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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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ÞjóðA Har 4II/7 — innan ‘from within’

Sorgar veit, áðr slíti
sæfang ór mar strǫngum
herr, þars heldr til varra,
hár sjau tøgum ára.
Norðmeðr róa naðri
neglðum straum inn heglða
— úts, sem innan líti
arnarvæng — með jarni.

Sorgar veit, áðr herr slíti sæfang ór strǫngum mar, þars hár heldr sjau tøgum ára til varra. Norðmeðr róa naðri neglðum með jarni inn heglða straum; úts, sem líti innan arnarvæng.

Anguish will be felt, before the troop whips the sea-gear [oar] out of the powerful sea, where the oarport holds [each of] the seventy oars in place for the stroke [lit. strokes]. The Norwegians row the snake [ship] nailed with iron on the hail-beaten current; [looking] out, it is like seeing an eagle’s wing from within.

readings

[7] innan: unnar H, Hr

notes

[7, 8] úts, sem líti innan arnarvæng ‘[looking] out, it is like seeing an eagle’s wing from within’: (a) Innan is here taken as an adv. The viewpoint may be imaginatively that of the oarsmen (Jesch 2001a, 155) or that of someone looking innan ‘from the land’ at the scene út ‘out at sea’; either way there is mild tautology. (b) Innan could alternatively qualify arnarvæng ‘eagle’s wing’ (so Poole 1991, 60). For innan plus acc. rather than gen., cf. innan hverja vík ‘in every bay’, st. 5/8. (c) A further possibility is to take út ‘out’ with the róa cl.: the men row out onto the hail-beaten current (so Skj B and ÍF 28). Skj B reads unnar (so H, Hr) rather than innan in l. 7, hence straum unnar ‘current of the wave’ (bølgeström), but this assumes a disjointed l. 7, and innan has stronger ms. support (as Kock pointed out, NN §872).

grammar

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