Fragment — HSt Frag^I

The stanza presented here as HSt Frag 1 is the only one of seven fragments attributed to Hallar-Steinn to be preserved in the kings’ sagas; the remainder (HSt Frag 2-7^III) are edited in SkP III. Frag 1 depicts a twelve-year-old prince sailing splendidly-equipped warships out of Garðar (Russia). It is only preserved in F, where it is attributed to Hallar-Steinn, and in copying out the stanza Árni Magnússon in 761bˣ(152r) retained this attribution. Its source is unknown, other than the personal knowledge of the F scribe (Ólafur Halldórsson 2001, xlii). The subject is normally identified with Óláfr Tryggvason (r. c. 995-c. 1000), hero of Hallar-Steinn’s Rekstefja. A practice of ascribing the stanza to Hallfreðr and placing it at the opening of his Óláfsdrápa (Hfr Óldr) goes back at least to SnE 1848-87, III, 478 and is continued in Skj and elsewhere, but this is without medieval authority. Moreover, the stanza does not name Óláfr, its preservation differs from that of Hfr Óldr and, as Fidjestøl (1982, 107) points out, its content is unlike the known stanzas of Óldr, which focus on particular conflicts, although an introductory stanza might well be more general (and in fact Óldr 1/1-4 is geographically unspecific). Also problematic if the stanza is to be attributed to Hallfreðr is the fact that ll. 1-4 of the fragment are strikingly similar to Arn Magndr 1/5-8^II, which reads Vasat ellifu allra | ormsetrs hati vetra, | hraustr þás herskip glæsti | Hǫrða vinr ór Gǫrðum ‘The hater of the reptile’s home [GOLD > GENEROUS MAN] was not fully eleven winters when [he], the valiant friend of the Hǫrðar [NORWEGIAN KING = Magnús Óláfsson], arrayed warships to leave Russia’, and HSt Frag 1 may have been influenced either in composition or in transmission by the Magnús poem. Indeed, it has been suggested that the whole story of Óláfr’s youthful exile in Garðar was taken over from Magnús’s history (Gordon 1938, 72-3; Fidjestøl 1982, 107). Whether or not this is so, the story was also embraced by Hallar-Steinn in Rekstefja (HSt Rst 2 on Óláfr’s fostering in Garðar, st. 3 on his departure thence), and the poet of the twelfth-century Anon Óldr (st. 3), as well as by the compilers of early Latin and vernacular prose works (see Note to HSt Rst 2/2). As for the stanza below, we do not have a safe text of it, and the only medieval witness attributes it to Hallar-Steinn. It does not seem to fit within Rst, since it is in standard dróttkvætt metre rather than the tvískelft of Rst, and its content would overlap uncomfortably with Rst 3. It is therefore printed here as a fragment attributed to Hallar-Steinn.

References

1. Bibliography
2. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
3. Fidjestøl, Bjarne. 1982. Det norrøne fyrstediktet. Universitet i Bergen Nordisk institutts skriftserie 11. Øvre Ervik: Alvheim & Eide.
4. SkP III = Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Ed. Kari Ellen Gade in collaboration with Edith Marold. 2017.
5. Gordon, Erma. 1938. Die Olafssaga Tryggvasonar des Odd Snorrason. Berlin: Pfau.
6. Ólafur Halldórsson. 2001. Text by Snorri Sturluson in Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta. London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
7. Internal references
8. Diana Whaley 2012, ‘(Biography of) Óláfr Tryggvason’ 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. 383.
9. Kate Heslop 2012, ‘ Anonymous, Óláfs drápa Tryggvasonar’ 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. 1031. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1036> (accessed 8 May 2024)
10. Rolf Stavnem 2012, ‘ Hallar-Steinn, Rekstefja’ 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. 893. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1237> (accessed 8 May 2024)
11. Diana Whaley 2012, ‘ Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Óláfsdrápa’ 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. 387. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1258> (accessed 8 May 2024)
12. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Magnússdrápa 1’ 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. 207-9.
13. Rolf Stavnem (ed.) 2012, ‘Hallar-Steinn, Rekstefja 2’ 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. 898.
14. Rolf Stavnem (ed.) 2012, ‘Hallar-Steinn, Rekstefja 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. 900.
15. Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Hallar-Steinn, Fragments 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 202.
16. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2012, ‘Hallar-Steinn, Fragment 1’ 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. 940.