Anon (Ólkyrr) 2^II

This st. (Anon (Ólkyrr) 2) is recorded in Mork (Mork), H, Hr (H-Hr) as well as in the interpolated Hkr mss F, E, J2ˣ and 42ˣ. Mork is partly damaged, and H is the main ms. The metre is fornyrðislag.

Segr vetrgǫmul,         — veit ekki sú —
ok tvévetr segr,         — trúik eigi at heldr —
en þrévetr segr,         — þykkira mér glíkligt —
kveðr mik róa        á merar hǫfði,
en þik, konungr,         þjóf míns féar!

Vetrgǫmul segr—sú veit ekki—, ok tvévetr segr—trúik eigi at heldr—, en þrévetr segr—þykkira mér glíkligt—, kveðr mik róa á hǫfði merar, en þik, konungr, þjóf féar míns!

The one-year-old says—she knows nothing—, and the two-year-old says—I don’t believe it either—, but the three-year-old says—it doesn’t seem likely to me—, she claims I’m rocking on a mare’s head, and that you, king, are the thief of my property!

Mss: H(80v), Hr(56vb) (H-Hr); Mork(21r) (Mork); F(56va), E(30v), J2ˣ(303v), 42ˣ(5v)

Readings: [1] vetrgǫmul: ‘vetrgo[…]’ Mork    [2] veit: ‘[…]it’ Mork;    ekki: eigi J2ˣ, 42ˣ    [3] ok: om. F, 42ˣ;    tvévetr segr: segr tvévetr F;    segr: om. Hr    [4] at heldr: om. 42ˣ;    at: því Hr    [5] en: en ef Hr, om. E, J2ˣ, 42ˣ    [6] þykkira: so Mork, F, E, J2ˣ, þykkjat H, Hr, þykki 42ˣ;    glíkligt: so Mork, líkligt H, F, E, J2ˣ, 42ˣ, líkara Hr

Editions: Skj AI, 427, Skj BI, 397, Skald I, 196, NN §2983; Fms 6, 446-7 (Ólkyrr ch. 7); Mork 1867, 129, Mork 1928-32, 295, Andersson and Gade 2000, 283-4, 483 (Ólkyrr); F 1871, 260, E 1916, 107 (Ólkyrr).

Context: King Óláfr puts a farmer to the test to find out whether he can divine birds’ talk. He cuts the head off the farmer’s mare, wraps it, puts it on his ship and seats the farmer on top of the bundle. Three crows fly over the ship cawing, and the king asks the farmer what they say. The farmer replies with this st.

Notes: [All]: This episode is very much out of keeping with what we know about the character of Óláfr kyrri from prose and poetic sources, and the tenor of the st. itself is profoundly sceptical and anti-royal. It is possible that the anecdote derives from echoes of the Dan. tradition about King Óláfr Tryggvason of Norway (r. 995-1000). According to Saxo (2005, I, 10, 11, 6, pp. 648-9), Óláfr, despite his baptism and conversion to Christianity, was beholden to sooth-sayers who helped him divine the future, and Adam of Bremen (ed. Schmeidler 1917, 101) tells us that Óláfr relied on the prognostication of birds, which earned him the nickname Craccabben ‘Crows’ Bones’. — [6] þykkira mér glíkligt ‘it doesn’t seem likely to me’: The metre is fornyrðislag, and this l. is in málaháttr. Kock (Skald; NN §2983) deletes the pron. mér ‘to me’ to restore a tetrasyllabic l. (with neutralisation in metrical position 2). However, the pron. occurs in all mss, and metrical constraints were often relaxed in occasional verse. — [7] kveðr ‘she claims’: There is no overt subject here, but because of the pron. sú f. nom. sg. ‘she’ (lit. ‘that one’) (l. 2), a f. form of the subject has been provided. The adjectives tvévetr ‘the two-year-old’ (l. 3) and þrévetr ‘the three-year-old’ can be either f. or m. nom. sg.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. 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.
6. Schmeidler, Bernhard, ed. 1917. Magistri Adami Bremensis. Hamburgische Kirchengeschichte / Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum 2. 3rd edn. Hannover and Leipzig: Hahn.
7. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
8. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
9. E 1916 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1916. Eirspennill: AM 47 fol. Nóregs konunga sǫgur: Magnús góði – Hákon gamli. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske historiske kildeskriftskommission.
10. 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.
11. Internal references
12. (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)
13. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Hulda-Hrokkinskinna’ 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=84> (accessed 19 April 2024)
14. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Morkinskinna’ 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=87> (accessed 19 April 2024)
15. 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.
16. Kari Ellen Gade and Diana Whaley (eds) 2009, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Óláfs saga kyrra 2’ 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. 825.