RvHbreiðm Hl 6III
Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1014.
Ór skôru þá œrit
Atla menn til hvatla
harðir hjǫrva Nirðir
hjarta ógnarbjǫrtum.
Heldr Gunnari hœldu
hjǫrþings framir bǫrvar
— hann fekk harma sinna —
hugbyggð vegins tyggja.
Menn Atla, {harðir Nirðir hjǫrva}, skôru þá hjarta œrit til hvatla ór ógnarbjǫrtum. {Framir bǫrvar {hjǫrþings}} hœldu heldr {hugbyggð} vegins tyggja Gunnari; hann fekk harma sinna.
Atli’s men, {the harsh Nirðir <gods> of swords} [WARRIORS], then cut the heart much too quickly out of the battle-cheerful one [Hǫgni]. {The aggressive trees {of the sword-assembly}} [BATTLE > WARRIORS] praised very much {the mind-settlement} [HEART] of the slain lord to Gunnarr; he got [compensation] for his griefs.
Mss: papp25ˣ(42r), R683ˣ(125v)
Readings: [1] œrit: ‘b …’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ [5] Gunnari: ‘gunna …’ papp25ˣ, ‘guma …’ R683ˣ; hœldu: seldu papp25ˣ, R683ˣ [8] ‑byggð: ‑byggðs R683ˣ; tyggja: ‘tuigia’ corrected from ‘tuegia’ papp25ˣ, ‘tuiggia’ R683ˣ
Editions: Skj AI, 513, Skj BI, 488-9, Skald I, 239, NN §490; Hl 1941, 34, 40-2.
Notes: [All]: The hero praised is the same as in st. 5. — [1] œrit ‘much’: Lit. ‘sufficiently’. This form is conjectural. The mss have ‘b …’ but an initial vowel is required by alliteration and ‑r- is required by internal rhyme. Skj B and Hl 1941 supply œrit. Kock (Skald) suggests ǫrvir ‘brave’, which is less likely from the point of view of internal rhyme. — [2] menn Atla ‘Atli’s men’: This is Atli Buðlason, the brother-in-law of Hǫgni and Gunnarr (see Note to [All] in the previous stanza). Atli is the Old Norse name for Attila (MHG Etzel), king of the Huns (d. 453; see also Am, Akv, Vǫls and Þiðr). — [3] Nirðir ‘Nirðir <gods>’: This is m. nom. pl. of the name of the Old Norse god Njǫrðr. Skj B emends to Nirði (m. dat. sg.), apparently to avoid apposition, and takes the kenning to refer to Hǫgni, qualified by the adj. ógnarbjǫrtum ‘battle-cheerful’ (l. 4). — [5] hœldu ... Gunnari ‘praised ... to Gunnarr’: These readings are conjectural and follow a suggestion by Holtsmark (Hl 1941). The emendation is not entirely satisfactory, because it violates the word order in an independent clause (the finite verb appears in syntactic position 3). Such a violation seems unavoidable here, however, because the verb is clearly contained in metrical positions 5-6 and preceded by two words that apparently do not form a syntactic unit. Skj B construes helju Hǫgna seldu ‘(they) gave Hǫgni to Hel’ without support from the ms. witnesses. Kock (NN §490) suggests heldr gumna vin heldu ‘well (they) kept for the friend of the people’. This is not supported by the main ms. and it is even less likely from the point of view of the metre (such Type E-lines are extremely rare and not used in sentence introduction, see Gade 1995a, 73). The reading seldu ‘gave’ is metrically incorrect (h- is required by alliteration). Jón Helgason (Hl 1941) supplies hjaldrgims hristi seldu ‘to the shaker of the battle-fire [SWORD > WARRIOR] they gave’, which is metrically unlikely (a tvískelft line with a finite verb in positions 5-6) and not supported by the ms. witnesses. — [7] hann fekk harma sinna ‘he got [compensation] for his griefs’: For the meaning of this clause, see NN §490. — [8] hugbyggð ‘the mind-settlement [HEART]’: See st. 5/3.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
- Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
- Vǫls = Vǫlsunga saga.
- Þiðr = Þiðreks saga af Bern.
- Internal references
- Not published: do not cite ()
- Not published: do not cite ()
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