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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Þul Kálfv 3III

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Kálfsvísa 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 667.

Anonymous ÞulurKálfsvísa
234

Áli Hrafni,         — til íss riðu —
en annarr austr         und Aðilsi
grár hvarfaði         geiri undaðr.

Áli Hrafni – riðu til íss –, en annarr, grár undaðr geiri, hvarfaði austr und Aðilsi.

Áli [rode] Hrafn – they rode to the ice –, and another one, a grey one wounded by a spear, staggered to the east under Aðils.

Mss: R(37v), Tˣ(39r), U(40r), A(14v), C(6v) (SnE); papp10ˣ(42v) (ll. 1-2), 2368ˣ(95) (l. 1), 743ˣ(75r) (l. 1) (LaufE)

Readings: [2] til: en til U, er til A, papp10ˣ    [4] und: undir U    [5] grár: gramr A    [6] geiri: so all others, geri R

Editions: Skj AI, 651, Skj BI, 657, Skald I, 321; SnE 1848-87, I, 482-5, II, 352, 459, 595, SnE 1931, 170, SnE 1998, I, 89; LaufE 1979, 275, 353, NK 320.

Notes: [All]: This is the only stanza in Kálfv that contains references to a narrative. The first line has the same format as the other stanzas, but ll. 2-6 (omitted in most mss of LaufE) must refer to the battle between Aðils and Áli on the ice of Lake Vänern in Sweden where Áli fell (see ÍF 26, 57): Þeir áttu orrostu á Vænis ísi. Þar fell Áli konungr, en Aðils hafði sigr … Aðils konungr var mjǫk kærr at góðhestum … Sløngvir hét hestr hans, en annarr Hrafn. Þann tók hann af Ála dauðum ‘They did battle on the ice of Vänern. King Áli fell there, and Aðils was victorious … King Aðils was very fond of good horses … Sløngvir was the name of his horse, and another was called Hrafn. That one he took from the dead Áli’. See also SnE 1998, I, 58 and Beowulf 2008, 297.  — [1]: The line lacks a verb, and some earlier eds (SnE 1848-87; SnE 1998) give this and the previous stanza as one (see Introduction above). — [1] Áli: According to Hkr (ÍF 26, 57), he was a Norwegian and king of Oppland (see also Skjǫldunga saga, ÍF 35, 29), but his lineage given in Beowulf indicates that he was Swedish (Swed. Uppland confused with Norw. Upplǫnd; see Beowulf 2008, lxii). For his horse, Hrafn lit. ‘raven’, see Note to [All] above.  — [2-6]: These lines have been omitted in LaufE (ms. papp10ˣ has l. 2), most likely because they do not contain any horse-names.  — [2] riðu ‘they rode’: Taken here as the verb in a parenthetic clause, with the implied subject ‘they’ referring to Áli and Aðils (so also SnE 1998, II, 376: ríða). Faulkes (SnE 1998, I, 211) suggests that, if sts 2-3 are taken as one stanza, all of the persons mentioned in our st. 2 (Vésteinn, Vifill, Meinþjófr and Morginn) could have been participants in the battle. According to Skjǫldunga saga (ÍF 35, 29) and SnE (SnE 1998, I, 58), Aðils won the battle with the help of twelve berserks sent to him by King Hrólfr kraki ‘Pole-ladder’ of Denmark. — [3-6]: Faulkes (SnE 1998, I, 211) speculates whether ll. 3-6 also could contain the names of horses (nom. Annarr l. 3, Hvarfaðr l. 5, Geirr l. 6) and their riders (nom. Aðils l. 4, Grár l. 5, Undaðr l. 6), but that is unlikely (and cf. the omission of these ll. in LaufE and Note to ll. 2-6 above).  — [3, 5] annarr, grár ‘another one, a grey one’: This must refer to Aðils’s horse bringing him back to Uppsala (austr ‘to the east’ l. 3) after the battle. None of the extant sources mentions this wounded horse, and it would not appear to have been Hrafn, the horse that Aðils takes from the dead Áli (see Note to [All] above). For Aðils’s own horse, see st. 4/4 below. — [4] Aðilsi ‘Aðils’: The Swedish king Aðils of Uppsala, known from Skjǫldunga saga (ÍF 35, 29-33), Hkr (ÍF 26, 56-9), Skm (SnE 1998, I, 58-9) and Hrólfs saga kraka (see also Saxo 2005, II, 642: At(h)islus; Athislanus).  — [5] grár ‘a grey one’: The A variant, gramr (m. nom. sg.) ‘lord’ (gramr hvarfaði ‘the lord staggered’) is a lectio facilior.

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. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  4. LaufE 1979 = Faulkes, Anthony, ed. 1979. Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar (Laufás Edda). RSÁM 13. Vol. I of Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1977-9.
  5. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
  6. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
  7. ÍF 35 = Danakonunga sǫgur. Ed. Bjarni Guðnason. 1982.
  8. Beowulf 2008 = Fulk, Robert D., Robert E. Bjork and John D. Niles, eds. 2008. Klaeber’s Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg. 4th rev. edn of Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed. Fr. Klaeber. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.
  9. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
  10. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  11. 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.
  12. Internal references
  13. 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].
  14. (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 28 March 2024)
  15. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hrólfs saga kraka’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 539. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=73> (accessed 28 March 2024)
  16. (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 28 March 2024)
  17. Not published: do not cite (AðilsVIII)
  18. Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Kálfsvísa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 663. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1044> (accessed 28 March 2024)
  19. (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 28 March 2024)
  20. Not published: do not cite ()
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