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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Bjbp Jóms 14I/4 — skyldu ‘duty’

Vagn kvað hitt inn hrausti;
Hamðis gunnar tǫmðum
sá lézk frœkn at fylgja
faldruðr Búa skyldu.
Þá réð heit til hvítrar
hringa meiðr at strengja
— mér kømr harmr at hendi
hættr — Þorketils dóttur.

Inn hrausti Vagn kvað hitt; sá frœkn Hamðis faldruðr lézk skyldu at fylgja Búa, tǫmðum gunnar. Þá réð meiðr hringa at strengja heit til hvítrar dóttur Þorketils; hættr harmr kømr mér at hendi.

The bold Vagn spoke another [oath]; that brave bush of the hood of Hamðir <legendary hero> [(lit. ‘hood-bush of Hamðir’) HELMET > WARRIOR = Vagn] declared it his duty to follow Búi, accustomed to battle. Then the tree of rings [MAN = Vagn] made a vow concerning the bright daughter of Þorkell [= Ingibjǫrg]; dangerous grief comes upon me.

notes

[3, 4] lézk skyldu ‘declared it his duty’: Lit. ‘declared it [to be] a duty for himself’. It appears that m. v. lézk is to be read as lét sér, ‘declared for himself’, and skyldu is acc. sg. of the noun skylda ‘duty’, with vera ‘to be’ understood; cf. NS §153a for m. v. forms in which the enclitic refl. pron. functions as a dat. of respect. Alternatively, skyldu could be verbal: lézk, at [þeir] skyldu fylgja Búa ‘declared that they should follow Búi’; cf. st. 11/2, 4.

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.

eigamegakunnaskulumunumuna
indic.
pres.
sing.


pl.
1st
2nd
3rd
1st
2nd
3rd
á
átt
á
eigum
eiguð
eigu

mátt

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-
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