Guðbrandr í Svǫlum — Guðbr^IV

Guðbrandr (Guðbr) is introduced in Hrafn without a patronymic and nothing is known about his life or family. A couplet in the Málskrúðsfræði section of The Third Grammatical Treatise (TGT) by Ólafr hvítaskáld and in the so-called Fifth Grammatical Treatise is attributed to a Guðbrandr (Guðbr Frag 2^III) and it has been suggested that he is the same poet who composed a helmingr about Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson (LH II, 169), although supporting evidence is lacking. In TGT the couplet is introduced with the words sem Guðbrandr kvað í Svǫlu [variant Svǫlum] ‘as Guðbrandr composed in/from Svala’. Finnur Jónsson (LH II, 169; TGT 1927, 57) suggested interpreting Svǫlu or Svǫlum as a place-name, but acknowledged that it could also be the name of a poem, as Björn M. Ólsen (TGT 1884, 194) suggested, associating it with svala f. ‘swallow’, a bird whose constant twittering could be regarded as sorrowful or disagreeable; cf. Queen Gunnhildr’s attempt to distract Egill Skallagrímsson in York (ÍF 2, 182-3). The poet is called Guðbrandr í Svǫlum in Skj and tentatively here. Guðrún P. Helgadóttir (Hrafn 1987, xlii) proposed that the poet Guðbrandr could be the same man as Guðbrandr Gestsson who is mentioned in Hrafn (Hrafn 1987, 9) in connection with ominous stanzas recited by a dream-man called Ingólfr (or Ingúlfr), but there is no evidence to support this proposal.

References

1. Internal references
2. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Hrafns saga Sveinbjarnarsonar in sérstaka’ in Guðrún Nordal (ed.), Poetry on Icelandic History. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 4. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=42> (accessed 19 April 2024)