Þór Lv 1^I

Sitr við ôr, en etjum,
allvaldr, á sæ kaldan,
— vel rœr dróttar deilir
dýrr — en hundr við stýri.
Skelfir * gnap*mar Gylfa
gœðings skafit rœði;
jalmar hlumr við hilmis
hendr sem skildi vendir.

Allvaldr sitr við ôr, en hundr við stýri, en etjum á kaldan sæ; {dýrr deilir dróttar} rœr vel. Skafit rœði gœðings skelfir * {gnap*mar Gylfa}; hlumr jalmar við hendr hilmis, sem vendir skildi.

The mighty ruler sits at the oar, and a dog at the rudder, and we drive forward on the cold sea; {the worthy controller of the retinue} [RULER = Óláfr] rows well. The planed oar of the chieftain makes {the towering horse of Gylfi <sea-king>} [SHIP] shudder; the oar-handle squeals in the hands of the king, like swords on a shield.

Mss: 62(45rb), Flat(53vb) (ÓT)

Readings: [5] Skelfir: so Flat, skelfr 62;    * gnap*mar: á gnapi mar 62, Flat    [6] skafit: ‘skafaít’ Flat

Editions: Skj AI, 153, Skj BI, 145, Skald I, 79, NN §1082; ÓT 1958-2000, III, 9, Flat 1860-8, I, 405.

Context: King Óláfr Tryggvason calls on Þórarinn to take a turn at steering the longship, but Þórarinn replies that he is no helmsman. The king orders him to compose a verse to amuse the company, and to name a substitute to take the helm while he does so, and Þórarinn proposes Óláfr’s dog, Vígi. The king holds Vígi’s paws on the rudder as if the dog is steering and tells Þórarinn to compose his stanza.

Notes: [1] ôr ‘the oar’: According to the stanza the king is at the oar, while the prose specifies that he was steering (as noted by Finnur Jónsson, 1930b, 49). — [1] etjum ‘we drive forward’: Etja ‘to goad, incite, drive forward, set in motion’ is normally transitive, with a dat. object, and this is the only skaldic instance of absolute use (LP: etja). An object referring to the ship may be understood. — [5-6] rœði ... skelfir * gnap*mar Gylfa ‘the oar ... makes the towering horse of Gylfi <sea-king> [SHIP] shudder’: Line 5 is hypermetric in the mss, necessitating the deletion of two syllables, here á and -i. There are two main possible interpretations, each with rœði ‘oar’ as grammatical subject, but producing different images as to what is shuddering or trembling. (a) The Text above adopts skelfir ‘shakes, makes shudder’, from the verb skelfa, the causative counterpart of skjalfa ‘to tremble’, with gnapmar (acc. sg.) Gylfa ‘towering horse of Gylfi [SHIP]’ as its direct object. (b) Skj B on the other hand reads intransitive skelfr ‘trembles’, 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of skjalfa, and takes (gnap)mari (dat. sg.) Gylfa as equivalent to a prepositional phrase; but this involves emending ms. á mar to mari or assuming that endingless mar is dat., which is possible, though uncommon, in an a-stem m. noun at this date (Konráð Gíslason 1892, 224; Finnur Jónsson 1901, 12; ANG §§358.3, 4). — [8] sem vendir skildi ‘like swords on a shield’: The phrase is somewhat obscure. Vendir seems to be a half-kenning for ‘sword’ or possibly ‘spear-shaft’ (Meissner 77), and skildi to be a dat. sg. with a rare adverbial sense, ‘on a shield’. Previous commentators attach sem vendir skildi to the clause in ll. 5-6, assuming an understood repetition of the verb skelf(i)r ‘tremble, make shudder’, hence the oar trembles against, or shakes, the ship like sticks (Skj B; Reichardt 1930, 250-1), spear-shafts (Meissner 77) or swords (NN §1082) against a shield. However, it seems more likely that jalmar ‘squeals’ is understood from l. 7, so that the comparison is between the noise of the oar and the noise of a sword on a shield. This is supported by the fact that the related noun jalmr m. frequently collocates with terms referring to weapons or battle (LP: jalmr).

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. 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. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
8. Finnur Jónsson. 1901. Det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog omtr. 800-1300. SUGNL 28. Copenhagen: Møller.
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.
10. ÓT 1958-2000 = Ólafur Halldórsson, ed. 1958-2000. Saga Óláfs Tryggvasonar en mesta. 3 vols. EA A 1-3. Copenhagen: Munksgaard (Reitzel).
11. Konráð Gíslason, ed. 1892a. Udvalg af oldnordiske skjaldekvad, med anmærkninger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
12. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1930. ‘Beiträge zur Skaldenforschung’. ANF 46, 32-62, 199-258.
13. Internal references
14. Diana Whaley 2012, ‘(Biography of) Óláfr Tryggvason’ 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. 383.