Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

Anon (Mberf) 6II

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Magnúss saga berfœtts 6’ 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. 833-4.

Anonymous LausavísurLausavísur from Magnúss saga berfœtts
567

Anon (Mberf) 6-7 are recorded in Mork (Mork), H, Hr (H-Hr) and F, which is a Mork ms. here. Mork is the main ms.

Vegg blæss veðr of tyggja;
viðr þolir nauð í lauðri;
læ tekr klungrs at knýja
keip en gelr í reipum.
Mjór* skelfr — Magnús stýrir —
— móð skerr eik at flóði —
(beit verða sæ slíta)
sjautøgr vǫndr (und rǫndu).

Veðr blæss vegg of tyggja; viðr þolir nauð í lauðri; {læ klungrs} tekr at knýja keip en gelr í reipum. Mjór* sjautøgr vǫndr skelfr; Magnús stýrir; móð eik skerr at flóði; beit verða slíta sæ und rǫndu.

The storm-wind fills the sail above the sovereign; the timber suffers distress in the foam; {the destroyer of bramble} [WIND] begins to beat against the rowlock and roars in the ropes. The slender seventy-measure mast trembles; Magnús steers; the weary oak-ship cleaves the water; boats must lacerate the sea beneath the shields.

Mss: Mork(24r) (Mork); H(92v), Hr(63va) (H-Hr); F(59va)

Readings: [1] blæss veðr of: blés vindr undir Hr    [3] læ: ‘ley’ Hr, ‘la’ F;    klungrs: klungr Hr, F    [4] gelr: gellr H, Hr    [5] Mjór*: mjórr Mork, H, Hr, meirr F    [7] verða: verðr Hr;    sæ: sæ at Hr

Editions: Skj AI, 591, Skj BI, 592, Skald 288, NN §1226; Mork 1867, 152, Mork 1928-32, 331, Andersson and Gade 2000, 308-9, 487 (Mberf); Fms 7, 66-7 (Mberf ch. 34); F 1871, 276 (Mberf).

Context: In Mork and F this and the following st. are given in an unspecific context to illustrate the sailing of Magnús berfœttr. In H-Hr a new prose environment is created from the content of the sts, and they are inserted at the beginning of Magnús’s second campaign to the west in 1102.

Notes: [2] viðr ‘the timber’: Taken here to refer to the planking, in keeping with the other parts of the ship mentioned in the st. (‘rowlock’, ‘ropes’, ‘mast’). Viðr could also be used pars pro toto for ‘ship’ (see LP: viðr 5). — [3] læ klungrs ‘the destroyer of bramble [WIND]’: One would expect this to be a kenning for ‘fire’ and it is given as such in LP: 2 (but not in LP: klungr). The context shows that it is used here to designate ‘wind’. Kennings formed according to the model ‘the destruction of trees or parts of trees’ usually denote ‘fire’ but they could also, and more rarely, denote ‘wind’ (see Meissner 101). — [4] keip ‘rowlock’: During rowing, the oars rested in the hollow of curved pieces of wood which were inserted into the upper plank of the railing (see Falk 1912, 70; Jesch 2001a, 155). — [5, 8] mjór* sjautøgr vǫndr (m. nom. sg.) ‘the slender seventy-measure mast’: (a) For this interpretation, see Foote 1978, 65. (b) Sveinbjörn Egilsson (LP 1860: sjötögr) believed that this designated the number of masts in the fleet. However, as Foote (1978, 65) points out, the sg. sjautøgr vǫndr is not ‘seven decades of masts’ but ‘a mast of seven decades’. (c) Skj B and Skald take vǫndr to mean ‘oar’ (‘seventy slender oars’ lit. ‘a slender oar in the measure of seventy’), but vǫndr means ‘mast’ and is not attested in the meaning ‘oar’; see Falk 1912, 56. Furthermore, the st. describes Magnús’s sailing in strong winds, which is incompatible with the ship being propelled by seventy slender oars. — [6] móð (f. nom. sg.) ‘weary’: Skj B takes this adj. as a n. nom. pl. qualifying beit ‘boats’ in the next l., which creates an unnecessarily complex w. o. (see NN §1226). — [8] und rǫndu ‘beneath the shields’: Lit. ‘beneath the shield’. This prepositional phrase could also go with the previous cl.: móð eik skerr at flóði und rǫndu ‘the weary oak-ship cleaves the water beneath the shield’ (ll. 6, 8). ‘The shield’ must refer to the row of shields on the shield-rail of the ship (see Jesch 2001a, 157-8).

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. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
  7. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
  8. 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.
  9. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
  10. Falk, Hjalmar. 1912. Altnordisches Seewesen. Wörter und Sachen 4. Heidelberg: Winter.
  11. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
  12. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
  13. Foote, Peter G. 1978. ‘Wrecks and Rhymes’. In Andersson et al. 1978, 57-66. Rpt in Foote 1984a, 222-35.
  14. 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.
  15. Internal references
  16. (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 29 March 2024)
  17. (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 29 March 2024)
  18. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Magnúss saga berfœtts’ 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=144> (accessed 29 March 2024)
  19. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Magnúss saga berfœtts 6’ 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. 833-4.
  20. Not published: do not cite ()
  21. Not published: do not cite ()
Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close

Stanza/chapter/text segment

Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.

Information tab

Interactive tab

The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.

Full text tab

This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.

Chapter/text segment

This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.