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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon Mhkv 15III/8 — 

Auðigr þykkir einn sér hvar;
annars ðir margr of far;
ørgrands erum vér lengst á leit;
lundvær þykkir bezta sveit.
Skammæ þykkja ófin ǫll;
ekki mart er verra en trǫll;
eigi spillir hyggins hjali;
hefkat ek spurt, at

Einn þykkir sér auðigr hvar; margr ðir of far annars; vér erum lengst á leit ørgrands; lundvær sveit þykkir bezta. Ǫll ófin þykkja skammæ; ekki mart er verra en trǫll; eigi spillir hjali hyggins; hefkat ek spurt, at

A lone man seems to himself rich everywhere; many a one speaks about the conduct of another; we seek longest after the flawless; peaceable company seems the best. Everything beyond the mean seems short-lived; not much is worse than a troll; nothing spoils the talk of a wise man; I have not heard that …

readings

[8] at : ‘[...]’ R, ‘at [...]’ RFJ, RJS

notes

[8] at ‘that …’: Most previous eds supply bersa kali ‘a bear freezes’, where the verb kali ‘freezes’ is 3rd pers. sg. subj. used impersonally and bersa ‘bear’ acc. sg. of bersi. This conjectural reading by Jón Sigurðsson has taken a firm grip on scholarship. Adherents of Bishop Bjarni’s authorship of Mhkv have used it (along with bersi in st. 6/8) as supporting evidence: bersi = Bjarni < bjǫrn ‘bear’ (see, e.g. LH II, 48). Guðbrandur Vigfússon suggested the emendation (at) hvatan dvali ‘the bold man never delays’ (Möbius 1874, 33), but it did not find a home in CVC.

grammar

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