Anon (FoGT) 1^III

These three helmingar are cited in the second chapter of FoGT, in which the author gives examples of the figure of litotes, or understatement for rhetorical effect. He first cites Eviðs Lv 7^V, then Anon (FoGT) 1, and follows it with Anon (FoGT) 2 and 3. All three helmingar are in dróttkvætt metre.

Sprungu eigi aungir
út ór — … sútir —
bæum, þvíað hyrr á hávar
heitr giekk fira sveitir.

Eigi aungir sprungu út ór bæum, þvíað heitr hyrr giekk á hávar sveitir fira; … sútir.

Not none [= all] ran out from the farmsteads, because hot fire spread towards the distinguished groups of men; … sorrows.

Mss: W(111) (FoGT)

Readings: [1] aungir: aungar W    [3] hávar: ‘havvi’ W    [4] sveitir: sveiti W

Editions: Skj AII, 214, Skj BII, 231, Skald II, 120, NN §1442; SnE 1848-87, II, 192-3, III, 153, FoGT 1884, 121, 239-41, FoGT 2004, 31-2, 60, 86-7, FoGT 2014, 2-3, 54-5.

Context: This helmingr illustrates the use of a double negative for a positive, and is introduced with the statement: Stvndvm er líptota út þanning orðanna sv er allt merker, þar er svmt er talit, sem her ‘Sometimes liptota is the stretching out of words, which signifies the whole, where [only] some is mentioned, as here’. The stanza then follows, and after it the author comments: her er sagt, at æigi ǫnger menn rynni af bęivm, þar sem aller rvnnv [rynni W] ‘Here it is said that not no men ran from the farmsteads, whereas all were running’.

Notes: [All]: The helmingr poses some difficulties of interpretation and has been the subject of a number of conjectural emendations. The first problem is that the scribe of W has left a gap in l. 2 between ór and sútir, making it difficult to understand how sútir fits into the syntax of ll. 1-3. Presumably the scribe was unsure of the line himself and intended to check what the word should be, but forgot to do so. SnE 1848-87 followed Árni Magnússon in 761aˣ(93v) in reversing the ms. order of the words ‘svtir’ and ‘bęvm’ to give two regular lines. út ór bæjum sútir | þvíat hyrr á havvi … Both Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, III, 153) and Árni Magnússon (the latter apparently rather than explicitly) understood the ms.’s ‘havvi’ (l. 3) as a form of the noun hǫfuð (Sveinbjörn citing a Norwegian form håve) and regarded sútir (l. 2), i.e. svítir, as another form of sveitir ‘groups, bands [of men]’. If ‘svtir’ is not regarded as a form of sveitir, it must be construed, as Finnur Jónsson (Skj B), Kock (Skald), Björn Magnússon Ólsen (FoGT 1884, 240), Longo (FoGT 2004, 87) and this edn have done, as the nom. or acc. pl. of the f. noun sút ‘sorrow, grief, sickness’. — [1] sprungu ‘ran’: Springa in the sense ‘run, spring’ is C14th and later (cf. LP: springa 5; FoGT 1884, 240-1), and the prose commentary clearly indicates it has that sense here by glossing it with the verb renna. Its commonest earlier meaning is ‘burst, break asunder’, whether literally or metaphorically. Kock (NN §1442) understands sútir ‘sorrows’ as the subject of sprungu, but this interpretation does not accord with the prose gloss. — [1] aungir ‘none’: The ms. has the f. pl. form of this pron., but this has been emended to the m. pl. in accordance with the sense of the prose explanation of the helmingr’s meaning. — [2] …: As noted above, the scribe has left a gap here, which is enough for a word of two syllables, as required by the metre. Those eds who do not reverse the ms. order of ‘svtir’ and ‘bęvm’, either conjecture a disyllabic verb (so Skj B, FoGT 2004 fengusk, FoGT 1884 greru) or an adj. (so Skald breiðum ‘broad’, agreeing with bæum ‘farmsteads’ in l. 3). All these four eds understand sútir in the sense ‘sorrows’. Björn Magnússon Ólsen (FoGT 1884, 240-1) produces an intercalary clause in l. 2 sútir greru ‘sorrows grew’, while Finnur Jónsson (followed by Longo) also produced an interrupted intercalary clause from ll. 2, 3 hávar sútir fengusk, which Finnur translates stor sorg ramte dem ‘great sorrow struck them’. — [3] bæum ‘the farmsteads’: For this form (rather than the earlier bæjum), see ANG §389 Anm. 3. In the present line, the noun is resolved under full metrical stress in the first lift. — [3] hávar ‘distinguished’: Lit. ‘high’. The ms.’s ‘havvi’ has been discussed above. Aside from those who interpret this as a form of höfuð ‘head’, all other eds have emended. Skj B, Skald and FoGT 2004 emend (as this edn) to hávar ‘high’. FoGT 1884, 240 emends to heima to give the clause þvít heitr hyrr gekk á heima ‘because hot fire attacked homes’, but this is far from the ms. form. — [4] sveitir ‘groups’: The ms.’s sveiti is difficult to fit into any syntactical arrangement, and most eds emend.

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 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
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. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
7. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
8. FoGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
9. FoGT 2004 = Longo, Michele, ed. [2004]. ‘Il Quarto Trattato Grammaticale Islandese: Testo, Traduzione e Commento’. Dottorato di Ricerca in ‘Linguistica Sincronica e Diacronica’ (XV Ciclo). Palermo: Università degli Studi di Palermo, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia.
10. FoGT 2014 = Clunies Ross, Margaret and Jonas Wellendorf, eds. 2014. The Fourth Grammatical Treatise. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
11. Internal references
12. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, The Fourth Grammatical Treatise’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=34> (accessed 28 April 2024)
13. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 574.
14. Colin Grant (ed.) 2022, ‘Heiðarvíga saga 17 (Eiríkr viðsjá, Lausavísur 7)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1009.
15. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 573.