Note to Þul Manna 6III
[4] húskarlar ‘housecarls’: In Icelandic, húskarlar means ‘man-servants’, but here these are members of the king’s (or earl’s) bodyguard or following. Skm (SnE 1998, I, 80) offers the following explanation of this term: Konungar ok jarlar hafa til fylgðar með sér þá menn er hirðmenn heita ok húskarlar, en lendir menn hafa ok sér handgengna menn þá er í Danmǫrku ok í Svíþjóð eru hirðmenn *kallaðir, en í Nóregi húskarlar, ok sverja þeir þó eiða svá sem hirðmenn konungum. Húskarlar konunga váru mjǫk hirðmenn kallaðir í fornesk<j>u ‘Kings and jarls have in their service those men who are called retainers and housecarls, but district chieftains also have men in their service who are called retainers in Denmark and Sweden, but housecarls in Norway, and yet they swear oaths just as retainers do to kings. The kings’ housecarls were frequently called retainers in ancient times’.
References
- Bibliography
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 27 April 2024)