Note to Sigv Nesv 1^I

[6] sund* ‘the sea’: Various interpretations address the problems of the helmingr: the function of sunds, and the fact that skôru ‘cut’ seems to lack an object. (a) Following ÍF 29, the minor emendation of sunds to sund ‘sea’ is adopted here. This provides an object for skôru ‘cut’, which would be normal (cf. ESk Run 10/1^II skark sund súðum ‘I cut the sea with ship-sides’, LP: skera 1, and Jesch 2001a, 177). Although the word order is convoluted this is often a feature of Sigvatr’s style, and it might well account for the presumed corruption. (b) Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) emends more drastically: sunds to n. nom. pl. sund ‘inlets’, and skôru ‘cut’ (l. 8) to m. v. skôrusk, producing sund skôrusk ‘inlets were cut’. (c) Ms. sunds could be retained as a gen. defining fundir ‘encounters’, hence ‘encounters of the sea, naval encounters’. Skôru ‘cut’ is then left without formal object, but this finds a partial parallel in Hharð Gamv 2^II súð sneið ‘the hull sliced’ (noted by Jesch 2001a, 177); or an object is provided if sund ‘the sea’ is understood from sunds; cf. interpretation (a) in Note to st. 2/7. (d) Sunds could alternatively be construed as an adverbial gen. of location, ‘at sea’ (cf. Poole 2004).

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. 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.
4. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
5. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
6. Poole, Russell. 2004. ‘Adverbial Genitives in Skaldic Poetry’. MS 104, 115-31.
7. Internal references
8. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Runhenda 10’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 558-9.
9. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Haraldr harðráði Sigurðarson, Gamanvísur 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 36-7.