Anon Óldr 8^I

Snarr bar sigr ór hverri
sárlóms mǫtuðr rómu;
hæst gekk hreggbjóðr lista,
hvar lands es kom, randa.
Gnóg vas vist ok, vestan,
vel drengila fengin,
mærr áðr mildingr fœri
margspakr, grôum vargi.

{Snarr mǫtuðr {sárlóms}} bar sigr ór hverri rómu; {{randa hregg}bjóðr} gekk hæst lista, hvar lands es kom. Vist vas gnóg ok vel drengila fengin grôum vargi, áðr mærr, margspakr mildingr fœri vestan.

{The swift feeder {of the wound-loon}} [RAVEN/EAGLE > WARRIOR] bore off victory from every clash; {the offerer {of the storm of shields}} [(lit. ‘storm-offerer of shields’) BATTLE > WARRIOR] ranked highest in skills, whatever land he came to. The food was plentiful and very bravely provided for the grey wolf before the glorious, very wise prince travelled from the west.

Mss: Bb(112vb)

Readings: [2] mǫtuðr: mǫtuð Bb    [4] randa: ‘rada’ Bb    [6] fengin: fenginn Bb    [8] ‑spakr: ‘‑spaín’ Bb;    grôum: ‘graín’ Bb

Editions: Skj AI, 575, Skj BI, 569, Skald I, 275, NN §1217; Munch and Unger 1847, 121, 140-1, Gullberg 1875, 13, 26.

Notes: [2] sárlóms ‘of the wound-loon’: Lómr m. is Columbus arcticus (CVC: lómr), the Arctic loon or black-throated diver.  — [2] mǫtuðr ‘feeder’: A minor emendation, yielding a hap. leg. agent noun formed from mata ‘to feed’ (CVC, ONP: mata; LP: mǫtuðr). — [4] randa ‘of shields’: Emendation (see Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1832, 10) is necessary here to restore aðalhending (randa : lands) and because hreggbjóðr ‘storm-offerer’ is not in itself a complete warrior-kenning. — [5] ok; vestan ‘and; from the west’: The two words clearly belong to different clauses, but the caesura in such a position is unusual at best (a parallel is found in SnSt Ht 15/3^III). Skj B construes vel ok drengila ‘well and bravely’ together, but as Kock points out this is syntactically forced. Kock (NN §1217) favours reading ok or auk as an adv., hence ‘plentiful food was also provided most bravely’. — [6] fengin ‘provided’: See Note to st. 7/8 vápnbautinn ‘weapon-beaten’. — [8] margspakr ‘very wise’: Ms. ‘margspaín’, read as margspáinn (Gullberg 1875), would mean ‘much-prophesying’, qualifying mildingr ‘prince’, i.e. Óláfr. However, since prophecy was regarded with suspicion by most Christian writers, this seems unlikely, as does (with slight emendation) margspám vargi ‘to the very foresightful wolf’ (Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1832, 10, 20). The better solution therefore seems emendation to margspakr ‘very wise’ (so Skj B; Skald). The reading ‘spaín’ could have been influenced by the (also corrupt) ‘graín’. — [8] grôum ‘grey’: The emendation, adopted by previous eds, is minor if ms. ‘graín’ is assumed to be an error for ‘gram’, normalised grôum, caused by confusion of ‘m’ and ‘in’; cf. ‘ofaín’ for ófôum in st. 21/4. 

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. 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.
6. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
7. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
8. Munch, P. A. and C. R. Unger, eds. 1847. Oldnorsk læsebog med tilhörende glossarium. Christiania (Oslo): Dahl.
9. Gullberg, H., ed. 1875. Óláfs drápa Tryggvasonar: fragment ur “Bergsboken”. Lund: Berling.
10. Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1832. Skóla-hátíd í minníngu Fædíngar-dags vors allranádugasta Konúngs Fridriks Sjøtta: Ólafs drápa Tryggvasonar er Hallfredr orti Vandrædaskáld. Videyjarklaustri: Á kostnad Bessastada Skóla.
11. Internal references
12. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 15’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1119.