Note to Arn Þorfdr 3II
[1, 3, 4] hétk á góðar sagnir skipa ‘I called to the worthy ships’ companies’: (a) Presumably exhorting them to hear a poem, drink a toast or fight nobly; heita á ‘call on, exhort’ is a common idiom (cf. Eyv Hák 3/1I and Steinn Úlffl l. 1 in military contexts). The unstressed á ‘to’ appears to govern the immediately following góðar sagnir skipa ‘worthy ships’ companies’; this is also the solution adopted in Fms 12, 170, where hétk is glossed as ávarpaði ‘addressed’, and by Kock in NN §826. (b) Finnur Jónsson, in Skj B, takes gramr drakk líð with á góðar sagnir skipa, hence ‘the lord drank ale to the worthy ships’ companies’ together, and takes hétk together with verðgjafa hrafns ‘raven’s meal-giver [WARRIOR]’ and translates tiltalte (drak til) ‘addressed (drank to)’; but heita e-n is not recorded with such a meaning.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Internal references
- Kari Ellen Gade 2009, ‘ Steinn Herdísarson, Úlfsflokkr’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 366-7. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1391> (accessed 26 April 2024)
- R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Eyvindr skáldaspillir Finnsson, Hákonarmál 3’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 177.