SnSt Ht 20^III

Hélir hlýr at stáli;
hafit fellr, en svífr þelli
— ferð dvǫl firrisk — harða
framm mót lagar glammi.
Vindr réttr váðir bendir;
vefr rekr á haf snekkjur;
— veðr þyrr — vísa iðjur
— varar fýsir skip — lýsa.

Hlýr hélir at stáli; hafit fellr, en þelli svífr harða framm mót glammi lagar; ferð firrisk dvǫl. Réttr vindr bendir váðir; vefr rekr snekkjur á haf; veðr þyrr; skip fýsir varar; iðjur lýsa vísa.

The prow becomes rime-covered at the stem; the ocean falls, and the fir-ship glides powerfully forwards against the roar of the sea; the crew is deprived of rest. The straight wind curves the sails; the sail-cloth drives the warships out to sea; the storm rushes along; the ship longs for the landing place; his actions glorify the leader.

Mss: R(47v), Tˣ(49v), W(142), U(47r) (ll. 1-2), U(51v) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Hélir: Hælir W;    at: fyrir U(47r), U(51v)    [2] fellr en svífr þelli: om. U(47r)    [3] ferð: ferr U(51v);    dvǫl: ‘[…]vol’ U(51v);    harða: hǫrða W    [5] réttr: rekr U(51v)    [6] rekr: rekkr U(51v)    [7] þyrr: þurr R, Tˣ, U(51v), ‘þy[…]’ W;    iðjur: íðnir U(51v)    [8] skip: ‘ski[…]’ U(51v);    lýsa: lýða U(51v)

Editions: Skj AII, 57, Skj BII, 66, Skald II, 38, NN §2571; SnE 1848-87, I, 630-1, II, 370, 383, III, 115-16, SnE 1879-81, I, 3, 76, II, 12, SnE 1931, 226, SnE 2007, 13-14; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 13-14.

Context: Stanzas 20-2 are examples of in minni refhvǫrf ‘the lesser fox-turns’. In st. 20 the antitheses that characterise this type are found in the juxtaposition of the first two words in each line.

Notes: [All]: The heading is xiij. háttr ‘the thirteenth verse-form’ (Tˣ). — [All]: The words that constitute the antitheses are the following: hélir ‘becomes rime-covered’ : hlýr ‘heats’ (taken as 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of hlýja ‘heat’ rather than as the noun hlýr ‘prow’) (l. 1); hafit ‘lifted’ (taken as p. p. of hefja ‘lift’ rather than as the noun haf ‘ocean’ with a cliticised def. art.) : fellr ‘falls’ (l. 2); ferð ‘travel’ (rather than ferð ‘crew’) : dvǫl ‘rest’ (l. 3); framm ‘forwards’ : mót ‘against’ (l. 4); réttr ‘straight’ : bendir ‘curved’ (adjectival, m. nom. pl., p. p. of benda ‘curve, bend’ rather than 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of the same verb) (l. 5); vefr ‘wraps’ (taken as 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of vefja ‘wrap’ rather than as the noun vefr ‘sail-cloth’) : rekr ‘unwraps’ (taken as 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of rekja ‘unwrap’ rather than as 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of the verb reka ‘drive’) (l. 6); veðr ‘wades’ (taken as 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of vaða ‘wade’ rather than as the noun veðr ‘storm’) : þyrr ‘rushes along’ (l. 7); varar ‘warns’ (taken as 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of vara ‘warn’ rather than as the noun varar f. gen. sg. ‘landing place’) : fýsir ‘urges’ (l. 8). — [2] þelli svífr ‘the fir-ship glides’: It is unclear whether this is a personal or impersonal construction, since the collective noun þelli n. ‘fir-ship’ can be either nom. or dat. and svífa ‘glide, swing’ can occur in both types of construction. — [3] ferð firrisk dvǫl ‘the crew is deprived of rest’: Or ‘the crew shuns delay’. — [4] mót ‘against’: Originally written ‘mot’ in R, but later altered to ‘mót’ (R*). — [5] réttr ‘straight’: Rekr ‘drives’ (so U and, by correction, R (R*)) is possible syntactically (vindr rekr; váðir bendir ‘the wind drives; the sail is curved’ (if the latter clause is taken as impersonal)), but it fails to provide the antithesis that characterises refhvǫrf. The reading appears to be the result of syntactic simplification. — [6] snekkjur ‘the warships’: It is not clear exactly what type of ship the snekkja was, but it appears to be a warship with twenty to thirty rowing benches (see Falk 1912, 102, Jesch 2001a, 126-7 and Note to ÞjóðA Magnfl 2/2, 3^II). — [7] þyrr ‘rushes along’: None of the mss contains this form (the end of the word is damaged in W). — [7] vísa ‘the leader’: The noun is taken here as the object of the verb lýsa lit. ‘light up, illuminate’ (l. 8). It could also be a gen. with iðjur ‘actions’ (l. 7): iðjur vísa lýsa ‘the actions of the leader shine’ (see SnE 1879-81, I, 76 and NN §2571). — [8] fýsir ‘longs for’: Impersonal, with skip ‘ship’ (or ‘ships’, pl.) as the acc. object.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
6. Falk, Hjalmar. 1912. Altnordisches Seewesen. Wörter und Sachen 4. Heidelberg: Winter.
7. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
8. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
9. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
10. SnE 1879-81 = Möbius, Theodor, ed. 1879-81. Hattatal Snorra Sturlusonar. 2 vols. Halle an de Saale: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
11. Internal references
12. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Magnússflokkr 2’ 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. 65-6.