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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon (HSig) 8II/5 — Sviptir ‘tosses’

Skóð lætr skína rauðan
skjǫld, es dregr at hjaldri;
brúðr sér Aurnis jóða
ófǫr konungs gǫrva.
Sviptir sveiflankjapta
svanni holdi manna;
ulfs munn litar innan
óðlôt kona blóði;
ok óðlôt kona bloði.

Skóð lætr rauðan skjǫld skína, es dregr at hjaldri; brúðr jóða Aurnis sér gǫrva ófǫr konungs. Svanni sviptir holdi manna sveiflankjapta; óðlôt kona litar munn ulfs innan blóði; ok óðlôt kona bloði.

The troll-woman lets the red shield shine when it draws close to battle; the bride of Aurnir’s <giant’s> brood [GIANTS > GIANTESS] sees the king’s destined defeat at hand. The woman tosses men’s flesh to the grinding jaw; the raving female reddens the wolf’s mouth within with blood; and the raving female with blood.

readings

[5] Sviptir: svipt hefr FskAˣ, svipt er í Mork, sviptir í H, Hr

notes

[5-6] svanni sviptir holdi manna sveiflankjapta ‘the woman tosses men’s flesh to the grinding jaw’: (a) Sveiflankjapta (m. dat. sg.) is taken here as an indeclinable adj. (lit. ‘the one with the grinding jaw’; see ANG §434). For the meaning sviptir ‘tosses’, see Fritzner: svipta 1. (b) The Hkr and Fsk versions have been construed as follows by earlier eds: svanni sviptir (FskAˣ: hefr svipt) sveiflannkjapta (FskAˣ: sveiflandkjapta) holdi manna ‘the woman tears (has torn) men’s flesh with grinding jaws (lit. ‘grinding-jawing’)’. Sveiflankjapta is then interpreted as an indeclinable adj. qualifying svanni (m. nom. sg.) ‘woman’ (sveiflankjapta ‘grinding the jaws’; see LP: sveiflandkjapti). That interpretation is, however, at odds with the Hkr prose, and we should also have expected the m. nom. sg. ending -i rather than -a (see ANG §434). (c) The Mork variant (svipts holdi manna í svarðar kjapta ‘men’s flesh is tossed into the hairy jaws’; so also H and Hr) is secondary.

grammar

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