Arn Frag 7^III

Sumar hvern frekum erni

Hvern sumar frekum erni.

Every summer to the greedy eagle.

Mss: A(3v), W(101), B(2v) (TGT)

Editions: Skj AI, 350, Skj BI, 323, Skald I, 163; SnE 1848-87, II, 100-1, 406, 508, III, 137, TGT 1884, 14, 65, TGT 1927, 43, 91; Whaley 1998, 315.

Context: The line is cited in TGT as an example of barbarismus; the flaw here involves stafaskipti ‘substitution of letters’. It is followed by the explanation that hvern replaces hvert in order to maintain the metre (see Note to l. 1).

Notes: [All]: Although certainty is impossible, the line is likely to be a remnant of a sentence portraying a warrior feeding the eagle each summer (by making carrion out of his enemies), with dat. sg. frekum erni ‘to the greedy eagle’ as an indirect object. Such a statement could refer to any of Arnórr’s patrons Rǫgnvaldr jarl Brúsason, Magnús góði ‘the Good’, Þorfinnr jarl Sigurðarson or Haraldr Sigurðarson, and could therefore have come from any of his extant dróttkvætt poems, respectively Arn Rdr^II, Arn Magndr^II, Arn Þorfdr^II or Arn Hardr^II, or conceivably from the putative Blágagladrápa (see Note to Frag 3 [All]). Finnur Jónsson (SnE 1848-87, III, 572-3 and n. 5) tentatively lists the line as st. 8 of Arn Hardr^II (and prints it in Skj as st. 6 of the same poem), remarking that Snorri Sturluson’s description in Haralds saga Sigurðarsonar (HSigHkr ch. 33, ÍF 28, 112) of Haraldr harrying Denmark hvert sumar eptir annat ‘one summer after another’ could derive from this stanza. That is possible, but far from certain, especially since Snorri cites not from Arnórr at this point but from Stúfr Stúfdr 5/4^II, which contains the phrase hvert ár ‘every year’. — [1] hvern sumar ‘every summer’: The m. acc. sg. form hvern is established by the aðalhending with erni, and in its turn proves the m. gender of sumar(r). Elsewhere the Old Norse word for ‘summer’ is either clearly n. (CVC, LP, ONP: sumar) or else the context does not show its gender. Arnórr’s is the best evidence for the original m. gender which survives in other Germanic languages, and has been attested in later Icelandic dialect (see Sigfús Blöndal 1920-4: sumar). Thus although Óláfr regarded hvern, and the m. gender it indicates, as a barbarismus, it is likely to be a genuine linguistic variant.

References

1. Bibliography
2. TGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
3. 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.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
6. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
7. Sigfús Blöndal. 1920-4. Islandsk-dansk ordbog / Íslensk-dönsk orðabók. Reykjavík, Copenhagen and Kristiania (Oslo): Verslun Þórarins B. Þorlákssonar / Aschehoug.
8. Whaley, Diana, ed. and trans. 1998. The Poetry of Arnórr jarlaskáld: An Edition and Study. Westfield Publications in Medieval Studies 8. Turnhout: Brepols.
9. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
10. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
11. TGT 1927 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1927b. Óláfr Þórðarson: Málhljóða- og málskrúðsrit. Grammatisk-retorisk afhandling. Det kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filologiske meddelelser 13, 2. Copenhagen: Høst.
12. Internal references
13. (forthcoming), ‘ Óláfr hvítaskáld Þórðarson, The Third Grammatical Treatise’ in Tarrin Wills (ed.), The Third Grammatical Treatise. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=32> (accessed 2 May 2024)
15. Diana Whaley 2009, ‘ Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Haraldsdrápa’ 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. 260-80. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1099> (accessed 2 May 2024)
16. Diana Whaley 2009, ‘ Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Magnússdrápa’ 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. 206-29. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1102> (accessed 2 May 2024)
17. Diana Whaley 2009, ‘ Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Þorfinnsdrápa’ 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. 229-60. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1104> (accessed 2 May 2024)
18. Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Ragnarsdrápa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 27. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1130> (accessed 2 May 2024)
19. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Stúfr inn blindi Þórðarson kattar, Stúfsdrápa 5’ 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. 355.