Note to Þfagr Sveinn 3II
[6] fagrdrifin steini ‘beautifully covered with colour’: Ships could be adorned with painted pictures (see Jesch 2001a, 144, 158; Steinn Óldr 13/2). See also the description in Encomium Emmae Reginae of Sveinn tjúguskegg’s fleet setting out to conquer England (Campbell 1998, 4, 4, pp. 12-13): Sed quid nunc tibi latera carinarum memorem, non modo ornatitiis depicta coloribus, uerum etiam aureis argenteisque aspera signis ‘But why should I now dwell upon the sides of the ships, which were not only painted with ornate colours, but were covered with gold and silver figures’.
References
- Bibliography
- Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
- Campbell, Alistair, ed. 1998. Encomium Emmae Reginae. Edition of 1949 with a supplementary introduction by Simon Keynes. Camden Classic Reprints 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Internal references
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Steinn Herdísarson, Óláfsdrápa 13’ 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. 378-9.