GunnLeif Merl II 14VIII/3 — hvassa ‘sharp’
‘Hjǫrtr drepr hana, hinns tvenna fimm
hvassa hausi hornkvistu berr.
En hafa kórónu kvistir fjórir,
en sex aðrir sjalfir verða
at vísundar verstum hornum.
‘Hjǫrtr drepr hana, hinns berr tvenna fimm hvassa hornkvistu hausi. En fjórir kvistir hafa kórónu, en sex aðrir verða sjalfir at verstum hornum vísundar.
‘A hart will slay her, he who bears twice five sharp antler-branches on his head. And four branches will have a crown while the other six for their part will turn into the worst horns of a bison.
readings
[3] hvassa: ‘kræsa’ or ‘hræsa’ Hb
notes
[3] hvassa ‘sharp’: Emended in this edn from the refreshed and uncertain ms. reading ‘kræsa’ or ‘hræsa’. This adj. yields good sense and is rather a favourite with Gunnlaugr. Use of hausi without a prep. would be consistent with Gunnlaugr’s use of the bare dat./instr.: see Note to I 47/3-4. Bret 1848-9 and Skj B emend to hræs á ‘of a corpse on’ (cf. LP: hræ), but this makes little sense in context. Kock (NN §96; Skald; cf. NN §2992A and §3004, followed by Merl 2012) posits an adj. *hrœrr ‘quick’, qualifying hjǫrtr, inferred from West Germanic (putatively cognate with ModGer. rühren ‘move’), but this, even if sustainable philologically, would give inferior sense.