StarkSt Vík 14^VIII (Gautr 22)

Mik lét sverði         hann sárum höggvinn
skarpeggjuðu         skjöld í gegnum,
hjálm af höfði         en haus skorat
ok kinnkjálka         klofinn í jaxla
en it vinstra         viðbein látit.

Hann lét mik sárum höggvinn skarpeggjuðu sverði í gegnum skjöld, hjálm af höfði en haus skorat ok kinnkjálka klofinn í jaxla en it vinstra viðbein látit.

He caused me to be struck with wounds with a sharp-edged sword right through my shield, [he caused] the helmet [to be struck] from my head, and my skull broken, and my jawbone cloven to the molars, and my left collar-bone to be shattered.

Mss: 590b-cˣ(4v) (Gautr)

Readings: [2] höggvinn: ‘högg hann’ 590b‑cˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 326, Skj BII, 346, Skald II, 186; FSN 3, 23-4, Gautr 1900, 20, FSGJ 4, 20-1; Edd. Min. 40.

Context: As for Gautr 21. This and the following stanza list the various wounds Sísarr inflicts on Starkaðr.

Notes: [All]: This stanza has ten lines instead of the usual eight and the second line is corrupted. As there is only one ms. witness, it is not certain exactly what l. 2 contained, though it is likely to have included some form of the verb höggva ‘strike, cut down [with a sharp weapon]’ and some form of the noun sár ‘wound’, but the function of the twice-repeated hann is unclear and presumably a scribal error. Skj A gives the second word as särmann (ms. ‘sär^m’) but it seems more likely to stand for sárum. Editors have conjectured lét mik sáru hǫggvinn ‘he had me cut down with a wound’ (FSN; Gautr 1900; Edd. Min.; FSGJ) or lét mik sáran hǫggvit ‘he had me cut [so that I was] wounded’ (Skj B; Skald). The present edn has opted for a minimal emendation of the ms.’s ‘högg hann’ to höggvinn ‘struck’. — [8] látit ‘shattered’: The ms. has ‘lattid’, and this ed. has followed FSN’s presumed reasoning in supposing that this form is the p. p. of láta in the sense ‘shattered, exhausted, dead, lost’. All other eds have emended to lamit ‘crushed’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
4. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
5. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
7. Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
8. Gautr 1900 = Ranisch, Wilhelm, ed. 1900. Die Gautrekssaga in zwei Fassungen. Palaestra 11. Berlin: Mayer & Müller.
9. Internal references
10. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Gautreks saga 21 (Starkaðr gamli Stórvirksson, Víkarsbálkr 13)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 266.