Án Lv 2VIII (Án 2)/2 — sjó ‘the sea’
Vel þér, selja; stendr þú sjó nær
laufguð harla vel.
Maðr skekkr af þér morgindöggvar,
en ek at þegni þrey nátt sem dag.
Vel þér, selja; þú stendr nær sjó, laufguð harla vel. Maðr skekkr morgindöggvar af þér, en ek þrey at þegni nátt sem dag.
It is well for you, willow-tree; you stand near the sea, very well covered with leaves. One shakes the morning dews off you, but I yearn for a freeman night and day.
readings
[2] stendr þú sjó nær: víst svá stendr þó svá næri 109a Iˣ
notes
[2] þú stendr nær sjó ‘you stand near the sea’: Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) and Kock (Skald) omit the pers. pron. þú ‘you’ but retain the word sjór/sær and change the one-syllable dat. form sjó to the two-syllable form sævi, presumably in order to obtain a four-syllable half-line and to provide an unaccented syllable between the two monosyllabic words sjó and nær (cf. Läffler 1912, 3, 61-3). Guðni Jónsson (FSGJ) prints the two-syllable dat. form sævi as well, although he also retains þú. In any case the dat. form sjó is perfectly acceptable from the point of view of grammar, since both the case-ending [i] and the stem consonant [w] are dropped in later Icelandic (cf. ANG §365).