Sigv Lv 12I/7 — þvísa ‘for that reason’
Hafa allframir jǫfrar
út sín hǫfuð Knúti
fœrð ór Fífi norðan
— friðkaup vas þat — miðju.
Seldi Ôleifr aldri
(opt vá sigr) inn digri
haus í heimi (þvísa
hann) engum svá manni.
Allframir jǫfrar hafa fœrð Knúti hǫfuð sín út norðan ór miðju Fífi; þat vas friðkaup. Ôleifr inn digri seldi aldri haus svá engum manni í heimi; hann vá opt sigr þvísa.
The most outstanding lords have presented their heads to Knútr from the north out of mid Fife; it was the price of peace. Óláfr the Stout never surrendered his skull thus to anyone in the world; he has often won victory for that reason.
notes
[7] þvísa ‘for that reason’: (a) Neuter dat. sg. of the demonstrative pron. þessi ‘this’, here taken adverbially in the intercalary clause. (b) Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) would place the word in the principal clause, where, if it is not meaningless, it would oddly imply that Óláfr has surrendered his head for another reason. Jón Skaptason (1983, 197) chooses the same arrangement, translating ‘so’. (c) Jón Þorkelsson (1884, 68-9, followed by Gering 1912, 146, Kock, NN §1874, ÍF 27, and Hkr 1991) proposes that it functions adjectivally, modifying heimi ‘world’ in l. 7. The problem is that heimi is m., while þvísa is n., and so he argues that there was in early times a n. form that survives only in gen. compounds like heimisgarðr ‘homestead’. But heimis- is not attested in the sense ‘world’s’ (as observed by Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson, ÍF 27), and so it seems safer to align þvísa with the intercalary clause than to assume an otherwise unattested form.
grammar
Pronouns and determiners: sjá/þessi (this)
| masc. | fem. | neut. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing. | N A G D | sjá/þessi þenna/þennan þessa þessum | sjá/þessi þessa þessar þessi/þessari | þetta/þettað |
| pl. | N A G D | þessir þessa þessa þessum | þessar þessar þessa þessum | þessi þessi þessa þessum |