Anon (HSig) 9^II

Gramr vá frægr til fremðar
flestan sigr inn digri;
hlautk, þvít heima sôtum,
heilagt fall til vallar.
Uggik øfst ráð, tyggi;
yðr mun feigð of byrjuð;
— trolls gefið fôkum fyllar
fíks — veldra goð slíku.

Frægr gramr inn digri vá flestan sigr til fremðar; hlautk heilagt fall til vallar, þvít sôtum heima. Uggik øfst ráð, tyggi; feigð mun of byrjuð yðr; gefið {fôkum fíks trolls} fyllar; goð veldra slíku.

The famous stout prince won most victories for his advancement; I got a holy death on the battlefield, because we [I] stayed at home. I fear the final undertaking, lord; death will be in store for you; you will provide fill {for the steeds of the greedy troll} [WOLVES]; God will not be the cause of that.

Mss: Kˣ(576r-v), 39(30vb), F(52ra), E(26r), J2ˣ(293v) (Hkr); Holm2(76r), 972ˣ(595va), 972ˣ(595vb), 61(131vb), Tóm(163v), Bb(208rb) (ÓH); FskAˣ(293) (Fsk); Mork(18v) (MH); Flat(203va) (Flat); H(73v), Hr(52va) (H-Hr); 326bˣ(24v-25r) (Hem)

Readings: [1] vá: var 972ˣ(595vb), Flat;    frægr: frægn FskAˣ;    fremðar: feigðar Mork    [3] hlautk (‘hlꜵt ec’): hlaut 61, hlýtr þú Mork;    þvít (‘þvi at’): ef Mork, þó at 326bˣ;    sôtum: sætir Mork, sætim 326bˣ    [4] heilagt: ‘haleitt’ Hr    [5] øfst ráð: so Holm2, 972ˣ(595va), 972ˣ(595vb), 61, Mork, Flat, H, Hr, 326bˣ, enn at Kˣ, 39, F, J2ˣ, heldr at E, øfsta ráð Tóm, helzt at Bb, at FskAˣ;    tyggi: tyggja 61, Tóm, Mork, Flat, H, Hr, 326bˣ    [6] yðr mun feigð of byrjuð: ‘era feigd vm bvr egda’ Tóm;    mun: so 61, Bb, Mork, Flat, H, Hr, mani Kˣ, 39, F, J2ˣ, sé E, myni Holm2, 972ˣ(595vb), ‘muni’ 972ˣ(595va), er FskAˣ, man 326bˣ;    byrjuð: ‘byrdoð’ Holm2, ‘byrdod’ 972ˣ(595va), 972ˣ(595vb), byrjað FskAˣ, 326bˣ    [7] trolls: troll Tóm, Bb, Flat;    gefið: gefr 61, gefa Tóm, gefi Bb, ‘giora’ Flat;    fôkum: frœknum FskAˣ;    fyllar: fylli E, Holm2, 972ˣ(595va), 972ˣ(595vb), 61, Tóm, Flat, 326bˣ, fylki FskAˣ    [8] veldra goð: veldr atgerð FskAˣ;    veldra: veldrat F, 61, Flat, H, Hr, 326bˣ, réðrat Holm2, 972ˣ(595va), 972ˣ(595vb), Bb, ‘veldrar’ Tóm, réðra Mork

Editions: Skj AI, 430-1, Skj BI, 400-1, Skald I, 198, NN §§3096, 3234; ÍF 28, 178 (HSig ch. 82), F 1871, 243, E 1916, 91; ÓH 1941, I, 640 (ch. 270); ÍF 29, 277 (ch. 62); Mork 1867, 112, Mork 1928-32, 267, Andersson and Gade 2000, 264-5, 480 (MH); Flat 1860-8, III, 389 (MH); Fms 6, 404 (HSig ch. 114); Hb 1892-6, 333-4, Fellows Jensen 1962, 39-40 (Hem).

Context: The st. is recited to King Haraldr in a dream on (or before) his expedition to England, allegedly by Haraldr’s half-brother, Óláfr Haraldsson (S. Óláfr).

Notes: [2] inn digri ‘the stout’: Óláfr Haraldsson’s nickname. — [3] þvít sôtum heima ‘because we [I] stayed at home’: In contrast to Haraldr, who is setting out on an expedition to conquer England (þarflaust ‘needlessly’, see ÞjóðA Lv 11/4), Óláfr died in battle on native soil in the attempt to reconquer his patrimony, Norway. See Note to l. 4 below. — [4] heilagt fall ‘holy death’: Lit. ‘holy fall’. Skald emends the Hr variant ‘haleitt’ to hligt and reads hligt fall ‘splendid (or ‘high’) fall’ (see NN §3234). However, ‘haleitt’ is clearly a scribal error. Óláfr Haraldsson (S. Óláfr) died at the battle of Stiklestad (29 July 1030). He was later canonised and became the patron saint of Norway. — [5] uggik øfst ráð, tyggi ‘I fear the final undertaking, lord’: The Hkr variant, uggik enn, at, tyggi (uggik enn, tyggi, at… ‘yet I believe, lord, that…’) (so Skj B; Skald; ÍF 28; ÍF 29), is possible, but appears to be a syntactic simplification. Øfst ráð tyggja ‘the final undertaking of the king’ (so 61, Tóm, Mork, Flat, H, Hr, 326bˣ) is also possible but not supported by the majority of the ms. witnesses. — [6] mun of byrjuð ‘will be in store’: The subj. forms in the Hkr mss (mani ‘may be’; sé ‘be’) are caused by the subordinate at-cl. beginning in l. 5 (see Note to l. 5 above). Myni ‘may be’ (so Holm2, 972ˣ) is used to imply uncertainty in the main cl., which is less likely in view of the indic. (gefið ‘will provide’) in the next cl. Skald emends of byrjuð ‘(be) in store’ to of bregða ‘will put an end to’ based on the variant in Tóm (‘era feigd vm bvr egda’). Kock did this in an attempt to restore what he perceived to be a missing internal rhyme (see NN §3096). However, the internal rhyme yð- : -yr- (r : ð rhyme) is legitimate (see Kuhn 1983, 79). — [8] veldra ‘will not be the cause of’: Réðra[t] ‘will not be the cause of’ (so Holm2, 972ˣ, Bb, Mork) is also possible.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. Andersson, Theodore M. and Kari Ellen Gade, trans. 2000. Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157). Islandica 51. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
7. Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
8. ÓH 1941 = Johnsen, Oscar Albert and Jón Helgason, eds. 1941. Saga Óláfs konungs hins helga: Den store saga om Olav den hellige efter pergamenthåndskrift i Kungliga biblioteket i Stockholm nr. 2 4^to med varianter fra andre håndskrifter. 2 vols. Det norske historiske kildeskriftfond skrifter 53. Oslo: Dybwad.
9. Kuhn, Hans (1899). 1983. Das Dróttkvætt. Heidelberg: Winter.
10. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
11. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
12. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
13. E 1916 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1916. Eirspennill: AM 47 fol. Nóregs konunga sǫgur: Magnús góði – Hákon gamli. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske historiske kildeskriftskommission.
14. Fellows Jensen, Gillian, ed. 1962. Hemings þáttr Áslákssonar. EA B 3. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
15. Hb 1892-6 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1892-6. Hauksbók udgiven efter de Arnamagnæanske håndskrifter no. 371, 544 og 675, 4° samt forskellige papirshåndskrifter. Copenhagen: Det kongelige nordiske oldskrift-selskab.
16. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
17. Mork 1867 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1867. Morkinskinna: Pergamentsbog fra første halvdel af det trettende aarhundrede. Indeholdende en af de ældste optegnelser af norske kongesagaer. Oslo: Bentzen.
18. Internal references
19. (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 19 April 2024)
20. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Haralds saga Sigurðssonar’ 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=142> (accessed 19 April 2024)
21. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Magnúss saga góða ok Haralds harðráða’ 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=147> (accessed 19 April 2024)
22. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Lausavísur 11’ 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. 175-6.