RvHbreiðm Hl 81^III

Magnús * malma regni
morðbráðan frák ráða;
hyrbrjótr hauka strætis
hjǫrskúrir vann gǫrvar.
Allnýtr Egða gætir
ósjaldan rauð skjaldar
sval*fúr seggja dreyra;
sveiti* dreif á hneiti*.

Frák morðbráðan Magnús ráða * {regni malma}; {{{hauka strætis} hyr}brjótr} vann gǫrvar {hjǫrskúrir}. {Allnýtr gætir Egða} rauð ósjaldan {sval*fúr skjaldar} dreyra seggja; sveiti* dreif á hneiti*.

I heard that battle-quick Magnús caused {a rain of weapons} [BATTLE]; {the breaker {of the fire {of the hawks’ street}}} [(lit. ‘hawks’ street’s fire-breaker’) ARM > GOLD > GENEROUS MAN] made {sword-showers} [BATTLES]. {The thoroughly beneficial guardian of the Egðir} [NORWEGIAN KING = Magnús] not seldom reddened {the cool fire of the shield} [SWORD] with the gore of men; blood splattered on the sword.

Mss: papp25ˣ(39v), R683ˣ(134v)

Readings: [1] Magnús *: Magnús í papp25ˣ, R683ˣ    [3] hauka: so R683ˣ, ‘…’ papp25ˣ    [5] ‑nýtr: ‘‑nittur’ R683ˣ;    gætir: ‘… eter’ papp25ˣ, ‘… etter’ R683ˣ    [7] sval*fúr: svall fyr papp25ˣ, R683ˣ;    dreyra: ‘dreij …’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ    [8] sveiti*: sveitir papp25ˣ, R683ˣ;    dreif (‘dræif’): so R683ˣ, ‘dręf’ papp25ˣ;    hneiti*: hneitir papp25ˣ, R683ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 528, Skj BI, 508, Skald I, 249, NN §2085; Hl 1941, 31, 98.

Context: The metre is skjálfhent (‘Skialf hęnt’) ‘tremble-rhymed’ (cf. SnSt Ht 28 tvískelft ‘twice-trembled’ and Ht 35 in forna skjálfhenda ‘the ancient tremble-rhyme’), a variant of dróttkvætt in which the odd lines have alliteration in positions 1 and 3 (Type A-lines) and position two is occupied by a long syllable rather than by a short enclitic derivational or inflectional ending or by a proclitic formword.

Notes: [All]: In the corpus of skaldic poetry, skjálfhent and tvískelft lines do occur in dróttkvætt stanzas, and such lines are used systematically in Hallv Knútdr and HSt Rst^I. — [All]: Magnús is Magnús berfœttr ‘Barelegs’ Óláfsson, king of Norway 1093-1103. He died at the battle of Ulster, Ireland, on 24 August 1103. See Anon Nkt 42-4 and his Biography in SkP II. — [1]: The prep. í ‘in’ has been omitted for metrical reasons (it makes the line hypermetrical and in violation of skjálfhent metre). The emendation follows earlier eds. — [4] vann gǫrvar ‘made’: Gǫrvar (f. acc. pl.) is taken here as the inflected p. p. of gera ‘do’, but it could also be the adj. gǫrr ‘perfect’ qualifying hjǫrskúrir ‘sword-showers [BATTLES]’. — [5] gætir ‘guardian’: The mss read ‘… eter’ (papp25ˣ) and ‘… ettir’ (R683ˣ). Skj B suggests stillir ‘lord’ and Skald has sættir ‘reconciler’. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848, 248) supplied gætir ‘guardian,’ which has been adopted in Hl 1941 and in the present edn. — [7] sval*fúr ‘the cool fire’: Both mss have svall fyr ‘increased before’. However, skjaldar (m. gen. sg.) ‘of the shield’ needs a base-word, and Kock’s suggestion (NN §2085) svalfúr ‘cool fire’ has been adopted in Hl 1941 and in the present edn. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) emends to snjallr (m. nom. sg.) ‘brave’ and fúr (m. acc. sg.) ‘fire’, and takes snjallr as an adj. qualifying his kenning stillir Egða ‘lord of the Egðir’. — [7] dreyra ‘with the gore’: The emendation follows earlier eds. — [8] sveiti*; hneiti* ‘blood; the sword’: The mss read sveitir and hneitir, which cannot be construed to make any sense syntactically, and the emendations are in keeping with earlier eds. For the possible addition of inorganic final ‑r in these words, see Note to st. 8/4. Alternatively, sveitir could be a corruption of sveita (m. dat. sg.) if dreif ‘splattered’ was used impersonally, cf. dreif sveita ‘there was a blizzard of blood’, st. 41/8 (see Note there). For hneitir ‘sword’, see Note to st. 17/2 above.

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 = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1848. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, eða Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál og Háttatal. Reykjavík: Prentsmiðja landsins.
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. Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
7. SkP II = Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Ed. Kari Ellen Gade. 2009.
8. Internal references
9. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Anonymous Poems, Nóregs konungatal 42’ 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, p. 788.
10. Rolf Stavnem 2012, ‘ Hallar-Steinn, Rekstefja’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 893. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1237> (accessed 26 April 2024)
11. Matthew Townend 2017, ‘ Hallvarðr háreksblesi, Knútsdrápa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 230. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1246> (accessed 26 April 2024)
12. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 28’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1134.
13. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 33’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1140.