Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1965, Side 41

hjarta drepr stall
39
stall drapa, strengir gullu,
stál beit, en rann sveiti,
broddr fló, bifðusk oddar
bjartir, þengils hjarta.1
The difference between the manuscripts is insignificant and need
not be discussed here. The words þengils lijarta drapa stall without
doubt belong together and the meaning of the sentence is ‘the king
was not afraid’.
2) To be sure, most scholars agree that an older instance of the
phrase in question is to be found in Þórsdrápa by Eilífr Guðrúnar-
son, a poem from about the year 1000. This poem has probably from
the beginning been obscure: “the hardest of all skaldic poems,” as
Professor Stefán Einarsson puts it.2 But in addition the text seems
to he highly corrupt. Let us now take a glimpse at the strophe where
the phrase in question is thought to be found:
Ne divp akarn drapv
dolgs vams firvm gl[amma
striðkviðivnjdvm stoðvar
stall við rastar palli.3
The text is that of Codex Regius of the Snorra Edda (The Prose
Edda), i.e. Gml. Kgl. Saml. 2367, 4to. It must be mentioned that the
manuscript has a minor defect here and the words printed in brac-
kets are taken from the Codex Wormianus (AM 242, fol.). Between
these manuscripts and also other manuscripts containing this poem,
e.g. Codex Trajectinus, a not inconsiderable difference exists. But
to discuss these matters here is of no interest for the main point of
this article.4
1 Den norsk-islandske Skjaldedigtning ... ved Finnur Jónsson (Kpbenhavn
1912—15) B I, 317; cf. A I, 345.
2 A History of Icelandic Literature (New York 1957), 56.
3 Skjaldedigtning A I, 150.
4 The variant readings of the manuscripts are described in Skjaldedigtning
A I, 150. Conceming the interpretation of the drápa the following works, he-
sides the ordinary reference books, might be mentioned: Antiquitatum bore-