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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Svart Skauf 30VIII/1 — Hef ‘’ve’

Hef eg margan heldr         hála feitan
sauð snarliga         sviftan lífi,
tínt kiðlinga,         en týnt lambgymbrum,
gripið geldinga         og gamalrollur.

‘Eg hef heldr snarliga sviftan margan hála feitan sauð lífi, tínt kiðlinga, en týnt lambgymbrum, gripið geldinga og gamalrollur.

‘I’ve rather swiftly deprived many a splendidly fat sheep of its life, picked lambs and killed young ewes, seized castrated rams and old feeble ewes.

readings

[1] Hef eg (‘Hefc’): Hefi eg Rask87ˣ

notes

[1] eg hef ‘I’ve’: Rendered in 603 as ‘Hefc’. This is a highly unusual abbreviation, because the personal pron. eg ‘I’ is otherwise spelled out ‘eg’ or abbreviated as ‘ec’. The only explanation seems to be that the C16th scribe was copying an earlier ms. in which the ‘ec’ was cliticised (‘Hefc’) and that he did not understand the form (pers. comm. Kirsten Wolf). That contraction is early and speaks strongly against a late C15th date for this poem (see Introduction above). The Rask87ˣ variant hefi eg (here and passim) is also possible (see ANG §532.6 and Bandle 1956, 421). Hef is an early form and rare both in the C14th and C15th (see Björn K. Þórólfsson 1925, 53, 64). See also Note to st. 37/5.

grammar

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