Þul Manna 6^III

Enn eru eptir         aldar heiti:
hirð ok gestir         ok húskarlar,
inndrótt ok hjón,         ef ek alt segi,
rúni ok þopti         ok ráðgjafi.

Enn eru eptir heiti aldar: hirð ok gestir ok húskarlar, inndrótt ok hjón, ef ek segi alt, rúni ok þopti ok ráðgjafi.

There are still names of people to come: court and guests and housecarls, bodyguard and household, if I mention everything, confidant and rowing-mate and counsellor.

Mss: R(42v), Tˣ(44v), C(11v), A(18v), B(8v), 744ˣ(65r) (SnE)

Readings: [1] eptir: ‘eft[…]’ B, eftir 744ˣ    [2] aldar: ‘[…]lldar’ B, ‘alldar’ 744ˣ    [3] ok: om. Tˣ    [4] húskarlar: so Tˣ, C, A, ‘hurskarlar’ R, ‘huss[…]’ B, ‘huskarlar’ 744ˣ    [5] inndrótt ok: inndrótt ráðgjafi Tˣ    [7] rúni: ‘runni’ Tˣ;    þopti: ‘[…]pti’ B, þopti 744ˣ    [8] ok ráðgjafi: om. Tˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 661, Skj BI, 662, Skald I, 327; SnE 1848-87, I, 560, II, 475, 558, 618, SnE 1931, 199, SnE 1998, I, 117.

Notes: [1-2] enn eru eptir heiti aldar ‘there are still names of people to come’: This introduction and the initial capital letters in mss R, Tˣ and C show that Þul Manna is actually divided into two lists of heiti. — [3-5]: Some of the terms contained in these lines also occur in the section of Skm (SnE 1998, I, 80) which discusses kennings for ‘rulers’ and terms for men they have in their service (hirð(menn) ‘retainers’, l. 3; húskarlar ‘housecarls’, l. 4; inndrótt ‘bodyguard’, l. 5). See Notes below. — [3] gestir ‘guests’: This is the pl. form of gestr m. ‘guest’, but here it is a term for a certain group of lower-ranking retainers at the Norwegian court who did not have the full privileges of hirðmenn, members of the retinue (see next Note). The word is not found in poetry with this meaning. — [4] húskarlar ‘housecarls’: In Icelandic, húskarlar means ‘man-servants’, but here these are members of the king’s (or earl’s) bodyguard or following. Skm (SnE 1998, I, 80) offers the following explanation of this term: Konungar ok jarlar hafa til fylgðar með sér þá menn er hirðmenn heita ok húskarlar, en lendir menn hafa ok sér handgengna menn þá er í Danmǫrku ok í Svíþjóð eru hirðmenn *kallaðir, en í Nóregi húskarlar, ok sverja þeir þó eiða svá sem hirðmenn konungum. Húskarlar konunga váru mjǫk hirðmenn kallaðir í fornesk<j>u ‘Kings and jarls have in their service those men who are called retainers and housecarls, but district chieftains also have men in their service who are called retainers in Denmark and Sweden, but housecarls in Norway, and yet they swear oaths just as retainers do to kings. The kings’ housecarls were frequently called retainers in ancient times’. — [5] inndrótt (f.) ‘bodyguard’: Cf. Skm (SnE 1998, I, 80): Hirðmenn ok húskarla hǫfðingja má svá kenna at kalla þá inndrótt eða verðung eða *heiðmenn ‘The chieftains’ retainers and housecarls can be referred to by calling them bodyguards or paid troop or paid men’. — [7] rúni (m.) ‘confidant’: In C, this word has a capital letter. — [7] þopti (m.) ‘rowing-mate’: I.e. ‘(rowing) bench-mate’ (from þopta f. ‘rowing bench’). Snorri explains the word as follows (Skm, SnE 1998, I, 107): Þopti er *hálfrýmis félagi ‘Þopti is one who shares the same rowing bench’.

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. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
5. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
6. Internal references
7. (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 19 April 2024)
8. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Manna heiti’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 774. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3192> (accessed 19 April 2024)