ESk Geisl 67^VII

Talðak fátt ór fjǫlða
friðgegns af jartegnum
(ber koma orð frá órum)
Óláfs (bragar stóli).
Bóls fái seggr, hverrs sólar
siklings, þess’s guð miklar,
hilmis ôst ins hæsta,
heiðbjartrar lof reiðir,

Talðak fátt ór fjǫlða af jartegnum friðgegns Óláfs; ber orð koma frá {órum stóli bragar}. Hverr seggr, [e]s reiðir lof {siklings {bóls heiðbjartrar sólar}}, þess’s guð miklar, fái ôst ins hæsta hilmis,

I have told little from the multitude of miracles of peace-loving Óláfr; clear words come from {our [my] seat of poetry} [MOUTH]. May each man who spreads the praise {of the lord {of the dwelling-place of the cloud-free sun}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = Óláfr], whom God makes great, receive the love of the highest Lord,

Mss: Flat(2va), Bb(118va)

Readings: [1] ór: so Bb, í Flat    [3] frá: so Bb, af Flat    [5] fái: taki Bb;    hverrs (‘huerr er’): hverr Bb    [6] þess’s guð (‘þess er guð’): so Bb, hefir Flat;    miklar: so Bb, mikla Flat    [7] hilmis: hilmir Bb    [8] heiðbjartrar: so Bb, heiðbjartr er Flat;    reiðir: greiðir Bb

Editions: Skj AI, 472, Skj BI, 444, Skald I, 219, NN §§951, 3281; Flat 1860-8, I, 7, Cederschiöld 1873, 10, Chase 2005, 117, 166.

Notes: [1] fátt ór fjǫlða ‘little from the multitude’: This is presumably intended as a modesty topos, given the number of miracles Einarr has just included in his poem. Bb’s reading is preferred by both Skj B and Skald. — [2] friðgegns (m. gen. sg.) ‘peace-loving’: The epithet has decidedly Christian connotations: Óláfr now dwells in peace in the heavenly Jerusalem. — [3] koma frá ‘come from’: Here Bb’s reading is adopted, as Flat’s koma af means ‘descend from’ (in a genealogical sense) and is inappropriate here. — [4] stóli bragar ‘seat of poetry [MOUTH]’: The kenning is multivalent. LP identifies it as a reference to the poet’s breast or soul, but it could also refer to his voice or mouth, or even (secondarily) to the seat from which he proclaimed his poem to the audience. — [5-8]: There are considerable differences between Flat and Bb in the second helmingr. Neither version is unproblematic, so readings have been taken from both. The sense of ll. 5-8 is continued by the svát-cl. introducing st. 68. The interpretation offered here differs slightly from both Skj B and Kock (Skald and NN §951). Kock reads ll. 6-7 as an intercalary, adopting Flat’s l. 6, though with emendation of siklings to siklingr, and another emendation in l. 8 (heiðbjarts). Skj B takes lof hilmis ‘praise of the prince’ (Óláfr) together and constructs the kenning (st ens hæsta) siklings heiðbjartrar sólar bóls ‘(the highest love) of the king of the dwelling-place of the cloud-free sun [SKY/HEAVEN > = God]’. The cl. þess’s guð miklar ‘whom God makes great’ then depends on gen. sg. hilmis (l. 7), referring to Óláfr, which avoids the difficulty in the interpretation adopted here that the gen. phrase is the kenning siklings bóls heiðbjartrar sólar ‘lord of the dwelling-place of the cloud-free sun’, which must be assumed to refer, unusually, to the saint rather than to God.

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. Cederschiöld, Gustaf J. Chr., ed. 1873b. ‘Bandamanna saga’. Acta Universitatis Lundensis 10.
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. 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. Cederschiöld, Gustaf J. Chr., ed. 1873a. Geisli eða Óláfs Drápa ens Helga er Einarr orti Skúlason: efter ‘Bergsboken’ utgifven. Acta Universitatis Lundensis 10. Lund: Berling.
8. Chase, Martin, ed. 2005. Einarr Skúlason’s Geisli. A Critical Edition. Toronto Old Norse and Icelandic Studies 1. Toronto, Buffalo and London: Toronto University Press.
9. Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.