SnSt Ht 10^III

Jǫrð verr siklingr sverðum;
sundr rjúfa spjǫr undir;
lind skerr í styr steinda;
støkkr hauss af bol lausum.
Falla fólk á velli;
fremr mildr jǫfurr hildi;
egg bítr á lim lýti;
liggr skǫr sniðin hjǫrvi.

Siklingr verr jǫrð sverðum; spjǫr rjúfa undir sundr; skerr steinda lind í styr; hauss støkkr af lausum bol. Fólk falla á velli; mildr jǫfurr fremr hildi; egg bítr lýti á lim; skǫr liggr sniðin hjǫrvi.

The ruler defends the land with swords; spears rip wounds asunder; a coloured shield is cut in the fighting; a skull flies from a headless torso. People fall on the field; the generous prince advances the battle; a blade causes a deformity on a limb; a scalp lies sliced by the sword.

Mss: R(46r), Tˣ(48v), W(140), U(47r) (l. 1), U(49v-50r) (SnE)

Readings: [2] rjúfa: ‘ri[…]va’ with ‘rif’ added in the margin in a later hand W    [3] lind: blind U;    skerr: so W, U, sekr R, skekr Tˣ;    steinda: ‘stemþa’ U    [5] velli: ‘vell[…]’ W

Editions: Skj AII, 55, Skj BII, 63, Skald II, 37; SnE 1848-87, I, 614-15, II, 370, 379, III, 113, SnE 1879-81, I, 2, 75, II, 8, SnE 1931, 220, SnE 2007, 9; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 7-8.

Context: As st. 9 above. The syntactic variation in this stanza is that each line consists of an independent clause (áttmælt ‘eight-times spoken’).

Notes: [All]: The headings are iij. háttr ‘the third verse-form’ (Tˣ), áttmælt (U(47r)) and áttmæltr háttr ‘the eight-times spoken verse-form’ (U(49v-50r)). — [All]: For this verse-form, see also RvHbreiðm Hl 75-6. There are not many stanzas in the extant corpus of skaldic poetry in which áttmælt is consistently (or almost consistently) carried through, but the variant seems to have lent itself well to situations of an exhortative nature, such as calls for battle (e.g. Rv Lv 31^II, Nefari Lv^II and Blakkr Lv 1^II). — [3] skerr ‘is cut’: Impersonal construction with lind ‘shield’ as the object. — [3] steinda lind ‘a coloured shield’: Lind is used in the meaning ‘shield’ here (see Note to st. 9/2 above). For painted and coloured shields, see Note to st. 8/6 above. — [4] af lausum bol ‘from a headless torso’: Lit. ‘from a loose torso’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
5. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
6. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
7. SnE 1879-81 = Möbius, Theodor, ed. 1879-81. Hattatal Snorra Sturlusonar. 2 vols. Halle an de Saale: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
8. Internal references
9. Kari Ellen Gade 2009, ‘ Nefari, Lausavísa’ 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. 645-6. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1308> (accessed 26 April 2024)
10. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Blakkr, Lausavísur 1’ 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. 649.
11. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2009, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl Kali Kolsson, Lausavísur 31’ 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. 607-8.
12. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 75’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1085.