Sigv Austv 10I/8 — hlýtk ‘it is my lot’
Snjalls létum skip skolla
skjǫldungs við ey tjǫlduð
fyr ágætu úti
ǫndvert sumar landi.
Enn í haust, es hestar
hagþorns á mó sporna
(ték ýmissar) Ekkils,
(íðir) hlýtk at ríða.
Létum skip snjalls skjǫldungs skolla tjǫlduð ǫndvert sumar úti við ey fyr ágætu landi. Enn hlýtk at ríða í haust, es hestar Ekkils sporna á mó hagþorns; ték ýmissar íðir.
We let the ship of the valiant monarch [Óláfr] skulk with its awnings up at the beginning of summer out by an island opposite some excellent country. But it is my lot to ride in autumn, when the horses of Ekkill <sea-king> [SHIPS] tread on the hawthorn’s moor [LAND]; I report various doings.
readings
[8] hlýtk: hlýt 325V, Flat, ‘hlytt’ R686ˣ, ‘hlite’ 972ˣ, ‘hlyck’ 325VI, ‘hlyt’ 75a, hlýsk 78aˣ, hlýt with a letter above t 68, hlautk Holm4, Kˣ
notes
[8] hlýtk ‘it is my lot’: The reading hlautk ‘it was my lot’ of Kˣ and Holm4, as recommended by Noreen (1923, 38), is adopted in some eds (ÍF 27; Hkr 1991), but it seems likelier that the poet is contrasting past contentment with present discontent, and at all events he treats his riding as taking place in the present moment in the following stanza, with its pres.-tense verbs. It is easier to explain why hlýtk should have been altered to hlautk by a copyist, to agree with pret. létum ‘we let’ in l. 1, than the reverse.