Anon (MH) 1II/7 — skylja ‘of that lord’
Nú fara heim í húmi
herkunn fyr lǫg sunnan
daprar skeiðr með dauðan
dýrnenninn gram þenna.
Ǫld hefr illa haldit;
esa stríðvana síðan;
hulit hafa hirðmenn skylja
hǫfuð, þess’s fremstr vas jǫfra.
Nú fara daprar skeiðr heim í húmi sunnan fyr herkunn lǫg með þenna dauðan, dýrnenninn gram. Ǫld hefr haldit illa; esa stríðvana síðan; hirðmenn skylja, þess’s vas fremstr jǫfra, hafa hulit hǫfuð.
Now the gloomy warships sail home in the dusk from the south past well-known law-districts with this dead, most enterprising ruler. People have been sorely grieved; there will be no lack of sorrow later; the retainers of that lord, who was the foremost of princes, have covered their heads.
notes
[7] skylja (m. gen. sg.) ‘of that lord’: This noun could technically modify hǫfuð ‘head(s)’ (l. 8): hirðmenn hafa hulit hǫfuð skylja, þess’s fremstr vas jǫfra ‘the retainers have covered the head of the lord, who was the foremost of princes’ (ll. 7-8; so NN §§1147, 2787, citing Beowulf ll. 445b-46a and notes; Beowulf 2008, 143). However, that construction is highly unlikely from a metrical point of view, because enjambement on a non-alliterating noun (skylja ‘of the lord’) and an alliterating noun (hǫfuð ‘head’) is avoided in dróttkvætt poetry (see Gade 1995a, 202-05). For the custom of covering one’s head in grief at the death of a ruler, see Sv (ÍF 30, 148): En hverju gegnir þetta er allir menn drepa niðr hǫfði eða bera klæði yfir hǫfuð sér ‘But of what avail is this, that all men hang their head or pull clothes over their heads’. See also Sigv Berv 12/5-8 and Egill Lv 16/5-8V). The H-Hr variant (hirðmenn skylja hafa hulit hǫfuð, þats fremst vas jǫfra ‘the retainers of the lord have covered the head, which was the foremost of princes’) must be an attempt at syntactic simplification.