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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon Mhkv 2III/7 — næsta ‘nearest’

Ekki hefk með flimtun farit;
fullvel ættak til þess varit;
yrkja kann ek vánu verr;
vita þykkisk þat maðrinn hverr.
Stolit væri mér ekki ór ætt,
jafnan þótt ek kvæða slétt;
róa verðr fyrst á it næsta nes;
nǫkkut ættak kyn til þess.

Hefk ekki farit með flimtun; fullvel ættak varit til þess; kann ek yrkja vánu verr; hverr maðrinn þykkisk vita þat. Ekki væri stolit mér ór ætt, þótt ek kvæða jafnan slétt; verðr fyrst róa á it næsta nes; ættak nǫkkut kyn til þess.

I have not gone in for lampoons; full well would I have had excuse for that; I can compose more rudely than you’d expect; every man thinks he knows it. Nothing would be stolen from my patrimony, even if I should always recite smoothly; one has to row first toward the nearest headland; I would have some pedigree for that.

notes

[7] á it næsta nes ‘toward the nearest headland’: The skald will begin at the beginning, i.e. with his own lot. Skj B, following Eiríkr Magnússon (1888, 325) and Konráð Gíslason (1895-7, II, 137), emends to til ens næsta ness for the sake of rhyme. The opening of Nóregs konungatal (Anon Nkt 2/1-4II) uses a similar proverb (although in an opposite meaning), comparing rowing out after whales to composing a genealogical poem: róa skal fyrst | fjarri reyði, | koma þó niðr | nær, áðr lúki ‘one must first row far from the whale, yet come down close before it is finished’.

grammar

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