Note to KormǪ Sigdr 1^III

[1, 2, 4] sonr sannreynis Haralds ‘the son of the true friend of Haraldr [= Hákon Grjótgarðsson > = Sigurðr jarl]’: For sannreynir see Note to l. 2. All earlier eds have identified Haraldr as Haraldr hárfagri ‘Fair-hair’, but it is not certain to whom the ‘true friend of Haraldr’ refers, whether to Hákon Grjótgarðsson or to his son, Sigurðr jarl. Hákon Grjótgarðsson belonged to the family of the Hlaðajarlar of Trondheim. They became allies of Haraldr hárfagri and established marriage relations. Haraldr married Ása, the daughter of Hákon Grjótgarðsson (HHárf ch. 37, ÍF 26, 142) and sent his own sons, Hálfdan svarti ‘the Black’ and Sigrøðr, to be raised by Hákon Grjótgarðsson and later by Hákon’s son Sigurðr. Hákon’s son Sigurðr jarl married Haraldr’s granddaughter Bergljót. Haraldr hárfagri and Sigurðr jarl must also have been on friendly terms because Sigurðr gave the name of his own father, Hákon, to Haraldr’s youngest son (HHárf ch. 37, ÍF 26, 142-3), whose protector he was when Hákon góði ‘the Good’ later became king of Norway (see his Biography in SkP I, cxci-cxciii). Hákon Grjótgarðsson died at a battle in Sogn short before the battle of Hafrsfjorden (872 or 885-90), and Sigurðr jarl was murdered two years after the death of Hákon góði (963). (a) Skm’s (SnE 1998, I, 82) interpretation (see Context above) favours Sigurðr jarl as ‘the true friend of Haraldr’. According to this interpretation, the introductory stanza is addressed to Hákon jarl, the famous son of Sigurðr (for his Biography, see SkP I, cxiii-cxcv). (b) In order to preserve the unity of Sigdr, Finnur Jónsson (1931, 108) and others (e.g. Fidjestøl 1982, 92-3) disregard Skm’s prose explanation and take sannreynir Haralds as a kenning that refers to Hákon jarl Grjótgarðsson, father of Sigurðr jarl. In this case the kenning sonr sannreynis Haralds points to Sigurðr jarl, son of Hákon Grjótgarðsson. Choosing between these two options is difficult. Snorri’s commentary, which considers Hákon jarl to be the addressee of the poem, is contradicted by the fact that Sigurðr jarl is named explicitly in st. 2, provided that sts 1 and 2 are part of the same poem. An argument that they do so is a formal feature that distinguishes them from the rest of the poem: they are the only stanzas that are composed without hjástælt (see Introduction above). Thus they may have belonged to a poem about Sigurðr jarl that lacked this characteristic (for the different provenances of the stanzas of this poem see Introduction above). In this case sannreynir Haralds would then refer to Hákon Grjótgarðsson and we must assume that Snorri interpreted the stanza incorrectly in Skm. This edn prioritises the formal ground that hjástælt is missing in these stanzas and takes the kenning to refer to Sigurðr jarl.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Fidjestøl, Bjarne. 1982. Det norrøne fyrstediktet. Universitet i Bergen Nordisk institutts skriftserie 11. Øvre Ervik: Alvheim & Eide.
3. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
4. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
5. SkP I = Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Ed. Diana Whaley. 2012.
6. Finnur Jónsson. 1931. ‘Kormákr Ögmundarson’. ÅNOH, 107-206.
7. Internal references
8. (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 16 April 2024)
9. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Haralds saga hárfagra’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=140> (accessed 16 April 2024)