RvHbreiðm Hl 5^III

…
heiptbráðr taka náði
snyrtibyggð, þás seggir
… vegin …
…
naut illa þess stillir;
gunnar geymirunnar
gáttar … aðrir.

Heiptbráðr náði taka snyrtibyggð, þás seggir … vegin … stillir naut þess illa; {aðrir geymirunnar {gáttar gunnar}} …

The wrath-quick one was able to seize the splendid settlement, when the men … slain … the ruler benefited badly from that; {other tending-trees {of the door of battle}} [SHIELD > WARRIORS] …

Mss: papp25ˣ(42r), R683ˣ(125r-v)

Readings: [2] ‑bráðr: ‘‑brad’ papp25ˣ, ‘‑brád’ R683ˣ    [7] geymi‑: ‘geme‑’ R683ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 513, Skj BI, 488, Skald I, 239; Hl 1941, 34, 39-40.

Notes: [All]: The metre is not named (titulus deest ‘the heading is missing’), but it is dróttkvætt ‘court metre’ and the stanza is incomplete and beyond reconstruction. Dróttkvætt is the commonest skaldic metre (see Section 4 of the General Introduction in SkP I). — [All]: This and the next stanza commemorate the deeds and death of the legendary hero Hǫgni Gjúkason (Hagen of the Nibelungenlied; see SnE 1998, I, 47-9; NK 240-63; Vǫls chs 38-9; Norn; Akv; Am). According to Norse legend, Hǫgni was the brother of Gunnarr Gjúkason, the hero eulogised in sts 7-8 below. At the instigation of their sister, Guðrún, Atli Buðlason, their brother-in-law, invited them to his home and attempted to force them to reveal the location of the Niflung treasure, which they refused to do. The brothers were captured after fierce fighting, and when they yet again refused to disclose the location of the treasure, Atli had Hǫgni’s heart cut out of his living body, and Gunnarr was thrown into a snake-pit where he eventually died (see st. 8 below). — [2] heiptbráðr (m. nom. sg.) ‘the wrath-quick one’: In keeping with other eds, heiptbrôð (f. nom. sg. or n. nom./acc. pl.) has been emended to heiptbráðr (m. nom. sg.) as the subject of náði taka ‘was able to take’. The final element of the cpd is written ‘-brad’ (papp25ˣ) and ‘-brád’ (R683ˣ), but final <r> is very frequently omitted in both mss (see Hl 1941, 111-12 and Introduction above). — [3] snyrtibyggð ‘the splendid settlement’: This is probably the base-word in a kenning for ‘gold’, determined by a word for ‘snake’ in one of the missing lines. For the first element of this cpd, see Þul Sverða 1/7 and Note there. See also hugbyggð ‘mind-settlement’ in st. 6/8. — [4] vegin (f. acc. sg. or n. nom./acc. pl.) ‘slain’: This is usually emended to veginn (m. nom. or acc. sg.), qualifying a word referring to Hǫgni in one of the missing lines, and it could well be that the final <n> has been omitted, since <n> for <nn> is frequently found in both mss (see Hl 1941, 106 and Introduction above). Jón Helgason (Hl 1941) makes an attempt at reconstructing the stanza, but that reconstruction is completely conjectural and also in violation of the metre. — [6]: For this line, see also ÞjóðA Sex 7/8^II and Stúfr Stúfdr 3/6^II. — [8] aðrir ‘other’: Wrongly inserted by Rugman at the beginning of the previous line in papp25ˣ (‘… adrer, gunnar geime runnar, gattar’). Ms. R683ˣ reads ‘… | adrer gunnar gemerunnar gattar’ (ll. 7-8).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
4. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
5. Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
6. SkP I = Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Ed. Diana Whaley. 2012.
7. Vǫls = Vǫlsunga saga.
8. Internal references
9. Not published: do not cite ()
10. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 790.
11. Not published: do not cite ()
12. Not published: do not cite ()
13. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Stúfr inn blindi Þórðarson kattar, Stúfsdrápa 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 353-4.
14. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Sexstefja 7’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 118-19.