Note to RvHbreiðm Hl 54^III

[8] Serksalma ‘Saracen-psalms’: (a) The interpretation of Serksalma ‘psalms of the Saracens,’ i.e. ‘pagan incantations’ (so Holtsmark in Hl 1941), is not unproblematic, but it avoids emendation. Holtsmark points out that, at the time of the composition of Hl, Serkir ‘Saracens’ were synonymous with ‘heathens’, and the crusader Rǫgnvaldr would certainly have been familiar with people of that ethnicity. Rugman’s transcriptions (‘serk salma’, both mss) show that he was uncertain of the spelling of both words. (b) Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848, 244) emends to skersálma ‘skerry-psalms’, which is preferred by Jón Helgason (Hl 1941). According to Jón, this emendation avoids the awkward double alliteration on s- in an even line, and he also points to similar imagery in Þjóð Yt 18/9-12^I: Ok Austmarr | jǫfri sœnskum | Gymis ljóð | at gamni kveðr ‘And the Baltic sea sings the songs of Gymir <= Ægir> to the delight of the Swedish prince’. (c) Skj B emends serk- to skæ and hjalmi to hjalmar and construes the line as hjalmar skæ salma in which skæ ‘horse’ is the base-word in a ship-kenning (skæ hjalmar ‘the horse of the rudder’) qualified by of haf beittum, which Finnur Jónsson construes as ‘steered across the sea’ (from beita ‘tack’: so also Kock in Skald). Salma is then taken with raustljótar snótir svanvengis sungu ‘the ugly-voiced women of the swan-meadow [SEA > WAVES] sang (psalms)’ (ll. 5-6). For salmr ‘psalm’, see also sts 25/6 and 74/4.

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. SnE 1848 = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1848. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, eða Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál og Háttatal. Reykjavík: Prentsmiðja landsins.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
6. Internal references
7. Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘ Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1001. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1347> (accessed 23 April 2024)
8. Edith Marold (ed.) 2012, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Ynglingatal 18’ 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. 40.