Sigv Austv 4I/4 — lútt ‘bent’
Réðk til Hofs at hœfa;
hurð vas aptr, en spurðumk
— inn settak nef nenninn
niðrlútt — fyrir útan.
Orð gatk fæst af fyrðum,
(flǫgð baðk) en þau sǫgðu
— hnekkðumk heiðnir rekkar —
heilagt (við þau deila).
Réðk at hœfa til Hofs; hurð vas aptr, en spurðumk fyrir útan; nenninn settak niðrlútt nef inn. Gatk fæst orð af fyrðum, en þau sǫgðu heilagt; heiðnir rekkar hnekkðumk; baðk flǫgð deila við þau.
I resolved to aim for Hof; the door was barred, but I made enquiries from outside; resolute, I stuck my down-bent nose in. I got very little response from the people, but they said [it was] holy; the heathen men drove me off; I bade the ogresses bandy words with them.
readings
[4] ‑lútt: ‑lút J2ˣ, 73aˣ, ‘l(ú)tr’(?) 325VI, mjǫk lút 325VII, hlut Bb
notes
[4] niðrlútt ‘down-bent’: It is difficult to determine the precise implication of the word, though it is reminiscent of niðrbjúgt (nef) ‘down-curved (nose)’ in Rþ 10/5 (NK 281) and Stefnir Lv 1/3 (see also Note ad loc.). (a) Here niðrlútt is regarded as qualifying nef ‘nose’ in l. 3. It could be a straightforward description of Sigvatr’s nose, or it could mean that he stoops to pry. For a somewhat similar construction, with an ironic adj. applied to a bodily feature, cf. Sigv Lv 13/3-4 hilmis haus ófalan ‘the not-for-sale skull of the ruler’. (b) Noreen (1923, 37) sees niðrlútt as an adverbial n.; so also seemingly ÍF 27, where Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson speculates that the door was low, and Sigvatr poked his nose into the opening above it. (c) Finnur Jónsson (Skj B), Kock (Skald) and some others (including Fms) adopt the reading niðrlútr from 325VI and construe it with spurðumk ‘I enquired’ in l. 2. Jón Skaptason (1983, 85) reads niðrlútr and renders it ‘downcast’.