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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Rloð Lv 6VIII (Ragn 10)/7 — hvass ‘keen’

Sá ek engum sveini
nema Sigurði einum
í brúnsteinum brúna
bráðhalls tau*ma lagða.
Sjá hefir dagrýfir dýra
— dælt er hann at því kenna —
hvass í hvarmatúni
hrings myrkviðar fengit.

Ek sá brúna tau*ma bráðhalls lagða í brúnsteinum engum sveini, nema Sigurði einum. Sjá dýra dagrýfir, hvass, hefir fengit hrings myrkviðar í hvarmatúni; dælt er kenna hann at því.

I have seen bright reins of a rockface [SNAKES] placed in the brow-stones [EYES] of no boy save Sigurðr alone. This breaker of the light of hands [(lit. ‘light-breaker of hands’) GOLD > GENEROUS MAN], keen as he is, has received a ring of the murky forest [SNAKE] in the enclosure of the eyelids [EYE]; it is easy to recognise him by that.

readings

[7] hvass: ‘hv(a)ss’(?) so 147, hauss 1824b

notes

[7] hvass ‘keen as he is’: CPB, FSN, and Ragn 1891 retain here the 1824b reading hauss, i.e. hǫss ‘grey, dark’, which makes little sense in the context; all other eds have hvass ‘keen’, an appropriate adj. for Sigurðr Ragnarsson, since it may also be used of keen-seeing eyes (LP: hvass 2; CVC: hvass II. 2). This reading is supported by 147 and is not treated here as an emendation. As Olsen (1906-8, xv-xvi) notes, ‑au- is not infrequent in 1824b as a (mis)spelling of ‑- or -va-.

grammar

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