Note to ÞjóðA Har 5II
[3, 5] leiðangrs; almenningr ‘the fleet’s; the host’: Leiðangr refers to a fleet of ships together (at least in some contexts) with their crews, and almenningr to a body of people. Malmros (1985) argued that these words constitute proof that an organised levy system already existed under Haraldr, but the skaldic evidence does not support this, though it does support the sense ‘expeditionary fleet’ for at least some instances of leiðangr (Jesch 2001a, 196-8; Note to Bǫlv Hardr 8/1).
References
- Bibliography
- Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
- Malmros, Rikke. 1985. ‘Leding og skjaldekvad: Det elvte århundredes nordiske krigsflåder, deres teknologi og organisation og deres placering i samfundet belyst gennem den samtidige fyrstedigtning’. ÅNOH, 89-139.
- Internal references
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Bǫlverkr Arnórsson, Drápa about Haraldr harðráði 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. 293.