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

Árm Lv 4II

Judith Jesch (ed.) 2009, ‘Ármóðr, Lausavísur 4’ 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. 623.

ÁrmóðrLausavísur
34

text and translation

Eigum vér, þars vági
verpr inn of þrǫm stinnan,
— þann hǫfum vér at vinna —
varðhald á skæ barða,
meðan í nótt hjá nýtri
námdúks hǫrundmjúkri
lókr sefr lind inn veiki;
lítk of ǫxl til Krítar.

Vér eigum varðhald á {skæ barða}, þars vági verpr inn of stinnan þrǫm—vér hǫfum þann at vinna—, meðan inn veiki lókr sefr í nótt hjá {nýtri, hǫrundmjúkri lind námdúks}; lítk of ǫxl til Krítar.
 
‘We keep watch on the steed of the prow [SHIP], where the billow is thrown in over the sturdy gunwale—we have that to do—, while the feeble weakling sleeps tonight beside the excellent, soft-skinned lime-tree of the kerchief [WOMAN]; I look over my shoulder towards Crete.

notes and context

Sailing south towards Crete, Rǫgnvaldr’s fleet comes into some bad weather. Ármóðr declaims this st. while keeping watch at night.

This st. incorporates a common motif, the comparison of the speaker’s manly activities (usually seafaring or fighting) with those of a feeble stay-at-home who lolls about with women. See KormǪ Lv 34V, 36V, 39V, 63V, Vígf Lv 1I, Hharð Lv 4, Játg Lv, etc. Sometimes the derogatory comparison between bold adventurers and stay-at-homes is made without implicating women, as in Árm Lv 2, or Anon (Flóam) 1V.

readings

sources

Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.

editions and texts

Skj: Ármóðr, Lausavísur 4: AI, 531, BI, 512, Skald I, 251; Flat 1860-8, II, 486, Orkn 1887, 175, Orkn 1913-16, 253, ÍF 34, 229 (ch. 88), Bibire 1988, 236.

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.