Hákonardrápa — Hfr Hákdr^III

The nine helmingar edited here, Hallfreðr Óttarsson’s Hákonardrápa ‘Drápa about Hákon’ (Hfr Hákdr), are rich in visual imagery and complex, often punning mythological references, but contain no historical realia such as personal names, toponyms, or names of battles. All are attributed to Hallfreðr in their sole source, Skáldskaparmál (Skm), and commonalities of style and subject-matter and the presence of extended metaphors sustained across multiple stanzas are a strong argument that they do in fact belong to a single poem, usually identified with the Hákonardrápa Hallfreðr is said in his saga (Hallfr ch. 5, ÍF 8, 151) to have composed for Hákon jarl inn ríki ‘the Mighty’ Sigurðarson (see Note to st. 1/3 below).

In its surviving form the poem has three topics: a ruler’s protection of his subjects (st. 1); his steadfast endurance of a storm of missiles in battle at sea (sts 2-4); and his conquest of territory (sts 5-8). Each of these is treated in terms of a single metaphor (respectively, a mighty tree sheltering saplings, a hailstorm, and the seduction of a woman), which is borne both by the kennings themselves and by adjectival and verbal elements which extend their imagery (e.g. the ruler is described in st. 1 as rœkilundr brumaðr hári ‘heeding-tree, budded with hair’; see Lie 1957 for an analysis of this feature). Much critical attention has focused on the hieros gamos ‘sacred marriage’ (Maier 1999) depicted in sts 5-8, in which the poem’s dedicatee plays the part of Óðinn who seduces Jǫrð (and so, via ofljóst ‘too transparent’, conquers jǫrð ‘land’), ríkismôlum stála ‘with sovereign speeches of swords’ (for other instances of this topos in tenth- and eleventh-century poetry see e.g. Eyv Hál^I, Edáð Banddr 3^I, Gsind Hákdr 5^I, ÞjóðA Sex 3^II). Some have seen this as evidence for an ancient ritual involving a marriage between the ruling jarl and a female figure personifying his realm (Frank 1978; Ström 1981; 1983; Steinsland 1991; Sundqvist 2005a), while to others it is purely figurative (Frank 2007; Sonne 2008), and draws on Christian ideas of Jerusalem as the bride of God (Strömbäck 1975). The great variety of phenomena embraced by the concept hieros gamos (cf. Maier 1999; see Frank 2007 for a selection of instances) complicates attempts to use comparative data to elucidate the possible ritual background to skalds’ use of this topos. Within the poem, on the other hand, it is clearly one of a series of rhetorical strategies which coordinate the poem’s metaphorical/mythical and referential/earthly levels. Ideologically it is particularly significant insofar as it implicates the poem’s protagonist in a system of mythic family relations.

Both the Möðruvallabók and the Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar in mesta redactions of Hallfreðar saga give a brief account of the young skald’s first trip to Norway, undertaken in order to perform a praise poem – not quoted in the saga – before Hákon jarl, er þá réð Nóregi ‘who then ruled Norway’ (Hallfr ch. 5, ÍF 8, 151). The poem, which most manuscripts add was a drápa, is well-rewarded, and Hákon invites Hallfreðr to spend the winter with him, after which he returns to Iceland (Hallfr ch. 5, ÍF 8, 151). When next Hallfreðr travels to Norway Hákon is dead and Óláfr Tryggvason is king. Heimskringla reports Hallfreðr’s response to Óláfr Tryggvason’s invitation to join his retinue (ÍF 26, 331): Ek var fyrr hirðmaðr Hákonar jarls ‘I was formerly Hákon jarl’s retainer’.

Other than these two narrative sources, no external evidence links Hallfreðr to Hákon. He is not listed among Hákon’s skalds in Skáldatal (cf. SnE 1848-87, III, 256, 266), and HaukrV Ísldr 12^IV does not name the tveir dǫglingar ‘two lords’ for whom Hallfreðr is said to have composed. Some have accordingly been suspicious of the link to Hákon. Fidjestøl (1982, 102-3) calls the poem Dikt om ein jarl ‘Poem about a jarl’ and suggests it may have been composed for Eiríkr jarl Hákonarson (r. c. 1000-c. 1014); CPB assigns all nine helmingar, and the editors of the Arnamagnæan edition of SnE sts 1 and 4, to an unattested poem about Rǫgnvaldr jarl Úlfsson (CPB II, 95-6; SnE 1848-87, III, 480-1); cf. also Sonne (2008), Mundal (2009). However, sufficient internal evidence exists to justify support of the attribution in the narrative sources. Two helmingar (sts 4 and 7) are quoted in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 81) as instances of kennings of the rúnar konungs ‘king’s confidants’ type for jarlar ok hersir ok hirðmenn ‘jarls and hersir and retainers’, which supports the idea that this is a poem for a nobleman rather than a king (although such kennings are occasionally used of kings, cf. Meissner 362). Hákdr also repeatedly echoes Einarr skálaglamm’s Vellekla (Eskál Vell¹; see Notes to sts 1, 2, 3; von See 1977a) and Tindr Hallkelsson’s Hákonardrápa (Tindr Hákdr¹; see Notes to sts 2, 4, 5), both poems addressed to Hákon, in what seems to be a conscious display of poetic rivalry on the part of Hákon’s new skald. And the profusion of pagan references, compared with their almost complete absence from e.g. Hallfreðr’s Erfidrápa (Hfr ErfÓl¹), suggests that, if genuine (and there is no reason to think otherwise), Hákdr predates Hallfreðr’s conversion to Christianity at the hands of Óláfr Tryggvason.

If the poem was performed before Hákon jarl (r. c. 970-c. 995) it must have been composed before 995. Solid evidence for a terminus post quem is lacking. Davidson (1983, 199-200, 481) and Marold (2005a, 110-18) see references to episodes in the battle of Hjǫrungavágr (Liavågen) in Hákdr (see Notes to sts 2/4 and 4/1, 4, also LH I, 548-9, Ström 1981). The position of st. 2 in Skm, where it is quoted immediately after helmingar from Eskál Vell and Tindr Hákdr referring to Hjǫrungavágr, may suggest that the compiler of SnE also thought Hfr Hákdr was connected with this battle. However, the battle of Hjǫrungavágr cannot be any more closely dated than Hákon’s reign, and Ohlmarks’s (1958, 428-9) attempt to link the poem with the battle of Limfjorden, c. 970, is not convincing. Although Hallfreðr is said in his saga to be twenty at the time of his Norwegian trip (Hallfr ch. 3, ÍF 8, 144), the saga’s chronology is too uncertain to allow a dating of the poem itself to be deduced from this information (cf. ÍF 8, xlv-li).

It is likely that some stanzas have been lost (there appears to be no stef, for instance, though cf. Wisén 1886-9, I, 196; Marold 2005a, 117-18), and the nature of citation in Skm means there is little external evidence for stanza order. Although retaining the sequence in which the helmingar occur in the ms. witness is the editor’s natural point of departure, it seems rather unlikely that this ordering has intrinsic significance when helmingar are cited in SnE to exemplify different kenning-types, as they mostly are here (cf. however Marold 2005a). The two helmingar edited here as st. 2 are an exception, as they are cited in sequence as examples of armour-kennings (and in A written as a single stanza). Furthermore, the second helmingr of st. 2 opens with a bound clause introduced by the adv. þaðan, so it seems reasonable to regard it not merely as following 2/1-4 in the poem as a whole, but as the second helmingr of a stanza whose first is 2/1-4, as Wisén (1886-9, I) suggests.

The stanzas may be divided into two sets on the basis of subject-matter and kennings: four helmingar (sts 5-8 below) describing the jarl taking the forested land of Norway comprise the ‘marriage’ set, and three helmingar (sts 2-4 below) depicting the jarl at war, with many armour-kennings, comprise the ‘battle’ set; st. 1, in which the jarl appears as a mighty tree protecting his subjects, is an ‘outlier’. Most previous editors present the two groups in sequence, while a minority (among them Skj) insert the marriage set into the battle set. The separation of st. 4 from the very similar sts 2/1-4 and 3 in Skj’s arrangement seems capricious, so a sequential arrangement has been preferred here, and ‘battle’ then ‘marriage’ perhaps makes slightly more sense than the reverse.

The ordering of the stanzas within the two sets is largely a matter of editorial taste and varies significantly in previous editions. The order of citation in Skm offers a few anchor points: sts 7 and 8 are cited in sequence and both exemplify mythological kennings for ‘earth’ (jǫrð), so Skm’s ordering is at least potentially meaningful; as noted above, the same is true for the helmingar of st. 2. And sts 3 and 4 repeat the movement from past-tense general statement to present-tense consequence seen in the two helmingar of st. 2 (the four-line sts 3+4 could, as Marold 2005a, 116 n. 15 suggests, be combined into a single eight-line stanza, though this is not done here). But there is no reason to prefer any particular position for the remaining two stanzas of the marriage set. The present editor shares Marold’s (2005a, 117-18) scepticism as to the presence of a narrative logic here (see however Lie 1957, 97; Frank 1978, 85-6; Davidson 1983), and Skj’s ordering of these stanzas is retained in the edition below (cf. Fidjestøl 1982, 104-5, 171). The ‘outlier’ has been placed at the beginning of the sequence as edited here.

Stanzas from Hákdr are transmitted only in the Skm part of SnE, in the following mss: R (main ms.), Tˣ, W, U, A, B and C. Mss R, Tˣ and W contain all stanzas, U has sts 1-3, 4-7, A sts 1-3, B sts 5-8, and C has sts 1-2. Because B is now damaged and difficult to read, 744ˣ has been used selectively. Stanzas 1, 5 and 7 were copied from W in the Y version of LaufE (mss 2368ˣ and 743ˣ), but that version has no independent value and has not been used in this edition.

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. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
4. Fidjestøl, Bjarne. 1982. Det norrøne fyrstediktet. Universitet i Bergen Nordisk institutts skriftserie 11. Øvre Ervik: Alvheim & Eide.
5. Frank, Roberta. 1978. Old Norse Court Poetry: The Dróttkvætt Stanza. Islandica 42. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
6. 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.
7. Wisén, Theodor, ed. 1886-9. Carmina Norrœnæ: Ex reliquiis vetustioris norrœnæ poësis selecta, recognita, commentariis et glossario instructa. 2 vols. Lund: Ohlsson.
8. LH = Finnur Jónsson. 1920-4. Den oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie. 3 vols. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Gad.
9. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
10. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
11. Davidson, Daphne L. 1983. ‘Earl Hákon and his Poets’. D. Phil. thesis. Oxford.
12. ÍF 8 = Vatnsdœla saga. Ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson. 1939.
13. Lie, Hallvard. 1957. ‘Natur’ og ‘unatur’ i skaldekunsten. Avhandlinger utgitt av Det norske Videnskaps-Akademi i Oslo, II. Hist.-filos. kl., no. 1. Oslo: Aschehoug. Rpt. in Lie 1982, 201-315.
14. Frank, Roberta. 2007. ‘The Lay of the Land in Skaldic Praise Poetry’. In Glosecki 2007, 175-96.
15. See, Klaus von. 1977a. ‘Polemische Zitate in der Skaldendichtung. Hallfrøðr vandræðaskáld und Haldórr ókristni’. skandinavistik 7, 115-19. Rpt. in von See 1981a, 384-8.
16. Steinsland, Gro. 1991. Det hellige bryllup og norrøn kongeideologi. En analyse av hierogami-myten i Skírnismál, Ynglingatal, Háleygjatal og Hyndluljóð. Oslo: Solum.
17. Ström, Folke. 1983. ‘Hieros gamos-motivet i Hallfreðr Óttarssons Hákonardrápa och den nordnorska jarlavärdigheten’. ANF 98, 67-79.
18. Sundqvist, Olof. 2005a. ‘Aspects of Rulership Ideology in Early Scandinavia – with Particular References to the Skaldic Poem Ynglingatal’. In Erkens 2005, 87-124.
19. Marold, Edith. 2005a. ‘“Archäologie” der Skaldendichtung’. In Seiler 2005, 110-31.
20. Maier, Bernhard. 1999. ‘Heilige Hochzeit’. In RGA, 14, 167-8.
21. Ström, Folke. 1981. ‘Poetry as an Instrument of Propaganda: Járl Hákon and his Poets’. In Dronke et al. 1981, 440-58.
22. Sonne, Lasse. 2008. ‘Hallfreðr’s hellige bryllup – udgivelse og tolkning af et skjaldedigt’. MM, 36-49.
23. Mundal, Else. 2009. ‘Rekonstruksjonar av norrøne skaldedikt og andre rekonstruksjonar på usikkert grunnlag’. MM, 114-19.
24. Strömbäck, Dag. 1975. The Conversion of Iceland: A Survey. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
25. Internal references
26. 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].
27. (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 25 April 2024)
28. 2022, ‘ Anonymous, Hallfreðar saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 873-914. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=63> (accessed 25 April 2024)
29. (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 25 April 2024)
30. Diana Whaley 2012, ‘(Biography of) Óláfr Tryggvason’ 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. 383.
31. Russell Poole 2012, ‘(Biography of) Tindr Hallkelsson’ 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. 335.
32. Edith Marold with the assistance of Vivian Busch, Jana Krüger, Ann-Dörte Kyas and Katharina Seidel, translated from German by John Foulks 2012, ‘ Einarr skálaglamm Helgason, Vellekla’ 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. 280. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1181> (accessed 25 April 2024)
33. Russell Poole 2012, ‘ Eyvindr skáldaspillir Finnsson, Háleygjatal’ 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. 195. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1186> (accessed 25 April 2024)
34. Kate Heslop 2012, ‘ Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Erfidrápa Óláfs Tryggvasonar’ 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. 400. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1256> (accessed 25 April 2024)
35. Russell Poole 2012, ‘ Tindr Hallkelsson, Hákonardrápa’ 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. 336. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1487> (accessed 25 April 2024)
36. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Eyjólfr dáðaskáld, Bandadrápa 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. 460.
37. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Guthormr sindri, Hákonardrápa 5’ 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. 163.
38. Not published: do not cite (HaukrV Ísldr 12^IV)
39. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Sexstefja 3’ 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, pp. 114-16.
40. Not published: do not cite ()
41. (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 25 April 2024)