Árm Lv 3^II

Ek mun Ermingerði,
nema ǫnnur skǫp verði,
— margr elr sorg of svinna —
síðan aldri finna.
Værak sæll, ef ek svæfa
— sýn væri þat gæfa —
— brúðr hefr allfagrt enni —
eina nótt hjá henni.

Ek mun aldri síðan finna Ermingerði, nema ǫnnur skǫp verði; margr elr sorg of svinna. Værak sæll, ef ek svæfa eina nótt hjá henni; þat væri sýn gæfa; brúðr hefr allfagrt enni.

I shall never again meet Ermingerðr, unless another fate comes about; many a man nurtures grief for the wise lady. I would be blessed if I could sleep one night beside her; that would be obvious luck; the lady has a very attractive forehead.

Mss: 325I(12v), Flat(140ra), R702ˣ(46v) (Orkn)

Readings: [2] nema: útan Flat;    ǫnnur: annars R702ˣ    [3] sorg: sút R702ˣ    [5] Værak (‘væra ec’): væri ek Flat

Editions: Skj AI, 531, Skj BI, 511, Skald I, 250; Flat 1860-8, II, 478, Orkn 1887, 161, Orkn 1913-16, 234, ÍF 34, 212 (ch. 86), Bibire 1988, 233.

Context: Having left Narbonne, Rǫgnvaldr and his poets are sailing in a good wind, and are sitting and drinking, and in good spirits. Rǫgnvaldr, Ármóðr and Oddi each recite a st. containing Ermingerðr’s name.

Notes: [All]: For other sts with similar content recited on the same occasion, see Rv Lv 16 and Oddi Lv 2. Ármóðr’s st. is the only one to have end-rhyme; cf. Hbreiðm Lv for another st. of the hexasyllabic in minzta runhenda (SnSt Ht 88^III, SnE 1999, 35-6). — [3] sorg ‘grief’: The variant sút (with the same meaning) may be preferable in that it avoids the skothending of margr and sorg in a st. with no regular internal rhyme. — [7] brúðr ‘the lady’: This can mean ‘(affianced) bride’, ‘wife’, or ‘woman’ in general. Here, Ármóðr picks up on Rǫgnvaldr’s use of the same word in Rv Lv 16. Although Ermengard of Narbonne’s exact birth date is not known, she would have been in her early twenties at this time and already twice married. However, her first marriage was soon dissolved, her second appears to have been a marriage of convenience, and she never had children (Cheyette 2001, 14-25). She is presented in the saga and in Rv Lv 15 as youthful and as an unmarried woman with loose hair, see Note to Rv Lv 15/6, 7. See also Note to Rv Lv 15 [All].

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. 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.
4. ÍF 34 = Orkneyinga saga. Ed. Finnbogi Guðmundsson. 1965.
5. SnE 1999 = Snorri Sturluson. 1999. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. Rpt. with addenda and corrigenda. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
6. Orkn 1913-16 = Sigurður Nordal, ed. 1913-16. Orkneyinga saga. SUGNL 40. Copenhagen: Møller.
7. Bibire, Paul. 1988. ‘The Poetry of Earl Rǫgnvaldr’s Court’. In Crawford 1988, 208-40.
8. Cheyette, Frederic L. 2001. Ermengard of Narbonne and the World of the Troubadours. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
9. Orkn 1887 = Gudbrand Vigfusson 1887-94, I.
10. Internal references
11. Judith Jesch 2009, ‘ Hallr Þórarinsson breiðmaga, Lausavísa’ 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. 610-11. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1251> (accessed 20 April 2024)
12. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2009, ‘Oddi inn litli Glúmsson, Lausavísur 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. 616.
13. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2009, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl Kali Kolsson, Lausavísur 15’ 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. 592-3.
14. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2009, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl Kali Kolsson, Lausavísur 16’ 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. 594.
15. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 88’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1198.