Þhorn Harkv 21I/6 — sist ‘seated’
‘Ulfheðnar heita, þeir es í orrostu
blóðgar randir bera;
vigrar rjóða, es til vígs koma;
þeim es þar sist saman.
Áræðismǫnnum einum, hygg ek, þar undir felisk
skyli sá inn skilvísi, þeim es í skjǫld hǫggva.’
‘Þeir heita ulfheðnar, es bera blóðgar randir í orrostu; rjóða vigrar, es koma til vígs; þar es þeim sist saman. Þar, hygg ek, felisk sá inn skilvísi skyli undir einum áræðismǫnnum, þeim es hǫggva í skjǫld.’
‘They are called wolf-skins, who bear bloody shields in combat; they redden spears when they come to war; there [at Haraldr’s court] they are seated together. There, I believe, he, the sovereign wise in understanding, may entrust himself to men of courage alone, those who hew into a shield.’
readings
notes
[6] sist ‘seated’: Most eds have read (with Flat) the word as sýst, p. p. of sýsla (LP: 2. sýsla 1) or sýsa (CVC: sýsa) ‘do, work, effect, transact business’. Thus, for example, Kershaw (1922, 85) renders the line, ‘and then they act all in a body’. Yet the reading ‘sist’ found in most of the mss is presumably intended to represent the p. p. of the verb sissa ‘to seat’ (so Lindquist 1929, 6-7; Jón Helgason 1946, 140 and 1968, 20, n.), which takes a dat. object. This produces less colourful (and perhaps less apposite) meaning, but the sense and syntax are less strained (since it is usually the work done that is in the dat. after sýsla).