Bjbp Jóms 2^I

Hendir enn sem aðra
óteitan mik sútar;
mér hefr harm á hendi
handfǫgr kona bundit.
Þó emk óð at auka
œrit gjarn at hváru;
mjǫk emk at mér orðinn
ógæfr of fǫr vífa.

Óteitan sútar hendir mik enn sem aðra; handfǫgr kona hefr bundit harm á hendi mér. Þó emk at hváru œrit gjarn at auka óð; emk orðinn mjǫk ógæfr at mér of fǫr vífa.

The joylessness of grief grips me still, as others; a woman with beautiful hands has bound sorrow to me. Yet I am nonetheless sufficiently eager to increase poetry; I myself have become very unlucky regarding the ways of women.

Mss: R(53r), 65ˣ(380r)

Readings: [4] hand‑: ‘ha[…]’ R, ‘hardl’ 65ˣ, ‘ha[…]’ RCP, hand RFJ;    ‑fǫgr: ‘[…]gvr’ R, ‑fǫgr 65ˣ, RFJ, ‘f[…]vgvr’ RCP    [7] mjǫk: ‘[…]’ R, mjǫk 65ˣ, RCP, RFJ

Editions: Skj AII, 1-2, Skj BII, 1, Skald II, 1, NN §1233; Fms 11, 163, Fms 12, 241, Jvs 1879, 104-5.

Notes: [All]: On the ordering of sts 2-5, see Introduction. — [All]: The stanza, like sts 7 and 42, employs the verse-form fjórðungalok ‘couplets’ closure’ in which each pair of lines constitutes a separate clause (cf. SnSt Ht 11^III). — [1] hendir ‘grips’: That the same verb, rare in skaldic poetry, also occurs near the beginning of Mhkv^III (Anon Mhkv 1/8^III), as well as in Mhkv 10/6^III, 11/4^III, seems unlikely to be coincidental; see Introduction to Mhkv^III on links between the poems. — [3] á hendi mér ‘to me’: Lit. ‘to my hand’. — [4] handfǫgr ‘with beautiful hands’: Finnur Jónsson (Skj A) and Carl af Petersens (Jvs 1879) note that hand- has been corrected from harm ‘sorrow’ but this is no longer clear in the ms. The cpd adj. is also found, again qualifying kona ‘woman’, in KormǪ Lv 63/4^V (Korm 84). The vocabulary relating to hands in the helmingr (this cpd, and hendir ‘grips’, l. 1, á hendi mér ‘to me’, l. 3) emphasises the woman’s hold on the poet. — [5] at auka óð ‘to increase poetry’: I.e. to add a new poem to the corpus of poetry. — [7]: The line is metrically irregular, since the prep. at, here ‘in’, is too light to occupy a stressed, alliterating position in a Type A-line.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. 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. Jvs 1879 = Petersens, Carl af, ed. 1879. Jómsvíkinga saga (efter Cod. AM. 510, 4:to) samt Jómsvíkinga drápa. Lund: Gleerup.
7. Internal references
8. Roberta Frank (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Málsháttakvæði 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1216.
9. Roberta Frank (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Málsháttakvæði 10’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1224.
10. Roberta Frank 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Málsháttakvæði’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1213. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1029> (accessed 4 May 2024)
11. Edith Marold (ed.) 2022, ‘Kormáks saga 84 (Kormákr Ǫgmundarson, Lausavísur 63)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1180.
12. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 11’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1116.