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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Sigv Lv 4I/7 — of ‘to’

Gǫrbœnn mun ek Gunnar
gammteitǫndum heitinn
— áðr þôgum vér ægis
eld —, ef nú biðk felda.
Landaura veit, lúru
látrþverrandi, af knerri
enn of ganga, engis
— ek hef sjalfr krafit— halfa.

Ek mun heitinn gǫrbœnn Gunnar gammteitǫndum, ef nú biðk felda; áðr þôgum vér eld ægis. Veit, engis lúru látrþverrandi, halfa landaura of ganga enn af knerri; ek hef sjalfr krafit.

I will be called importunate by gladdeners of the vulture of Gunnr <valkyrie> [(lit. ‘vulture-gladdeners of Gunnr’) RAVEN/EAGLE > WARRIORS] if now I ask for skins; already we [I] have received the flame of the sea [GOLD]. Allow, diminisher of the lair of the halibut of the meadow [(lit. ‘lair-diminisher of the halibut of the meadow’) SERPENT > GOLD > GENEROUS MAN], half the landing tax to go again from the merchant ship; I have myself requested [it].

readings

[7] of ganga: of fanga Holm2, R686ˣ, 68, 325V, Bb, Flat, 325XI 2 l, ‘offanga’ 972ˣ, Holm4, afganga J1ˣ, af ganga J2ˣ, 325VI, 321ˣ, ófangann 61, á fanga Tóm, ofganga

notes

[7] of ganga; engis ‘to go; of the meadow’: This is not the reading of any ms., but it seems to offer the best solution in these difficult lines. The main alternatives are: (a) Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) reads af ‘from’ for of, though he omits the word from his prose order. This reading requires that af and ganga be taken from different mss. He also reads engjar (so already Fms 4), identical in meaning to engis ‘of the meadow’. The word does not take this form in any ms., and the commonest reading in the mss, engi, is more plausibly a corruption of engis than of engjar. (b) Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson (ÍF 27, followed by Jón Skaptason 1983) reads offanga, engi, taking the former word to be a gen. pl. meaning ‘great gains’ and the latter word as the first element of a cpd engilúru ‘meadow-halibut’ in tmesis. The sense of the helmingr would then be ‘Give up the half of the landing tax from the merchant ship, generous lord; I have again unsolicited asked that I be given much’. The reading of Hkr 1991 is similar, but with ofganga, a gen. pl. taken to mean ‘overbearing conduct’, i.e. too great a request. It should be noted that there do not seem to be any other instances of veita in the sense ‘give up’.

grammar

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