Kate Heslop (ed.) 2012, ‘Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Erfidrápa Óláfs Tryggvasonar 28’ 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. 440.
Norðr eru ǫll of orðin
auð lǫnd at gram dauðan;
allr glepsk friðr af falli
flugstyggs sonar Tryggva.
Ǫll lǫnd norðr eru of orðin auð at dauðan gram; allr friðr glepsk af falli {flugstyggs sonar Tryggva}.
All lands in the north have been desolated by the king’s death; all peace is confounded by the fall {of the flight-shunning son of Tryggvi} [= Óláfr].
Mss: 178ˣ(1v), 177ˣ(1v), 100ˣ(145v) (Þiðr); Holm18(54r) (ÓTOdd); M(155va), Flat(71rb) (Hallfr)
Readings: [1] Norðr: nú M, auð Flat; of: lǫnd 177ˣ, lǫnd deleted by same hand 100ˣ [2] auð lǫnd at: ‘ętlo᷎nðum’ Flat; lǫnd: strǫnd 177ˣ; at: of Holm18; dauðan: dauðum 177ˣ, 100ˣ [3] allr: so all others, allt 178ˣ; glepsk: so 177ˣ, 100ˣ, Holm18, Flat, gleðsk 178ˣ, lemsk M; af: so all others, at 178ˣ [4] flug‑: so M, folk‑ 178ˣ, 177ˣ, 100ˣ, flyg‑ Holm18, fjǫl‑ Flat; sonar: ‘Son[…]’ 177ˣ
Editions: Skj AI, 163, Skj BI, 154, Skald I, 84, NN §480; Þiðr 1905-11, I, 3; ÓTOdd 1932, 234, ÍF 25, 350; ÍF 8, 194, Hallfr 1977, 103 (ch. 11), Flat 1860-8, I, 534.
Context: Hallfr recounts that Hallfreðr sails via Orkney to Norway where, learning the details of Óláfr Tryggvason’s death, he composes a memorial poem, Óláfsdrápa, for him, from which this is a refrain (stef). The ÓT redaction of Hallfr reports that Hallfreðr composed a drápa straight away (þegar), but only Flat quotes the stef. In ÓTOdd, this follows sts 18 and 19; after the stanza it is explained that auð ‘desolate’ has the sense that norðrlǫnd ‘the Nordic lands’ are bereft of a leader who will never be matched. The prologue to Þiðreks saga cites this stanza as an example of hyperbole in praise poetry.
Notes: [All]: The helmingr is a stef ‘refrain’, according to Hallfr (see Context). The grandiose content makes all four lines suitable for a stef, but only ll. 3-4 appear elsewhere in the extant poem (st. 23/7-8). — [1, 2] lǫnd norðr ‘lands in the north’: Finnur Jónsson hyphenates norðr- and lǫnd to produce ‘Nordic lands’ by tmesis, but this is not necessary, as Kock points out in NN §480. — [2] at dauðan gram ‘by the king’s death’: Lit. ‘by/at the dead king’, or ‘by the king [being] dead’. — [3] glepsk ‘is confounded’: This reading is supported by glepsk (ms. ‘glæps’) in the corresponding line of the stef in st. 23/7. The main ms. reading gleðsk ‘rejoices’ is unlikely purely by virtue of its semantics and could have originated in a misreading of glepz as gleþz. M’s lemsk ‘is ruined, crushed’ is close in meaning to glepsk (see Fritzner: lemja 3) and an acceptable alternative reading, — [4] flugstyggs ‘flight-shunning’: Comparison with st. 23/8 once again decides among strongly divergent readings here.
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