RvHbreiðm Hl 80III/4 — kunni ‘he knew’
Kœnn hlaut lofðungr linna
láð; segik vísa dáðir;
gramr prýddi sá gumna
gjǫfum; kunni sið jǫfra.
Ógnbeiðis naut auðar
ǫld; leyfum bǫr skjaldar,
þvít ljósan veg vísi
vann; nús mælt it sanna.
Kœnn lofðungr hlaut láð linna; segik dáðir vísa; sá gramr prýddi gumna gjǫfum; kunni sið jǫfra. Ǫld naut auðar ógnbeiðis; leyfum bǫr skjaldar, þvít vísi vann ljósan veg; nús it sanna mælt.
The clever lord obtained the land of serpents [GOLD]; I recount the ruler’s deeds; that monarch adorned men with gifts; he knew the custom of princes. People enjoyed the wealth of the war-craver [WARRIOR]; we [I] praise the tree of the shield [WARRIOR] because the ruler gained glowing glory; now the truth has been told.
readings
[4] kunni: kunni hann papp25ˣ, R683ˣ
notes
[4] kunni ‘knew’: The pers. pron. hann ‘he’ (so both mss), makes the line hypermetrical and has been deleted in keeping with the normalisations in the present edn (so also Skald; retained in Skj B).
grammar
Verbs: Preterite-present verbs
The present tense of these verbs is like the past tense of strong verbs, and their past tense is weak.
| eiga | mega | kunna | skulu | munu | muna | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| indic. pres. | sing. pl. | 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd | á átt á eigum eiguð eigu | má mátt má megum meguð megu | kann kannt kann kunnum kunnuð kunnu | skal skalt skal skulum skuluð skulu | mun munt mun munum munuð munu | man mant man munum munið muna |
| indic. past stem subj. pres. stem subj. past stem | átt- eig- ætt- | mátt- meg- mætt- | kunn- kunn- kynn- | skyld- skyl- skyld- | mund- myn- mynd- | mund- mun- mynd- | ||