Fjǫl Lv 2VIII (Gautr 4)/1 — sniglar ‘snails’
Stuttir sniglar átu steina fyr mér;
nú vill oss hvetvetna há.
Snauðr mun ek snópa, þvíat sniglar hafa
gull mitt allt grafit.
Stuttir sniglar átu steina fyr mér; nú vill hvetvetna há oss. Ek mun snópa snauðr, þvíat sniglar hafa grafit allt gull mitt.
Puny snails have eaten the stones off me; now everything possible will go wrong for us [me]. I will mooch about penniless, because the snails have dug into all my gold.
readings
[1] Stuttir sniglar: slíkir fuglar 567XIV γ, ‘stor‑sniglar’ 164hˣ
notes
[1] stuttir sniglar ‘puny snails’: The first word of 567XIV γ is hard to read, but may be (so Gautr 1900, 8 n. to l. 19; Edd. Min.) slíkir ‘sleek’ rather than Skj A’s svartir ‘black’. The existence of slíkr adj. ‘sleek, smooth’ beside the noun slíkr ‘slime’ (attested only in Bjhít Grám 1/4V (BjH 26)) is debatable. This ms.’s fuglar ‘birds’, instead of sniglar ‘snails’ does not fit with the prose text, nor does it alliterate. It is possible that this variant was influenced by the subject-matter of Gautr 5.