Anon Nkt 6^II

* Hann þat eitt
eiga vildit,
es * langfeðr
leifðu hônum.
Svá vas ríkr
ræsir Sygna
ok ágjarn
við auðgefendr,
at allt land
Elfar á milli
ok Finnmerkr
fylkir átti.
Náði hann
fyr Nóregi
ǫllum fyrst
einn at ráða.

* Hann vildit eiga þat eitt, es * langfeðr leifðu hônum. {Ræsir Sygna} vas svá ríkr ok ágjarn við {auðgefendr}, at fylkir átti allt land á milli Elfar ok Finnmerkr. Hann náði fyrst at ráða einn fyr ǫllum Nóregi.

He did not only want to possess that which his ancestors had left him. {The ruler of the Sygnir} [NORWEGIAN KING = Haraldr] was so powerful and aggressive toward {wealth-givers} [GENEROUS MEN], that the leader possessed all the land between the Götaälv and Finnmark. He was the first to rule alone over all of Norway.

Mss: Flat(144va)

Readings: [1] * Hann þat eitt: Eigi hann þat eitt Flat    [2] eiga vildit: eiga vildi Flat    [3] * langfeðr: ‘hans langfedr’ Flat

Editions: Skj AI, 579-80, Skj BI, 576, Skald I, 279; Flat 1860-8, II, 520.

Notes: [1-2] * hann þat eitt eiga vildit ‘he not only wanted to have that’: In the present edn, the negative enclitic particle -t has been added to the auxiliary (hence vildit ‘did not want’) to provide the deleted negation eigi ‘not’ (for a similar emendation, see st. 18/1). The pron. hann ‘he’ is treated as a connective to allow for bound-cl. w. o. (see Gade 2005). The Flat reading (eigi hann þat eitt | eiga vildi, lit. ‘not he that one thing to have wanted’) is metrically impossible in both kviðuháttr and fornyrðislag. Skj B and Skald emend to eigi eitt | eiga vildi (lit. ‘not one thing to have wanted’), which violates the w. o. in independent clauses (the verb must come in syntactic positions 1 or 2) and necessitates another emendation in l. 3. — [3] es * langfeðr ‘which his ancestors’: Lit. ‘which the ancestors’. The Flat reading (‘er hans langfedr’ ‘which his ancestors’) makes the l. hypermetrical. Skj B emends to þats langfeðr (‘that which the ancestors’) and Skald to þats langfeðgar (also ‘that which the ancestors’) which is fornyrðislag rather than kviðuháttr. In both cases the emendation þats ‘that which’ follows from the previous emendation in l. 1. — [10] Elfar ‘the Götaälv’: River in south-western Sweden. — [10] á ‘in’: Both Skj B and Skald delete the prep. to create a tetrasyllabic l., which is unnecessary from a metrical point of view (see, e.g. st. 33/2 austan ór Gǫrðum ‘west from Russia’). — [11] Finnmerkr ‘Finnmark’: District in northern Norway, bordering on Russia and Finland.

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. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
5. Gade, Kari Ellen. 2005. ‘The Syntax of Old Norse kviðuháttr Meter’. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 17, 155-81.