Ólhv Frag 5III/1 — búask ‘prepare themselves’
Herr búask hvatt til snerru.
Herr búask hvatt til snerru.
The army prepare themselves keenly for battle.
readings
notes
[1] búask hvatt ‘prepare themselves keenly’: This edn follows all previous eds in taking W’s reading búask (pl.) over A’s bjósk (sg.). A pl. verb is required to make sense of the prose explanation. This edn reads hvárir in W (so also SnE 1848-87 and Skj A), whereas TGT 1884 and TGT 1927 read hvatir. In his notes to the line, Finnur Jónsson (TGT 1927, 102) mistrusts Óláfr’s grammatical interpretation and suggests taking hvatir ‘the keen ones’ (conflicting with his own reading in Skj A) as the subject of búask and assuming herr belongs to a separate sentence. However, A’s reading hvatt is preferred here as the main ms. (so TGT 1884, TGT 1927 and Skald) and because W’s reading produces a hypermetrical line (NN §2991B).
grammar
number: pl.
mood: indic.
person: 3rd
tense: pres.
voice: middle.
finite;