Anon (FoGT) 22^III

Sveit fylla ein alla
alls framm jóa Glamma.

Ein sveit fylla {alla jóa Glamma} alls framm.

One detachment fills {all the steeds of Glammi <sea-king>} [SHIPS] all [the way] forwards.

Mss: W(115) (FoGT)

Editions: Skj AII, 217, Skj BII, 234, Skald II, 121, NN §1446; SnE 1848-87, II, 220-1, III, 159, FoGT 1884, 135, 271-2, FoGT 2004, 44, 70, 125-6, FoGT 2014, 24-5, 105-6.

Context: This couplet exemplifies another type of antiptosis, in which there is a difference in number between the noun subject and its verb. After the citation, the prose text explains: her stendr þetta nafn sveít sem margfallt nafn, styrt af margfǫlldv orði fylla ‘here this noun sveit is used as a plural noun, governed by the plural verb fylla’.

Notes: [All]: This couplet is very likely an invention of whoever composed FoGT (or of someone composing to his order) rather than a fragment of a complete stanza or helmingr. It bears considerable similarities to the figure Évrard of Béthune called exallage, and exemplified by the clause naues armato milite complent ‘the ships fill up with armed soldiery’ (Wrobel 1887, 5 ll. 41-2). In the Graecismus this example follows immediately upon that used as the basis of st. 21. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, II, 221, III, 159) understood the couplet as a dependent clause, whose main clause was missing, and took alls (l. 2) as an adv. to give alls ein sveit … ‘since/when a detachment …’. — [2] alls framm ‘all [the way] forwards’: With Björn Magnússon Ólsen (FoGT 1884, 271-2) this adverbial phrase is understood to mean that a single detachment of men filled the ships ‘all the way forwards to the prow’.

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. 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.
6. 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.
7. Wrobel, I., ed. 1887. Eberhardi Bethuniensis Graecismus. Corpus grammaticorum medii aeui I. Bratislava: G. Koebner.
8. FoGT 2014 = Clunies Ross, Margaret and Jonas Wellendorf, eds. 2014. The Fourth Grammatical Treatise. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. Internal references
10. (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 19 April 2024)