Poem about Gizurr gullbrárskáld — Refr Giz^III

These three stanzas about Gizurr gullbrárskáld ‘Gold-eyelash poet’ (Refr Giz) are preserved at different places in Óláfs saga helga (ÓHHkr and ÓH; st. 1) and SnE (Skm; sts 2-3). Guðbrandur Vigfússon (CPB II, 166) was the first to assign them to a poem about Gizurr gullbrárskáld on the basis of their content. The first stanza is found in ÓHHkr and ÓH in the context of the battle of Stiklestad (Stiklastaðir, 29 August 1030). Though the stanza itself does not mention Gizurr’s death, it is inserted into the prose narrative about his death. The poem about Gizurr is thus likely an erfidrápa ‘memorial drápa’. Stanzas 2 and 3 appear at different locations in Skm (SnE), and st. 3 is also found in LaufE. Both helmingar describe how Refr learned to compose poetry from the poem’s addressee (who must have been a poet himself), and that is why they have been connected with the putative poem about Gizurr (for Gizurr gullbrárskáld or svarti ‘the Black’ (Gizsv), see his Biography in SkP I). In the past, the two half-stanzas have tentatively been regarded as a single stanza (SnE 1848-87, III, 209), but this is doubtful because st. 3 differs metrically from st. 2 – it is composed in the verse-form alhent ‘completely rhymed’, in which each line contains two pairs of aðalhendingar (see SnSt Ht 44 and SnE 2007, 21).

Stanza 1 is transmitted in ms. Kˣ (the main ms. for this edition) of Hkr as well as in the ÓH mss Holm2, J2ˣ, 321ˣ, 73aˣ, Holm4, 61, 325VII, 325V, Flat, Tóm. Stanza 2 is found in mss R (main ms.), Tˣ, W, U and B of Skm. Stanza 3 is also preserved in mss R (main ms.), Tˣ, W, U and B, as well as in mss 2368ˣ and 743ˣ of LaufE.

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. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
4. SkP I = Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Ed. Diana Whaley. 2012.
5. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
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), ‘ Unattributed, Heimskringla’ 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=4> (accessed 23 April 2024)
9. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Óláfs saga helga’ 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=53> (accessed 23 April 2024)
10. (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 23 April 2024)
11. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Óláfs saga helga (in Heimskringla)’ 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=152> (accessed 23 April 2024)
12. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 44’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1153.
13. (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 23 April 2024)