Þorleifr skúma Þorkelsson — ÞskúmI
skaldsVol. 1, 358 — — ed. Diana Whaley
Poetry
Biography
Diana Whaley 2012, ‘(Biography of) Þorleifr skúma Þorkelsson’ 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. 358.
Þorleifr (Þskúm), together with the sole stanza attributed to him, features in the Jvs and Fsk accounts of the battle of Hjǫrungavágr (Liavågen, c. 985), in which he fell; see Eskál Lv 3, Bjbp Jóms 34/5 and Context to Jóms 34. He is said in Jvs (1879, 73) to have been the son of Þorkell inn auðgi ‘the Wealthy’ of Mýrar in Dýrafjörður, north-west Iceland, and skúma appears as his nickname, whereas Fsk (ÍF 29, 131) refers to Skúmr as his given name, and regards Þórðr ǫrvhǫnd ‘Left-handed’ (also mentioned in Jvs) as his brother. The meaning of the nickname skúma is uncertain. Finnur Jónsson (1907, 200) and Lind (1920-1, 335) take it to mean ‘squinting’, though the root skúm- also has associations with darkness, as in skúmi m. ‘dusk’ and skúma-skot n. ‘dusk, a dark nook’ (CVC: skúmi; LP: skúmr), and Finnur Jónsson (LP) suggests skummelt udseende person ‘gloomy-looking person’ for skúmr m. in Hundk Lv 3/7VIII.
References
- Bibliography
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
- Lind, Eric Henrik. 1920-1. Norsk-isländska personbinamn från medeltiden: samlade ock utgivna med forkläringar. Uppsala: Lundequist.
- Finnur Jónsson. 1907. ‘Tilnavne i den islandske oldlitteratur’. ÅNOH, 161-381.
- ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
- Internal references
- (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Jómsvíkinga saga’ 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=51> (accessed 19 April 2024)
- (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Fagrskinna’ 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=56> (accessed 19 April 2024)
- Emily Lethbridge (ed.) 2012, ‘Bjarni byskup Kolbeinsson, Jómsvíkingadrápa 34’ 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. 989.
- Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2012, ‘Einarr skálaglamm Helgason, Lausavísur 3’ 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. 333.
- Richard L. Harris (ed.) 2017, ‘Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis 33 (Hundingi konungr, Lausavísur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 524.
other information
Þorleifr skúma Þorkelsson (Þskúm)
10th century
Skj AI, 117; BI, 111-112
volume 1
main editor: Diana Whaley