Anon Krm 5^VIII

Hjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Hygg engan þá frýðu,
áðr en á Heflis hestum
Herruðr í styr felli.
Klýfr eigi ægis öndrum
annarr jarl in frægri
lunda völl til lægis
á langskipum síðan.
Sá bar siklingr víða
snart fram í styr hjarta.

Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Hygg engan þá frýðu, áðr en Herruðr felli í styr á {hestum Heflis}. Annarr jarl in frægri klýfr eigi síðan {völl lunda} {öndrum ægis}, á langskipum, til lægis. Sá siklingr bar víða snart hjarta fram í styr.

We hewed with the sword. No one found fault with us then, I reckon, before Herruðr fell in battle on {the horses of Heflir <sea-king>} [SHIPS]. No other, more famous jarl will ever again cleave {the plain of puffins} [SEA] {with skis of the sea} [SHIPS], on longships, heading into harbour. That leader carried a stout heart far and wide forward into battle.

Mss: 1824b(79r-v), 6ˣ(86v-87r) (Ragn); R702ˣ(29r-v), LR(201-202), R693ˣ(6v)

Readings: [1] Hjuggu vér með hjörvi: abbrev. as ‘[…]iugg v᷎ m᷎ h᷎.’ 1824b, Hjuggum vér með hjörvi 6ˣ, LR, R693ˣ, abbrev. as ‘H v m h.’ R702ˣ    [2] Hygg (‘hygg ek’): so all others, ‘hy[…]’ 1824b;    frýðu (‘frydo’): ‘fryde’ with ‘fly̋de W.’ in margin 6ˣ, ‘flyde’ R702ˣ, LR, ‘flýde’ R693ˣ    [3] en: om. R702ˣ, LR, R693ˣ;    Heflis: heflis with ‘Hemlis W.’ in margin 6ˣ, hemlis R702ˣ, LR, R693ˣ    [4] Herruðr: ‘Herraudur’ 6ˣ, Herþjófr R702ˣ, ‘heraudur’ LR, R693ˣ    [5] ægis: so R702ˣ, LR, R693ˣ, ‘eigils’ 1824b, ‘eigils’ with ‘aegis Worm’ in margin 6ˣ    [6] jarl in frægri: ‘Jarlinn fręgri’ 6ˣ, ‘jallin frægri’ R702ˣ, ‘iarlin faegre’ LR, ‘Jarlium fægre’ R693ˣ    [7] lunda völl: so R702ˣ, LR, R693ˣ, ‘lyndar voll’ 1824b, ‘lyndar vaull’ with ‘lundar vaull. Worm.’ in margin 6ˣ    [9] siklingr: ‘siklungur’ LR, ‘sik linngur’ R693ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 642, Skj BI, 650, Skald I, 317, NN §§1274, 2274; Rafn 1826, 4-7, 103-5, Pfeiffer 1860, 124, CPB II, 341, Wisén 1886-9, I, 62-3, Krm 1891, 225, Finnur Jónsson 1893b, 86, Finnur Jónsson 1905, 153.

Notes: [2] hygg engan þá frýðu ‘no one found fault with us then, I reckon’: Lit. ‘I consider no one to have found fault then’, an acc. with inf. construction. Frýðu here, which implies a taunt about cowardice, is pret. inf. and, as LP: frýja notes, is used absolutely, i.e. without a direct object, which, if present, would be in the dat.; ‘with us’ in the translation is understood. — [2, 3] þá … áðr en ‘then … before’: The adv. þá ‘then, at that time’ is here used correlatively with the adverbial clause introducer áðr en ‘before …, earlier than when …’. — [3] hestum Heflis ‘the horses of Heflir <sea-king> [SHIPS]’: This makes sense as a ship-kenning, given that Heflir, listed by Björn Sigfússon (1934, 131, cf. 132) as a sea-king name, means ‘he who furls the sail’, cf. hefla ‘furl the sail’. It is apparently found as a kenning determinant only in the present instance, however (see LP: Heflir, hestr), and it is possible, as Björn suggests, that the 1824b reading here is a scribal blunder either for hestum hefils ‘horses of the clew-line [SHIPS]’ (the reading adopted in Wisén 1886-9, I and Finnur Jónsson 1893b) or for hestum Hemlis ‘horses of Hemlir <sea-king> [SHIPS]’, Hemlir being listed as a sea-king name in Þul Sækonunga 2/3^III and meaning ‘he who pulls backward’, cf. hamla, ‘pull backwards, stern foremost’, hamla ‘oar-thong’, hömlumaðr ‘oarsman’ (so Björn Sigfússon 1934, 132). The latter reading (hestum Hemlis), which is adopted by Pfeiffer (1860), finds support in R702ˣ and 6ˣ. Hestum Heflis is adopted in all other previous eds, though in CPB heflis (sic) is given a lower case initial. — [4] Herruðr: According to RagnSon, where it occurs as Herrauðr (see Hb 1892-6, 458), Saxo’s account, where it occurs as Herothus (see Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 4-5 and 4. 17, pp. 634-5, 644-5), and Ragn, where it has the form Herruðr (see Ragn 1906-8, 116-17), this is the name of the jarl in Götaland (so Ragn; in Västergötland, RagnSon) or, as Saxo has it, the king of the Swedes (rex Sueonum), who offers his daughter Þóra/Thora in marriage to the man who can destroy a hypertrophic serpent (two such serpents in Saxo’s account). Ragnarr succeeds in doing so, thus winning Þóra as his first wife (so Ragn and RagnSon; Thora as his second wife in Saxo). Cf. st. 1, Note to ll. 2-10 above. Only in Saxo’s account (Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 17, pp. 644-5) is the death of Herothus mentioned, and then only in passing, with no mention of the manner of his death: thus it cannot be said for certain whether it is the Herr(a)uðr/Herothus of these accounts who is mentioned here. — [5]: This line is hypermetrical as it stands, with eigi ‘not’ in what should be metrical position 2. That can be remedied by substituting eigi with ei or affixing the suffixed negative particle –at to the verb klýfr ‘cleave’. Skj B and Skald both have klýfrat. — [5] öndrum ægis ‘with skis of the sea [SHIPS]’: Here ægis is not the name of the sea-giant Ægir, seeing that sea-kings rather than giants form the determinants of ship-kennings, but is the common noun ægis ‘of the sea’, as understood by Finnur Jónsson (1893b; 1905; Skj B). Mss 1824b and 6ˣ have Egils instead of Ægis, but Egill is not recorded as a sea-king name (cf. Björn Sigfússon 1934). Rafn (1826), Pfeiffer (1860), the eds of CPB, Krm 1891 and Wisén (1886-9) nevertheless all read Egils here. Alone among previous eds, Kock (NN §2274) substitutes Ekkils, gen. sg. of Ekkill, an acceptable sea-king name (Björn Sigfússon 1934, 128), and de Vries (1964-7, II, 40 n. 68), apparently accepting this reading, cites as a parallel Sigv Austv 10/5, 7^I hestar Ekkils ‘the horses of Ekkill <sea-king> [SHIPS]’, while also citing Eskál Lv 2a/7-8^I andra (acc. pl. of ǫndurr ‘ski’) Endils ‘the skis of Endill <sea-king> [SHIPS]’. However, emendation is unnecessary. — [6] in frægri ‘more famous’: The present ed. follows all previous eds apart from Krm 1891 in taking in (spelt enn by Rafn 1826, 6ˣ, and Wisén 1886-9) as an intensive adv. preceding the comp. frægri ‘more famous’ and meaning ‘still, even’, though hardly translatable in the present instance. Krm 1891 reads it as the nom. sg. m. form of the suffixed def. article, linking it to the m. noun preceding it: jarlinn ‘the jarl’. — [8] á langskipum ‘on longships’: The commas on either side of this phrase in the Prose order and Translation reflect Kock’s (NN §1274) view, accepted here, that this prepositional phrase is to be read as an appositive parallel to the dat. pl. ship-kenning in l. 5, specifying what is referred to by the kenning. — [9]: Line 9 here finds a close metrical parallel in Sigv Austv 6/5^I Þó séumk hitt, at hlœðir … ‘However, I fear this: that (every) loader …’, which Höskuldur Þráinsson (1970, 20) and Kristján Árnason (1991, 99) seem to regard as a case of consonantless skothending, with the <ó> of þó ‘however’ making half-rhyme with the <œ> of hlœðir ‘loader’ (cf. Note to Sigv Austv 6/5^I). It might seem that in the present instance the <á> of sá ‘that’ would make half-rhyme with the <í> of víða ‘far and wide’. The impression given by Kuhn (1983, 78), however, is that such consonantless skothendingar are only possible when the vowel or diphthong in the cadence (in these cases hlœðir and víða) is followed by a glide, <j> or <v>; cf. Note to st 3/9-10, above.

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. 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. 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. Kristján Árnason. 1991. The Rhythms of Dróttkvætt and Other Old Icelandic Metres. Reykjavík: Institute of Linguistics, University of Iceland.
7. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
8. Vries, Jan de. 1964-7. Altnordische Literaturgeschichte. 2 vols. 2nd edn. Grundriss der germanischen Philologie 15-16. Berlin: de Gruyter.
9. Wisén, Theodor, ed. 1886-9. Carmina Norrœnæ: Ex reliquiis vetustioris norrœnæ poësis selecta, recognita, commentariis et glossario instructa. 2 vols. Lund: Ohlsson.
10. Finnur Jónsson. 1893b. Carmina Norrœna: Rettet Tekst. Copenhagen: Nielsen & Lydiche.
11. Kuhn, Hans (1899). 1983. Das Dróttkvætt. Heidelberg: Winter.
12. Hb 1892-6 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1892-6. Hauksbók udgiven efter de Arnamagnæanske håndskrifter no. 371, 544 og 675, 4° samt forskellige papirshåndskrifter. Copenhagen: Det kongelige nordiske oldskrift-selskab.
13. Pfeiffer, Friedrich. 1860. Altnordisches Lesebuch. Leipzig: T. O. Weigel.
14. Björn Sigfússon. 1934. ‘Names of Sea-Kings (heiti sækonunga)’. MP 32, 125-42.
15. Höskuldur Þráinsson. 1970. ‘Hendingar í dróttkvæðum hætti hjá Sighvati Þórðarsyni’. Mímir 9, 9-29.
16. Ragn 1906-8 = Olsen 1906-8, 111-222.
17. Finnur Jónsson. 1905. ‘Krákumál’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1905, 151-83.
18. Krm 1891 = 2nd edn (pp. 225-8) of Krm as ed. in Valdimar Ásmundarson 1885-9, I.
19. Saxo 2015 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2015. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes. Trans. Peter Fisher. Oxford Medieval Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
20. Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1826. Krakas Maal eller Kvad om Kong Ragnar Lodbroks Krigsbedrifter og Heltedød efter en gammel Skindbog og flere hidtil ubenyttede Haandskrifter med dansk, latinsk og fransk oversættelse, forskjellige Læsemaader, samt kritiske og philologiske Anmærkninger. Copenhagen: Jens Hostrup Schultz; London: John and Arthur Arch.
21. Internal references
22. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ragnars saga loðbrókar’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 616. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=81> (accessed 4 May 2024)
23. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ragnars sona þáttr’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 777. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=85> (accessed 4 May 2024)
24. R. D. Fulk 2012, ‘ Sigvatr Þórðarson, Austrfararvísur’ 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. 578. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1351> (accessed 4 May 2024)
25. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Sækonunga heiti’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 677. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3183> (accessed 4 May 2024)
26. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Austrfararvísur 10’ 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. 597.