Anon (Mberf) 1^II

This st. (Anon (Mberf) 1)  is transmitted in mss Kˣ, 39, E, J2ˣ and 42ˣ of MberfHkr, as well as in H and Hr (H-Hr). Kˣ is the main ms.

Ungr kom Hôkon hingat;
hanns beztr alinn manna
frægðarmildr á foldu;
fór með Steigar-Þóri.
Syni Óláfs bauð síðan
sjalfr um Nóreg halfan
mildr, en Magnús vildi
málsnjallr hafa allan.

Ungr Hôkon kom hingat; hann, frægðarmildr, [e]s alinn beztr manna á foldu; fór með Steigar-Þóri. Síðan bauð mildr sjalfr {syni Óláfs} um halfan Nóreg, en málsnjallr Magnús vildi hafa allan.

Young Hákon came here; he, generous with glory, is born the best of men on earth; he came with Steigar-Þórir. Then the generous one himself gave {Óláfr’s son} [= Magnús] power over half of Norway, but eloquent Magnús wished to have it all.

Mss: Kˣ(592r-v), 39(33rb), E(31r), J2ˣ(304v), 42ˣ(6r-v) (Hkr); H(81r), Hr(57ra) (H-Hr)

Readings: [2] hanns (‘hann er’): hann var 39;    beztr alinn: beztr borinn corrected from borinn beztr 42ˣ;    beztr: baztr E, J2ˣ, œztr Hr    [3] frægðarmildr: frægð mildr E    [5] bauð: om. H    [6] um: upp H, Hr

Editions: Skj AI, 427, Skj BI, 397, Skald I, 196, NN §§910, 2247B; ÍF 28, 210-11 (Mberf ch. 1), E 1916, 109; Fms 7, 2 (Mberf ch. 1).

Context: On the death of Óláfr kyrri ‘the Quiet’ Haraldsson (1093), his son Magnús berfœttr ‘Barelegs’ is elected king in Viken, while the people of Trøndelag and Opplandene take Magnús’s cousin, Hákon Þórisfóstri ‘Foster-son of Þórir’ Magnússon, as their king. Then this st. is recited in Trondheim.

Notes: [1] Hôkon ‘Hákon’: For Hákon I Magnússon, see ‘Royal Biographies’ in Introduction to this vol. — [3] frægðarmildr ‘generous with glory’: The present edn follows ÍF 28. Skald connects this epithet with Hákon (l. 1) (NN §§910, 2247B) while Skj B treats it as the subject of the second cl. (‘the one generous with glory came with Steigar-Þórir’). — [3] á foldu ‘on earth’: Kock (NN §§910, 2247B) takes this prepositional phrase with the first cl.: ungr frægðarmildr Hkon kom hingat á foldu’ ‘young Hákon, generous with glory, came here on earth’ (ll. 1, 3). The syntactic simplification makes little sense from a contextual point of view, and it is not clear what ‘here on earth’ refers to (‘to the land’, i.e. ‘Norway’ or ‘Trondheim’?). — [4] Steigar-Þórir: Þórir Þórðarson of Steig (SteigÞ) was Hákon Magnússon’s foster-father (see Genealogy IV in ÍF 28; SteigÞ Biography). — [5, 6] bauð um halfan Nóreg ‘gave power over half of Norway’: Bjóða um e-t lit. means ‘give power of attorney over sth.’ (see Fritzner: bjóða um; ÍF 28, 210-11 n.). Bauð upp ‘offered up’ (so H, Hr) is also a possible reading (but lower on the stemma), and it has been adopted in Skj B and Skald.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
7. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
8. E 1916 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1916. Eirspennill: AM 47 fol. Nóregs konunga sǫgur: Magnús góði – Hákon gamli. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske historiske kildeskriftskommission.
9. Internal references
10. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Hulda-Hrokkinskinna’ 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, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=84> (accessed 4 May 2024)
11. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Magnúss saga berfœtts’ 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, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=144> (accessed 4 May 2024)
12. Kari Ellen Gade and Diana Whaley (eds) 2009, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Magnúss saga berfœtts 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. 828-9.