Note to Þorm Lv 23I
[4] kvaddi lið bǫðvar ‘rallied his host to battle’: (a) The idiom is kveðja e-n e-s ‘summon sby to sth.’ (see CVC: kveðja), and here Óláfr, understood from konungr in l. 2, is taken as the subject (so ÍF 6; Ulset 1975, 92; ÍS). This has the advantage of assuming that the dramatic focus remains on the king. (b) Alternatively, lið ‘host’ in l. 4 could be subject, hence ‘the host called forth battle’ (so Skj B). (c) The variant kvaddisk occurs in mss of both ÓH and Fbr, and is adopted in Fbr 1852, and by Gaertner (1907), who interprets the clause to mean ‘the host came to blows’, on the basis of the observation that kveðjask means ‘greet one another’. Yet it is hard to see how the verb could be so used in the sg., even though lið is collective. Finnur Jónsson (1932-3) says that with kvaddisk the clause should mean ‘the troop incited itself to battle’ (though in Hb 1892-6 he took it to mean ‘the troop was summoned to battle’).
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
- ÍF 6 = Vestfirðinga sǫgur. Ed. Björn K. Þórólfsson and Guðni Jónsson. 1943.
- Hb 1892-6 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1892-6. Hauksbók udgiven efter de Arnamagnæanske håndskrifter no. 371, 544 og 675, 4° samt forskellige papirshåndskrifter. Copenhagen: Det kongelige nordiske oldskrift-selskab.
- Ulset, Tor. 1975. Merknader til en del skaldedikt. Oslo: Novus.
- Gaertner, K. H. 1907. ‘Zur Fóstbrœðra saga. I. Teil: Die vísur’. BGDSL 32, 299-446.
- Finnur Jónsson. 1932-3. ‘Þórmóðr Kolbrúnarskald’. APS 7, 31-82.
- Fbr 1852 = Konráð Gíslason, ed. 1852. Fóstbrœðra saga. Copenhagen: Berling.
- ÍS = Bragi Halldórsson et al., eds. 1987. Íslendinga sögur og þættir. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Svart á hvítu.
- Internal references
- (forthcoming), ‘ Anonymous, Fóstbrœðra saga’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=7> (accessed 27 April 2024)
- (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Óláfs saga helga’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=53> (accessed 27 April 2024)