SnSt Ht 73III/2 — stǫkkva ‘the swift’
Ræsir glæsir
Rǫkkva stǫkkva
hvítum rítum
hreina reina.
Skreytir hreytir
skafna stafna
hringa stinga
hjǫrtum svǫrtum.
Ræsir glæsir stǫkkva hreina reina Rǫkkva hvítum rítum. Hreytir hringa skreytir skafna stafna svǫrtum hjǫrtum stinga.
The ruler adorns the swift reindeer of Rǫkkvi’s <sea-king’s> land-strips [SEA > SHIPS] with white shields. The scatterer of rings [GENEROUS MAN] decorates the smoothed bows of the black deer of rods [SHIPS].
readings
[2] stǫkkva: døkkva all others
notes
[2] Rǫkkva; stǫkkva ‘of Rǫkkvi’s <sea-king’s>; the swift’: The R reading ‘stavkqa’ (altered in R to ‘davkqa’ (R*)), m. acc. pl. of the adj. stǫkkr ‘swift’ (from Proto-Nordic *stankva-; AEW: stǫkkr), has been retained in the present edn (so also LP: støkkr 2, where the vowel is rendered incorrectly). Other eds adopt the adj. døkkva ‘dark’ (so R*, W(149), W(107), A). However, the internal rhyme ‑ǫkk- : ‑økk- is technically not an aðalhending, and both Skj B and Skald give dǫkkva rather than the regular døkkva. The form dǫkk- is unattested (døkkr < Gmc *dankwia (?), AEW: døkkr). It is possible that the two sounds ǫ and ø were sufficiently similar at this point (c. 1220) to allow for such a rhyme (see SnE 2007, 69; ANG §115.2), but it is equally plausible that the R variant represents the original reading (lectio difficilior), and that the W, A (and R*) readings are later attempts to make sense of an unfamiliar adj. For the noun stǫkkr ‘flight’, see st. 35/5 above.
kennings
- stǫkkva hreina reina Rǫkkva — the swift reindeer of Rǫkkvi’s <sea-king’s> land-strips [SHIPS]