Fragment — StarkSt Frag^III

This fragment (StarkSt Frag), attributed to Starkaðr gamli ‘the Old’ in TGT, is unaccountably omitted from Skj. Much of the poetry attributed to Starkaðr in Gautreks saga (Gautr) follows roughly the bálkarlag metre of this fragment or the metre Starkaðar lag exemplified in Ht (SnE 2007, 38, but see also pp. 74-5 as well as SnSt Ht 97-9 and Notes there). It must be presumed that Óláfr believed this fragment to have been composed by the legendary skald, in which case it is the only vernacular fragment which can be attributed to Starkaðr with any authority. However, this seems highly unlikely and there is nothing in the half-stanza which can be used to date it on internal grounds (see Note to l. 4 below).

Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, III, 139) suggested that the subject of the helmingr is the Saxon champion Hama, whom Starkaðr fought according to Saxo (Saxo 2015, I, vi. 5. 17, pp. 388-91). Jón Sigurðsson, however, added in the same volume (SnE 1848-87, III, 294 n. 3) that the subject could equally have been Saxo’s Gegathus (ON Geigaðr). This seems more likely: Book 6 also describes a fight between Starkaðr and Geigaðr, adding (Saxo 2015, I, vi. 5. 12, pp. 386-7): unde postmodum in quodam carmine non alias tristiorem sibi plagam incidisse perhibuit ‘later in a song he told how he had never encountered, before or since, such a rigorous blow’. For Starkaðr, see his Biography in SkP VIII. The helmingr is transmitted in mss A (main ms.), B and W of TGT.

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. Saxo 2005 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2005. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum / Danmarkshistorien. Trans. Peter Zeeberg. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Det danske sprog- og litteraturselskab & Gads forlag.
4. SkP VII = Poetry on Christian Subjects. Ed. Margaret Clunies Ross. 2007.
5. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
6. Saxo 2015 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2015. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes. Trans. Peter Fisher. Oxford Medieval Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
7. Internal references
8. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Gautreks saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 241. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=9> (accessed 3 May 2024)
9. (forthcoming), ‘ Óláfr hvítaskáld Þórðarson, The Third Grammatical Treatise’ in Tarrin Wills (ed.), The Third Grammatical Treatise. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=32> (accessed 3 May 2024)
10. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Háttatal’ 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=165> (accessed 3 May 2024)
11. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 97’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1206.