[1] Karli (dat. sg.) ‘Karl’: (a) This is treated here as the proper name Karl, as also in Orkn ch. 20, in which a king of the Scots named Karl Hundason figures prominently. Karl has been variously identified as a Mormaer (provincial ruler) of Ross, Sutherland or both who annexed Argyll on the death of the ruler whom Orkn names Malcolm (Melkólmr), in 1029 (Taylor 1937); as MacBeth (Crawford 1987, 71-2); as Duncan (Donaldson 1988, 2); or as a Mormaer of Moray (Thomson 1987, 47-9). The Scottish credentials of the name Hundi receive some support from its appearance as the name of a freedman of Scots family in Laxdœla saga ch. 6. (b) It should, however, be noted that there is no evidence in Celtic sources for a king with such a name, and it is conceivable that the karl in Arnórr’s st. is simply the appellative ‘old man, churl’, which was misinterpreted as a pers. n., and the patronymic Hundason added (as suggested by Munch, 1852-63, I, ii 854 n.).
References
- Bibliography
- Thomson, Colin D. 1987. Íslenzk Beygingafræði. Isländische Formenlehre. Icelandic Inflections. Hamburg: Buske.
- Taylor, A. B. 1937. ‘Karl Hundason, “King of Scots”’. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 71, 334-42.
- Crawford, Barbara E. 1987. Scandinavian Scotland. Scotland in the Early Middle Ages 2. Leicester: Leicester University Press.
- Donaldson, Gordon. 1988. ‘Introductory Essay: The Contemporary Scene’. In Crawford 1988, 1-9.
- Internal references
- 2022, ‘ Anonymous, Laxdœla 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, pp. 1199-1203. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=11> (accessed 18 April 2024)
- (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Orkneyinga saga’ 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=47> (accessed 18 April 2024)