Ótt Óldr 1III/4 — hróðrs ‘panegyric’
Jǫfurr heyri upphaf
— ofrask mun konungs lof —
— hôttu nemi hann rétt
hróðrs míns — bragar síns.
Heyri jǫfurr upphaf bragar síns; lof konungs mun ofrask; nemi hann rétt hôttu hróðrs míns.
May the prince hear the beginning of his poem; the king’s praise will be raised; may he note correctly the forms of my panegyric.
readings
[4] hróðrs: so U, 744ˣ, hróðr R, Tˣ, C
notes
[4] bragar; hróðrs ‘poem; panegyric’: There is uncertainty here as to which of these gen. nouns belongs with upphaf, and which with hôttu. Skj B prefers upphaf hróðrs ‘the beginning of his panegyric’ and hôttu bragar ‘the forms of the poem’, while Skald (and SnE 1998), following Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, III), adopts upphaf bragar ‘the beginning of the poem’ and hôttu hróðrs ‘the forms of the panegyric’ (NN §2485). The latter is preferable in terms of syntax: the stanza thus has the structure of a main clause (ll. 1 and 4b) with two consecutive, separate intercalary clauses which are not interwoven with each other (i.e. l. 2; ll. 3 and 4a).