Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1965, Síða 43

HJARTA DREPR STALL 41
hinn næsta dag. þa drap stall hiarta hans ok þotti ill seta
hans.°
In both cases the meaning of the phrase is obviously the same as
in Þórfinnsdrápa, i.e., ‘to lose heart’.
4) In the so-called rímur (metrical romances) we also come
across the phrase in question:
eigi drap hiartad stall.7
huergi drepr mitt hiartad stall.8
huergi drap þo hiartad stall.9
The meaning is the same as before.
5) Now we can start discussing the variants of the phrase. The
first we find is the adjective stalldrœpr in two phrases. The first is
at vinna e-m slalldrœpl hjarta, which is found in Arnór Þórðarson
jarlaskáld’s Hrynhenda:
buðlungr, unnuð borgar-mpnnum
hjprtum eldi stalldræp hjprtu.10
This strophe is preserved in the manuscripts of Heimskringla. In
Kringla (AM 63, fol.) there is stall, not stalldrœp. In Jqfraskinna
(AM 38, fol.), Codex Frisianus (AM 45, fol.) and Eirspennill (AM
47, fok), on the other hand, the reading is stalldrœp.11 This is no
doubt the correct version. Stall cannot be correct inter alia for metri-
cal reasons.
In the poem Háttalykill (‘key of metres’) by Rögnvaldr jarl and
Hallr Þórarinsson from about 1145 the adj. stalldrœpr is also found,
here in the phrase hjarta er e-m stalldrœpt við e-t:
0 Flateyjarbok (Kristiania 1860—68) II, 102.
7 Sgrlar. V 9; Rímnasa/n (K^benhavn 1905—22) II, 107.
8 Geðraunir IV 34; ibid. II, 199.
9 Blávus r. ok Viktórs VII 26; ibid. II, 652.
10 Skjaldedigtning B I, 309.
11 Ibid. A I, 336.