Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Haraldsdrápa 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, pp. 264-5.
Gekkat Sveinn af snekkju
saklaust inn forhrausti
— malmr kom harðr við hjalma —
— hugi minn es þat — sinni.
Farskostr hlaut at fljóta
fljótmælts vinar Jóta,
áðr an ǫðlingr flýði,
auðr, frá verðung dauðri.
Inn forhrausti Sveinn gekkat saklaust af snekkju sinni; þat es hugi minn; malmr kom harðr við hjalma. Farskostr {fljótmælts vinar Jóta} hlaut at fljóta auðr, áðr an ǫðlingr flýði frá dauðri verðung.
The very brave Sveinn did not go without cause from his warship; that is my thought; steel struck hard on helmets. The choice vessel {of the swift-spoken friend of the Jótar} [DANISH KING = Sveinn] was fated to float unmanned, before the noble one fled from his dead retinue.
Mss: Kˣ(561v), 39(27rb), F(49ra), E(21v), J2ˣ(283v-284r) (Hkr); Mork(13r) (Mork); Flat(200va) (Flat); H(56v), Hr(41rb) (H-Hr)
Readings: [1] af: at Flat, om. Hr; snekkju: sinni E, ‘s(innk)iu’(?) Flat [2] ‑laust: ‑laus E; for‑: tý‑ E [3] við: á Flat [4] hugi: hugr Flat, Hr; es (‘er’): so F, E, Mork, Flat, H, Hr, var Kˣ, J2ˣ [5] Farskostr: ‘farskott(ir)’(?) E, farkostr Flat, Hr; hlaut: so Flat, H, Hr, laut Kˣ, 39, F, E, J2ˣ, Mork; at: om. Flat; fljóta: flestu Hr [6] fljótmælts: fljótt mæts 39, F, fljót mæts E, ‘fiol níotz’ Flat, ‘fliotmaltz’ H, Hr [7] flýði: flœði F, E [8] auðr: auðs Flat; frá: om. E; dauðri: dauðir Hr
Editions: Skj AI, 349-50, Skj BI, 322, Skald I, 163; Hkr 1893-1901, III, 164, ÍF 28, 150-1, Hkr 1991, 657 (HSig ch. 63), F 1871, 229, E 1916, 75; Mork 1928-32, 212, Andersson and Gade 2000, 231, 478 (MH); Flat 1860-8, III, 363-4 (MH); Fms 6, 319 (HSig ch. 78), Fms 12, 157; Whaley 1998, 273-5.
Context: In Hkr, the Norwegians board Sveinn’s ship and clear it so thoroughly that only those who leap overboard survive. In Mork, H-Hr and Flat, the st. follows st. 3, preceded by a sentence that calls attention to Arnórr’s opinion that Sveinn Úlfsson only fled when his situation was desperate.
Notes: [4] es ‘is’: The pret. verb vas in Kˣ and J2ˣ produces hugi minn vas þat ‘that was my thought’, which would be unmotivated in the absence of evidence that the skald had been present at the events he commemorates. — [4] fljótmælts ‘swift-spoken’: For a saga account illustrating Sveinn Úlfsson’s politically dangerous eloquence, see, e.g., Flat 1860-8, III, 274.
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