Fragments — Bjarni Frag^III

The fragments edited here (Bjarni Frag 1-5) are preserved at various locations in ms. W of Skm (SnE) and in mss of LaufE (papp10ˣ, 2368ˣ, 743ˣ, 742ˣ, 1496ˣ). Three of the fragments (1, 4, 5) seem to cohere: they deal with the torture of two men, one of whom has been blinded. He is referred to as fylkir ‘ruler’. Fragment 4 addresses a man in direct speech who seems to be an executioner, and Frag 5 is about a man whom a woman unties from the wheel and releases from an unspecified place ‘above’. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, III, 196) was the first to suggest that the two men in Frag 1, 4 and 5 are the Norwegian kings Magnús blindi ‘the Blind’ (Frag 1) and Sigurðr slembidjákn ‘Fortuitous Deacon(?)’ (Frag 5) (see their Biographies in SkP II, lxxxvi-lxxxvii, xc). If this is correct, these fragments could be dated to a time after 1139 (the death of Sigurðr slembidjákn). Although the blinded man who is called fylkir ‘ruler’ in st. 1 indeed may be Magnús blindi, the details about Sigurðr slembidjákn’s death given in the prose sources (HSona ch. 12, ÍF 28, 319-20; ÍF 24, 208-9) do not agree with what is told in the stanzas, however (see Introduction to Frag 5 below). Hence the only thing that can be said about sts 4 and 5 is that their theme is torture and that they possibly have to do with the twelfth-century Norwegian civil wars. Fragment 2 appears to be dealing with battle and Frag 3 describes a journey at sea; their contexts cannot be established with any certainty.

References

1. Bibliography
2. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
3. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
4. SkP II = Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Ed. Kari Ellen Gade. 2009.
5. ÍF 23-4 = Morkinskinna. Ed. Ármann Jakobsson and Þórður Ingi Guðjónsson. 2009.
6. Internal references
7. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
8. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 1 May 2024)
9. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Haraldssona 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=143> (accessed 1 May 2024)
10. Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Bjarni ...ason, Fragments 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 21.
11. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Laufás Edda’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=10928> (accessed 1 May 2024)