Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Sveinn tjúguskegg Haraldsson, Lausavísa 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. 379.
Grenndi Þórleifr Þrœnda
þengils hróðr fyr drengjum;
hafa ólítit ýtar
Jarlsníð borit víða.
N*orðr réð verstan virðum
vellstœri brag fœra,
brot lands ok galt gæti
gráliga léons bôru.
Þórleifr grenndi hróðr {þengils Þrœnda} fyr drengjum; ýtar hafa borit víða ólítit Jarlsníð. Réð fœra n*orðr {virðum vellstœri} verstan brag ok galt {gæti lands} gráliga brot {léons bôru}.
Þorleifr diminished the praise {of the ruler of the Þrœndir} [NORWEGIAN RULER = Hákon] before the warriors; men have carried widely the not small Jarlsníð (‘Níð against the jarl’). He brought north {to the honoured gold-increaser} [GENEROUS MAN = Hákon] the worst poem and repaid {the guardian of the land} [RULER = Hákon] bitterly for the destruction {of the lion of the wave} [SHIP].
Mss: Flat(28rb) (Flat)
Readings: [1] Grenndi: greindi Flat [2] hróðr: ‘hrod’ Flat; fyr: frá Flat [5] N*orðr: Njǫrðr Flat; verstan: vestan Flat [7] ok: om. Flat
Editions: Skj AI, 186, Skj BI, 175-6, Skald I, 93, NN §§1896, 3396M; Flat 1860-8, I, 213, ÍF 9, 224, ÞorlJ 1987, 89 (ÞorlJ).
Context: King Sveinn bestows a nickname on Þorleifr (see Introduction), then speaks this stanza.
Notes: [1] grenndi ‘diminished’: Although Flat’s reading of greindi gives reasonable sense (‘Þorleifr expounded the praise of the ruler’), it is at odds with the context. It is therefore emended here (as in Skj B, Skald and ÍF 9) to grenndi, from grenna ‘to reduce, diminish’, which produces a more contextually apt reading, and emendation is justifiable since (the often corrupt) Flat is the only ms. The expression inverts the usual convention that skalds increase the praise and honour of their subjects. — [1] Þórleifr ‘Þorleifr’: See Introduction; for another reference to Þorleifr’s influence see Hhali Lv. — [2] hróðr ‘the praise’: Emendation again seems necessary here (and is adopted in Skj B, Skald and ÍF 9), as the acc. sg. of hróðr is hróðr, not *hróð. — [2] fyr ‘before’: Flat reads frá, but Skj B and ÍF 9 both emend to fyr, and this is followed here. Kock (NN §1896A; Skald) argues for the retention of the ms. reading, but it is hard to see how this gives good sense, and confusion of superscript abbreviations for fyr and frá in the course of scribal transmission is very plausible. — [4] Jarlsníð ‘Jarlsníð (“Níð against the jarl”)’: This appears to be the title of Þorleifr’s poem, but could instead be a descriptive phrase (see Þjsk Jarl). Níð is abuse or insult, usually of an obscene kind. — [5-6]: These two lines are difficult, and they are lightly emended in this edn as in most others. (a) Kock (NN §§1896B and C, 3396M; Skald, and followed in ÍF 9 and here) emends Njǫrðr (spelt ‘niordr’ in Flat) to norðr ‘to the north’ and reads vestan ‘from the west’ as verstan ‘worst’; verstan is either a minor emendation or a possible interpretation of the spelling vestan (cf. ANG §272.3 for the replacement of <rs> before another consonant by <ss> or <s>). This is an attractive solution: although there is no explicit subject, the resultant sentence fits well with the tenor of the stanza and anecdote as a whole. Under this interpretation the vellstœri ‘gold-increaser’ is probably Hákon, recipient of the níð poem. Stœrir ‘increaser’ is normally found in kennings meaning ‘battle-increaser [WARRIOR]’ (Meissner 304), while words like vell meaning ‘gold, treasure’ are normally found in kennings meaning ‘treasure-destroyer/hurler [GENEROUS MAN]’ (Meissner 314-5). The kenning vellstœrir may therefore be another ironic inversion of convention, portraying Hákon as a hoarder rather than generous giver. (b) Finnur Jónsson in Skj B (following Konráð Gíslason) chooses to emend vestan to víga, to create a warrior-kenning Njǫrðr víga ‘Njǫrðr of battles’, which is also found elsewhere (see LP: Njǫrðr). (c) Emendation can be avoided by reading, with Fms 12, 69, Njǫrðr réð fœra brag vestan virðum vellstœri ‘the man [Þorleifr] has managed to bring the poem from the west to the honoured gold-increaser [GENEROUS MAN = Sveinn]’. However, this assumes that the god’s name Njǫrðr stands alone as a heiti or half-kenning for ‘man’, here Þorleifr, whereas Njǫrðr is extremely common as the base-word of full kennings (Meissner 261-2). There are no certain examples of names of deities being used as half-kennings in early skaldic poetry (Meissner 79), though this would perhaps be conceivable if this stanza were a C12th product (cf. Note to l. 8). Vestan could also be retained with the meaning ‘from the west’, presumably from Norway to Denmark, in which case the brag(r) ‘poem’ could be either the níð poem itself or the poem Þorleifr composed for Sveinn (Þjsk Sveinn). — [7] brot; lands ‘for the destruction’; ‘of the land’: Kock (NN §1896D and E; Skald) prefers to take brotland as a cpd meaning ‘hilly land’, and argues that this results in an elaborate seafarer-kenning, referring to Hákon, hence ‘bitterly repaid the guardian of the hilly land of the lion of the wave [SHIP > SEA > SEAFARER]’. This is conceivable, but unnecessary. — [7] ok ‘and’: The line in Flat has only five syllables, suggesting that ok should be added, as here (so Skj B, Skald and ÍF 9). The omission of ok seems to be a case of haplography, since the graph used at the end of -lands (‘z’ with horizontal bar) is identical to the abbreviation for ok. — [8] léons ‘of the lion’: The few other occurrences of this word in skaldic verse are C12th (LP: léó, léón; see also Note to Þjsk Lv 5/6).
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