Kari Ellen Gade and Diana Whaley (eds) 2009, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísa from Knýtlinga saga 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. 826-7.
Stundum vér til stikka;
styrr vex í Danmǫrku;
esat Sveins synir sáttir
at sinn fǫður dauðan.
Haraldr skal vígi verja
— þás vel tamiðr stikki —
jǫrð af œrnu magni
fyr ellifu brœðrum.
Vér stundum til stikka; styrr vex í Danmǫrku; synir Sveins esat sáttir at dauðan fǫður sinn. Haraldr skal verja jǫrð vígi af œrnu magni fyr ellifu brœðrum; þás stikki vel tamiðr.
We are pondering a poem; strife grows in Denmark; Sveinn’s sons are not reconciled after their father’s death. Haraldr must protect the land in battle with plenty of power against eleven brothers; now the poem is suitably prepared.
Mss: JÓ(52-54), 20dˣ(23r-v), 873ˣ(21r), 20b I(2r), 180b(34r) (Knýtl)
Readings: [1] Stundum: so 20b I, 180b, Stundu JÓ, 20dˣ, 873ˣ [4] fǫður: feðr 20b I
Editions: Skj AI, 427, Skj BI, 397, Skald I, 196, NN §§2095, 2324, 2741; JÓ 1741, 52-5, ÍF 35, 144-5 (ch. 27).
Context: The st. describes the dissent between Sveinn Úlfsson’s sons after his death (1074/76).
Notes: [1] vér stundum til stikka ‘we are pondering a poem’: Stunda til e-s lit. means ‘look for sth., long for sth.’ (see Fritzner: stunda, stunda til). — [1] stikka ‘poem’: Used here as a generic term for ‘poem’ (see LP: stikki; NN §§2095, 2324). In Ht stikkalag ‘needle metre’ (?) is the name of a metre in which the main stave in the even ll. occurs further back than position 1 (SnE 1999, 38, 145). That is the case in the present st., which conforms structurally to SnSt Ht 67III háttlausa ‘lack of form’ (SnE 1999, 29). See also Anon Harst. — [3] esat (3rd pers. sg. pres. ind.) ‘are not’: Lit. ‘is not’. We should have expected a pl. form of the verb (erut ‘are not’; see NN §2741), especially since it directly precedes the subject (see NS §66 Anm. 3). All the mss have the sg., however, and similar constructions are attested in poetry (see ÍF 2, 231 n. c and Egill Lv 41/6V). — [3] synir Sveins ‘Sveinn’s sons’: For Sveinn Úlfsson, see ‘Royal Biographies’ in Introduction to this vol. — [4] at dauðan fǫður sinn ‘after their father’s death’: Lit. ‘after their dead father’. — [5] Haraldr: Haraldr hein ‘Hone’ Sveinsson (r. 1074-80). — [6] þás ‘now’: For this meaning, see LP: þá 2. — [6] vel tamiðr ‘suitably prepared’: Lit. ‘well-tamed’. — [8] fyr ellifu brœðrum ‘against eleven brothers’: These are the sons of Sveinn Úlfsson, being Knútr helgi ‘the Saint’ (r. 1080-6), Óláfr hungr ‘Hunger’ (r. 1086-95), Sveinn, Eiríkr inn góði ‘the Good’ (r. 1095-1103), Sigurðr, Benedikt, Bjǫrn, Guthormr, Eymundr, Nikulás (r. 1103-34) and Úlfr (or Ubbi). See ÍF 35, 135 and n. 1. See also Saxo 2005, II, 11, 7, 1, pp. 18-19.
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.
This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.
This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.