Bjbp Jóms 3^I

Dreng var dátt of svarra
(dorgar vangs) fyr lǫngu
(því hefr oss of unga
eldreið skapi haldit).
Þó hefk ort of ítra
allfátt mjaðar þellu;
vel samir enn of eina
ǫlselju mér þylja.

Dreng var dátt of svarra fyr lǫngu; því skapi hefr haldit oss of {unga {{dorgar vangs} eld}reið}. Þó hefk ort allfátt of {ítra þellu mjaðar}; vel samir mér enn þylja of {eina ǫlselju}.

The fellow [I] was charmed by the woman long ago; that mood has persisted in us [me] in relation to {the young chariot {of the fire {of the plain of the fishing-line}}} [(lit. ‘fire-chariot of the plain of the fishing-line’) SEA > GOLD > WOMAN]. Yet I have composed very little about {the excellent pine-tree of mead} [WOMAN]; it is still very fitting for me to recite about {a certain ale-willow} [WOMAN].

Mss: R(53r), 65ˣ(380r)

Readings: [4] eldreið: ‘elld[…]’ R, ‘elbreid’ 65ˣ, eldreið RCP, ‘elld (rei)ð’(?) RFJ    [5] hefk: ‘[…]fi ec’ R, hefi ek 65ˣ, RCP, RFJ    [7] eina: ‘ei[…]’ R, eina 65ˣ, RCP, RFJ    [8] þylja: ‘þy[…]’ R, om. 65ˣ, ‘þy[…]ia’ RCP, ‘þy(l)ia’(?) RFJ

Editions: Skj AII, 1-2, Skj BII, 2, Skald II, 1, NN §3254; Fms 11, 163-4, Fms 12, 241-2, Jvs 1879, 104-5.

Notes: [All]: On the ordering of sts 2-5, see Introduction. — [1] dreng ‘the fellow [I]’: The noun is in the acc. sg., as part of an impersonal construction. The connotations of the word drengr here are elusive. It normally has a positive, even heroic, sense such as ‘(young) man, (manly) man, warrior’, as frequently in Jóms (e.g. st. 8/2, and cf. snyrtidrengja ‘fine young warriors’, drengmenn ‘fighting-men’ in st. 39/2, 8), but it also appears in mock-heroic contexts; see Notes to Anon Sveinfl 1/6, Sigv Austv 5/2. — [2, 4] dorgar vangs eldreið ‘the chariot of the fire of the plain of the fishing-line [(lit. ‘fire-chariot of the plain of the fishing-line’) SEA > GOLD > WOMAN]’: Eldreið ‘fire-chariot’ is also found in KormǪ Lv 48/3^V (Korm 69), in a structurally similar woman-kenning; see O’Donoghue (1991, 139-40). — [2] dorgar ‘of the fishing-line’: Or more specifically, ‘trolling-line’, a fishing-line that is drawn through water in various ways. — [3, 4] því skapi hefr haldit oss ‘that mood has persisted in us [me]’: An impersonal use of haldit (see LP: halda C. 3). — [8] ǫlselju ‘ale-willow [WOMAN]’: The kenning also occurs in ÞBrún Lv 1/8^V (Heið 6). Selja is a tree-name denoting ‘willow, sallow’ (cf. Þul Viðar 1/2^III; Meissner 410; LP: 1. selja), and hence the kenning closely matches the woman-kenning þellu mjaðar ‘pine-tree of mead [WOMAN]’ in l. 6. — [8] þylja ‘to recite’: CVC: þylja glosses the verb as ‘to say, read, chant’, ‘to murmur’. It can have ritual, ceremonial, performative connotations; Poole (2010a) discusses the act of þylja in Jóms with reference to the Odinic material in st. 4, as well as elsewhere in Old Norse literature.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
6. 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.
7. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
8. Jvs 1879 = Petersens, Carl af, ed. 1879. Jómsvíkinga saga (efter Cod. AM. 510, 4:to) samt Jómsvíkinga drápa. Lund: Gleerup.
9. Poole, Russell. 2010a. ‘Þulir as Tradition-Bearers and Prototype Saga-Tellers: Þat er opt gott, er gamlir kveða’. In Quinn et al. 2010, 237-59.
10. O’Donoghue, Heather. 1991. The Genesis of a Saga Narrative: Verse and Prose in Kormaks saga. Oxford English Monographs. Oxford: Clarendon.
11. Internal references
12. Emily Lethbridge 2012, ‘ Bjarni byskup Kolbeinsson, Jómsvíkingadrápa’ 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. 954. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1122> (accessed 27 April 2024)
13. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Viðar heiti 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. 881.
14. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2012, ‘Anonymous Poems, Flokkr about Sveinn Álfífuson 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. 1029.
15. Edith Marold (ed.) 2022, ‘Kormáks saga 69 (Kormákr Ǫgmundarson, Lausavísur 48)’ 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. 1151.
16. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Austrfararvísur 5’ 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. 590.
17. Colin Grant (ed.) 2022, ‘Heiðarvíga saga 5 (Þorbjǫrn Brúnason, Lausavísur 1)’ 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. 990.