Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

SnH Lv 6II

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sneglu-Halli, Lausavísur 6’ 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. 327-8.

Sneglu-HalliLausavísur
567

Hrangs, þars hôvan þǫngul
heldk umb, síz fjǫr seldak;
sýnts, at sitk at Ránar;
sumir ’ró í búð með humrum.
Ljóst es lýsu at gista;
lǫnd ák út fyr strǫndu;
því sitk bleikr í brúki;
blakir mér þari of hnakka;
blakir mér þari of hnakka.

Hrangs, þars heldk umb hôvan þǫngul, síz seldak fjǫr; sýnts, at sitk at Ránar; sumir ’ró í búð með humrum. Ljóst es at gista lýsu; ák lǫnd út fyr strǫndu; því sitk bleikr í brúki; þari blakir mér of hnakka; þari blakir mér of hnakka.

There is tumult where I’m grasping the tall seaweed stalk, since I lost my life; it’s clear that I’m living at Rán’s <sea-goddess>; some share their residence with lobsters. It is light when one visits the whiting; I own land off the shore; hence I sit pale in the pile of seaweed; kelp is flapping around my neck; kelp is flapping around my neck.

Mss: Mork(16v) (Mork); H(68r), 761bˣ(540v), Hr(49va) (H-Hr); Flat(208ra-b) (Flat); 563aˣ(19) (ll. 1-2, 5-8)

Readings: [1] Hrangs þars hôvan þǫngul: ‘Hrꜹng er Jafnan þars þrꜹng’ 563aˣ;    Hrangs (‘Hrang er’): Hrǫng er H, Hr, Flat;    þars: so Flat, þats Mork, H, Hr;    hôvan: hafnan Flat    [2] heldk umb síz fjǫr seldak: ‘helld eg mónnum sijst qvelld’ 563aˣ;    heldk (‘held ek’): so Hr, Flat, ‘hellt’ corrected from ‘sellt’ in lower margin by the first hand Mork, ‘[…]k’ H, heldik 761bˣ;    fjǫr: ‘ek for’ Flat    [3] sýnts (‘synt er’): ‘syn er’ H, ‘syner’ Hr, hvert er Flat    [4] ’ró: so H, ‘o’ Mork, eru Hr, Flat    [5] Ljóst es (‘liost er’): ‘[…]’ H, ljóst 563aˣ;    lýsu: ‘lijsa’ 563aˣ;    at: ‘[…]’ H    [6] lǫnd ák: lenda ek Flat;    fyr: við Flat, 563aˣ    [8] blakir mér þari of hnakka: blakkir mér þari of hnakka Hr, blakir mér þarmr of hnakka Flat, ‘blachtter mier Þarmur umm hvarma’ 563aˣ    [9] blakir mér þari of hnakka: so H, ‘b. m. þ. of h.’ Mork, blakkir þér þari of hnakki Hr, ‘blaker mier firi þinum h.’ Flat

Editions: Skj AI, 389, Skj BI, 359, Skald I, 180, NN §2038; ÍF 9, 292 (Snegl ch. 9), Mork 1867, 101, Mork 1928-32, 246, Andersson and Gade 2000, 252, 479 (MH); Fms 6, 376 (HSig ch. 105); Flat 1860-8, III, 426 (Snegl).

Context: Halli attempts to get passage on a ship from England to Norway, but the ship is already filled with Ger. travellers. To scare them off the ship, Halli pretends to have had an ominous dream in which a man appeared before him and recited this st.

Notes: [1, 2] heldk umb hôvan þǫngul ‘I grasp the tall seaweed stalk’: Kock (NN §2038) maintains that the verb halda ‘hold, grasp’ (l. 2) here has the meaning ‘dwell’ and that þǫngul (l. 1) is used collectively for ‘seaweed’ (‘I dwell among the tall seaweed’). However, halda umb e-t ‘hold the hand around sth.’ is not attested in that meaning (see Fritzner: halda um). — [3] at Ránar ‘at Rán’s <sea-goddess>’: In Norse mythology, Rán, the wife of Ægir, was the goddess of the sea. She had a net with which she caught those men who went to sea, and drowned men were received by her (see SnE 1998, I, 36, 41) — [5] lýsu ‘whiting’: This is either a whiting (Merlangius merlangus) or a hake (Merluccius merluccius). — [8-9]: The repetition of l. 8 is characteristic of the metre galdralag ‘incantation metre’ (see SnSt Ht 101III; SnE 1999, 39), and it is also found frequently in prophetic poetry. Although the present st. is not in galdralag, the repetition serves to emphasise the supernatural aspects of the situation. See also Anon (HSig) 6-8 below.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
  3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  5. Andersson, Theodore M. and Kari Ellen Gade, trans. 2000. Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157). Islandica 51. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
  6. 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.
  7. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
  8. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
  9. SnE 1999 = Snorri Sturluson. 1999. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. Rpt. with addenda and corrigenda. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  10. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  11. ÍF 9 = Eyfirðinga sǫgur. Ed. Jónas Kristjánsson. 1956.
  12. Mork 1867 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1867. Morkinskinna: Pergamentsbog fra første halvdel af det trettende aarhundrede. Indeholdende en af de ældste optegnelser af norske kongesagaer. Oslo: Bentzen.
  13. Internal references
  14. (forthcoming), ‘ Anonymous, Sneglu-Halla þáttr’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=57> (accessed 19 March 2024)
  15. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Haralds saga Sigurðssonar’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=142> (accessed 19 March 2024)
  16. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Magnúss saga góða ok Haralds harðráða’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=147> (accessed 19 March 2024)
  17. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Haralds saga Sigurðarsonar 6’ 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. 819-20.
  18. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 101’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1209.
Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close

Stanza/chapter/text segment

Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.

Information tab

Interactive tab

The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.

Full text tab

This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.

Chapter/text segment

This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.