Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1965, Side 44

42
HALLDÓR HALLDÓRSSON
Jgfri varat aldrklifs
akarn við sverðs brak
(stillir vakSi stáls gqll)
stalldræpt snjgllum.12
Aldrklifs is an emendation for the alldr clif of the manuscript.13
This emendation seems to be justified. The following words of the
strophe belong together: snjollum jgfri varat stalldrœpt aldrklifs
akarn við sverðs brak. Aldrklifs akarn is a kenning for ‘heart’, and
the sentence thus means ‘the brave king did not lose heart in the
noise of hattle’.
6) A very interesting variant of the phrase is the impersonal con-
struction stall drepr ór hjarta. But it must he stressed, that the two
instances of the impersonal use of the phrase which I know and am
now going to cite, are in fact textual variants of two passages which
I have already cited (cf. 3) and where we find the personal con-
struction hjarla drepr stall:
en ef vér æðrumst nú nokkut, er helzt skulum fyrir vera for-
stjórar liðs vors, ok viljum eigi nú treysta herinn ok eggja at
veita fyrigaungu, þá mun þegar fjöldi hersins, þat at stall mun
drepa or hjarta, ok þvínæst sér hverr ráðs leita.14
This quotation is taken from Saga Ólafs konúngs hins helga, an
edition based on the manuseript AM 61 A, fol. The passage must be
considered as a textual variant of the above quoted passage from
Heimskringla. The second instance is the following:
Þorkatli þótti eigi víst, hvárt honum myndi veðr gefa inn
næsta dag yfir heiðina. Þá drap stall ór hjarta hans, ok þótti
ill seta þeira.15
12 Ibid. B I, 494.
13 Ibid. A I, 517—518.
14 Fornmanna sögur (Kaupmannahöfn 1825—37) V, 72.
15 íslenzk jornrit VI (1943), 143.