Lausavísa — Hákg LvI
Hákon inn góði Haraldsson
R. D. Fulk 2012, ‘ Hákon inn góði Haraldsson, Lausavísa’ 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. 153. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1240> (accessed 19 March 2024)
This isolated
helmingr (
Hákg Lv) is preserved only within the
Fsk account of the battle of Fitjar (c. 961). It is presented as King Hákon’s response to
Eyv Lv 3, which
Fsk calls a
gamankviðling ‘game-ditty’, and so the pair may perhaps have been devised to illustrate the claim of
Eyv Hák 4 that the king was cheerful and joked with his men before the battle: see
Olsen (1962a, 6). Kock (
NN §
1927) likens the sentiment expressed in ll. 1, 4 concerning loyal repayment of a lord’s generosity, to that of
Beowulf ll. 2633–38a and
The Fight at Finnsburg ll. 37–40. He seems convinced of Hákon’s authorship, as he says the similarity of sentiment is not surprising in a foster-son of the English king Æthelstan.
Poole (1988, 175) argues that these two
helmingar attributed to Eyvindr and Hákon, along with
Eyv Lv 1, 2, 4 and 5, formed part of a narrative poem by Eyvindr about the battle. The mss of
Fsk (all paper transcripts) are listed below;
51ˣ is chosen as the main ms. here.
References
- Bibliography
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Olsen, Magnus. 1962a. Edda- og Skaldekvad. Forarbeider til kommentar. VI. Eyvindr Skáldaspillir, Glúmr Geirason, Einarr Skálaglamm. Avhandlingar utgitt av Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi i Oslo II. Hist.-filos. kl. new ser. 4. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
- Poole, Russell. 1988. ‘The Cooperative Principle in Medieval Interpretations of Skaldic Verse: Snorri Sturluson, Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, and Eyvindr Skáldaspillir’. JEGP 87, 159-78.
- Internal references
- (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 March 2024)
- R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Eyvindr skáldaspillir Finnsson, Hákonarmál 4’ 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. 178.
- Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Eyvindr skáldaspillir Finnsson, Lausavísur 1’ 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. 215.
- Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Eyvindr skáldaspillir Finnsson, 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. 218.
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