Cite as: Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2012, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísa from Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum 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. 1072.
Æ standa mér augu
of eld til Gráfeldar. |
|
Æ standa augu mér of eld til Gráfeldar.
Always my eyes are turned across the fire to Gráfeldr (‘Grey-cloak’).
Mss: Ágr(5va) (Ágr)
Readings: [1] Æ: ‘Ęa’ Ágr
Editions: Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [X], I. B. 4. Om Harald gråfeld: AI, 178, BI, 168, Skald I, 90, NN §§2761, 2902G; ÍF 29, 12, Ágr 2008, 16-17 (ch. 8).
Context: The couplet is cited to
illustrate the handsome appearance of Haraldr gráfeldr, but without a narrative context to identify the occasion or the speaker.
Notes: [1] æ ‘always’: ‘Ęa’ in the ms. appears
to be a scribal error. — [2] of eld ‘across the fire’: Of eld is written clearly as two words in the ms., and the line is a Type B with the prep. of ‘across’ in anacrusis. Kock (NN §2761) initially took of eld as a cpd adj. ófeld ‘unwavering’ (lit. ‘not-turned-down’) qualifying augu (n. nom. pl.) ‘eyes’ (l. 1), hence ‘always my unwavering eyes are turned towards Gráfeldr’. Kuhn (1936b, 159) pointed out that this construction involves illicit alliteration on the rhyming syllables, in response to which Kock (NN §2902G; Skald) created another cpd adj. of-eld ‘exceedingly kindled’ or ‘burning’. Aside from the fact that the cpd is unattested, this reading is metrically impossible: the two syllables in the cpd would resolve on the first lift, creating a pentasyllabic line (see Kuhn 1937, 51-2). — [2] til Gráfeldar ‘to Gráfeldr (“Grey-cloak”)’: Haraldr Eiríksson, the son of Eiríkr blóðøx ‘Blood-axe’ Eiríksson and Gunnhildr, got this nickname because he wore a grey cloak of sheepskin given to him by Icelandic merchants (see ÍF 26, 211-12 and Note to Anon Nkt 16/5II; for Haraldr’s career see ‘Ruler biographies’ in Introduction to this volume.
