firar stungu.

{Marglitendr eggja} lustu sundr seggs fót á sandi; hǫrð fjón grœr af rótum aldrtrega fyrða; ok firar, þeirs lestu lǫg, líknar krǫfð, stungu {himintungl heila} ór hǫfði prest; þat vas hætt mál.

{Frequent-stainers of blades} [WARRIORS = Einarr and Andréas] broke the man’s leg on the beach; hard hatred grows from the roots of the lifelong sorrows of men; and men, those who broke the law, from which mercy was demanded, struck {the heavenly bodies of the brain} [EYES] from the head of the priest; that was a dangerous undertaking.

Mss: Flat(2rb), Bb(118rb); W(169) (SnE, ll. 5-8)

Readings: [1] sundr: so Bb, í sundr Flat;    á: so Bb, í Flat    [2] seggs: ‘se⸜g⸝x’ corrected from ‘sex’ in a different hand Flat, sex Bb;    marglitendr: so Bb, marglituðr Flat;    eggja: eggi Bb    [3] grœr (‘grerr’): so Bb, greri Flat;    af: so Bb, með Flat    [5] prest: fyrst W;    lǫg: so Bb, W, lim Flat;    lestu: so Bb, W, leystu Flat    [6] líknar: so Bb, ‘feyfdar’ Flat, leygðar W;    krǫfð: krǫf W    [8] firar: þegar W

Editions: Skj AI, 470, Skj BI, 442, Skald I, 217-18, NN §949; Flat 1860-8, I, 6, Cederschiöld 1873, 9, Chase 2005, 109, 160-1; SnE 1924, 112.

Context: In addition to st. 59’s presence in Flat and Bb, ll. 5-8 are quoted in the W text of SnE (1924, 112) in a section listing heiti and kennings for the eyes.

Notes: [1] lustu sundr á sandi ‘broke ... on the beach’: Bb’s readings must be preferred here, both for metrical reasons, and for sense (á sandi). — [3-4]: Bb’s reading of l. 3 is again followed, although Flat’s greri ‘grew’ would also be possible. Kock’s understanding of the intercalary (Skald and NN §949) is followed here, rather than Skj B’s hǫrð fjón aldrtrega fyrða grœr af rótum ‘mændenes hårde dødelige had havde rodfæstet sig’ (‘mankind’s hard deadly hatred had taken root’). — [5] prest (gen. sg.) ‘of the priest’: An occasionally-occurring alternative gen. form of prestr, which probably arose because of the difficulty of pronouncing the final consonant cluster in prests (see ANG §358.2, Anm. 3). Skj B and Skald emend to prests, but this is unnecessary.

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. Cederschiöld, Gustaf J. Chr., ed. 1873b. ‘Bandamanna saga’. Acta Universitatis Lundensis 10.
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. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
7. Cederschiöld, Gustaf J. Chr., ed. 1873a. Geisli eða Óláfs Drápa ens Helga er Einarr orti Skúlason: efter ‘Bergsboken’ utgifven. Acta Universitatis Lundensis 10. Lund: Berling.
8. Chase, Martin, ed. 2005. Einarr Skúlason’s Geisli. A Critical Edition. Toronto Old Norse and Icelandic Studies 1. Toronto, Buffalo and London: Toronto University Press.
9. 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.
10. Internal references
11. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
12. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Bjarkamál in fornu 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 500.