Note to Gsind Hákdr 1^I

[5-8]: One component, containing a subject, a finite verb, an object, and adverbials, is clearly defined: Hrafnvíns svangœðir rak síðan flótta at mun sínum ‘The benefactor of the swan of the raven-wine [(lit. swan-benefactor of the raven-wine) BLOOD > RAVEN/EAGLE > WARRIOR] then pursued those who fled at his pleasure’. Remaining, as more intractable components, are sótt Jalfaðar and hrót Giljaðar hylja. No definitive solution seems attainable. (a) The interpretation tentatively adopted here posits that the helmingr contains two clauses. The first of these, cited above, appears to include the kenning sótt Jalfaðar ‘illness of Jǫlfuðr’, where Jalfaðar is gen. sg. of the Óðinn-heiti Jǫlfuðr or Jalfaðr: see AEW: jǫlfuðr; Note to Þul Óðins 8/4^III. His sótt ‘illness’ may be ‘spear’, the god’s characteristic weapon and that by which he sacrificed himself to himself (Hávm 138). Alternatively the kenning might conceivably mean ‘battle’, based on the idea of an affliction (for others) brought about by Óðinn (for battle-kennings with base-words meaning ‘harm, damage’ see Meissner 200, but the examples there are problematic). If the f. sg. noun sótt is taken as dat. or instr., as here, rather than nom. or acc., the phrase as a whole signifies ‘with the spear’ and modifies rak flótta, thus ‘pursued those who fled with the spear’. The second finite verb is hylja (3rd pers. pl. pres. indic.) ‘(they) conceal’, with the tacit object flótta ‘those who fled’ understood from the other clause (for this syntactic feature, see NS §21; cf. Sigv Nesv 1/8; Hharð Gamv 2/1^II; SnH Lv 8^II; ÞjóðA Lv 8^II). The pres. tense in an otherwise entirely pret. narration, while uncommon, has clear analogues in other C10th poetry (e.g. Þjóð Haustl 13/3^III; cf. Poole 1991, 44-55). The subject of the verb must be hrót Giljaðar ‘the roofs of Giljaðr’, adopting the n. noun hrót ‘roof, space under the roof’ (Fritzner IV; AEW: hrót), the majority reading in the mss. Giljaðr appears to be an Óðinn-heiti (see Note to l. 7), and Óðinn’s hrót ‘roof(s)’ would be ‘shield(s)’, on the same pattern as þekja Gauts ‘roof of Gautr’ (Þmáhl Máv 17/8^V (Eb 19)) and hrót Fjǫlnis ‘roof of Fjǫlnir’ (Hskv Útdr 1/2^II; cf. Meissner 170). The pursuit of a (ship-borne) enemy who use shields to cover their backs is described in Þhorn Harkv 11/1-4. (b) Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson (ÍF 26, followed by Hkr 1991) posits a kenning sótt Jalfaðar hrótgiljaðar ‘illness of the betrayer of Óðinn’s roof [(lit. illness of Óðinn’s roof-betrayer) SHIELD > SWORD > (another) SWORD]’. The logical basis would be that in combat one sword may damage another. Bjarni interprets hylja as a form of hylr ‘deep pool (in a stream)’, following Finnur Jónsson (1884, 83; Hkr 1893-1901, IV; Skj B; cf. Skald), and reads it as part of a kenning hrafnvíns hylja svangœðir ‘benefactor of the swan of the pools of raven-wine [(lit. swan-benefactor of the pools of raven-wine) POOLS OF BLOOD > RAVEN/EAGLE > WARRIOR]’. The sense of the whole sentence is then ‘the warrior then drove those who fled with his sword’. The element hylja ‘of pools’ is, however, superfluous. (c) Finnur Jónsson (1884, 84; Hkr 1893-1901, IV; Skj B) emends sótt to sótti ‘sought’, Jalfaðar to Jalfaðs, and hrót to hrókr, in arriving at the following solution: Jalfaðs svangœðir rak síðan flótta; hrókr hylja hrafnvíns sótti ‘giljaðar’ at mun sínum ‘The benefactor of the swan of Jalfaðr <= Óðinn> [RAVEN/EAGLE > WARRIOR] then pursued those who fled; the cormorant of the pools of raven-wine [POOLS OF BLOOD > RAVEN/EAGLE] sought the enticing food at his own pleasure.’ This, aside from being overly drastic, yields an unmetrical l. 6 and leaves giljaðar, tentatively glossed as ‘enticer, betrayer’, or ‘enticing food’, not fully accounted for. (d) Kock (NN §250) tentatively emends ms. sótt to sóttr ‘attacked’, adopts the Bb reading hlaut ‘obtained’ in place of hrót, and emends gyljaðar to gyljaðr ‘howler (wolf)’, with þá ‘then’ added to restore the correct number of syllables. He interprets this as follows: Jalfaðar svangœðir sóttr rak síðan flótta; gyljaðr hlaut þá hylja, vín hrafns at mun sínum ‘The benefactor of the swan of Jalfaðr <= Óðinn> [RAVEN/EAGLE > WARRIOR], attacked, then pursued those who fled; the howler [wolf] then obtained the pools, the wine of the raven [BLOOD] at his pleasure’.

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. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
7. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
8. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
9. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
10. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
11. Fritzner IV = Hødnebø, Finn. 1972. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog af Dr. Johan Fritzner: Rettelser og tillegg. Oslo, Bergen, Tromsø: Universitetsforlaget.
12. Poole, Russell. 1991. Viking Poems on War and Peace: A Study in Skaldic Narrative. Toronto Medieval Texts and Translations 8. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.
13. Finnur Jónsson. 1884. Kritiske studier over en del af de ældste norske og islandske skjaldekvad. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
14. Internal references
15. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Óðins nǫfn 8’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 751.
16. Not published: do not cite ()
17. 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.
18. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Halldórr skvaldri, Útfarardrápa 1’ 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. 484-5.
19. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Nesjavísur 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. 558.
20. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sneglu-Halli, Lausavísur 8’ 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. 329-30.
21. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Þorbjǫrn hornklofi, Haraldskvæði (Hrafnsmál) 11’ 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. 106.
22. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Haustlǫng 13’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 451.
23. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Lausavísur 8’ 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, p. 173.
24. Kate Heslop (ed.) 2022, ‘Eyrbyggja saga 19 (Þórarinn svarti máhlíðingr Þórólfsson, Máhlíðingavísur 17)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 440.