Arn Hryn 10^II

Ljótu dreif á lypting útan
lauðri — bifðisk goll it rauða —
— fastligr hneigði fúru geystri
fýris garmr — ok skeiðar stýri.
Stirðum helzt umb Stafangr norðan
stôlum — bifðusk fyrir álar —
— uppi glóðu élmars typpi
eldi glík — í Danaveldi.

Ljótu lauðri dreif útan á lypting ok stýri skeiðar; it rauða goll bifðisk; {fastligr garmr fýris} hneigði geystri fúru. Helzt stirðum stôlum norðan umb Stafangr í Danaveldi; álar bifðusk fyrir; typpi {élmars} glóðu uppi glík eldi.

Foul surf surged in against the after-deck and the helm of the warship; the red gold shuddered; {the powerful hound of the fir-tree} [WIND] pitched the rushing ship of fir. You steered sturdy prows from the north past Stavanger to the realm of the Danes; currents shuddered in front; the mast-heads {of the storm-steed} [SHIP] glowed aloft like fire.

Mss: Kˣ(506v-507r), 39(15ra), F(39ra), E(6r), J2ˣ(247r) (Hkr); H(5v), Hr(6vb) (H-Hr); Flat(190rb) (Flat)

Readings: [1] Ljótu: Ljótum J2ˣ, Ljótir Hr;    dreif: varp H, Hr, Flat    [2] lauðri: ‘laudír’ Hr;    bifðisk: bifðusk E, Hr, bifisk Flat    [3] ‑ligr: ‑liga Hr, Flat;    geystri: so 39, F, H, Hr, Flat, ‘geistri’ Kˣ, glæstri E, J2ˣ    [4] fýris: ‘fyrris’ Flat;    garmr: gramr 39, E, angr H, Hr, Flat;    ok: so E, J2ˣ, H, Hr, Flat, um Kˣ, 39, F;    stýri: stýra Flat    [5] Stirðum: stríðum Flat;    helzt (‘hellztu’): hélt H, Hr, héldu Flat;    umb: om. F, Flat, fyrir H, Hr    [6] bifðusk: bifðisk F, Flat;    fyrir álar (‘fyri alar’): ‘fvri alar’ 39, ‘fyrris alar’ Flat    [7] ‑mars: ‘‑mas’ Hr, Flat

Editions: Skj AI, 335, Skj BI, 308, Skald I, 156, NN §813, 814; Hkr 1893-1901, III, 37, ÍF 28, 34, Hkr 1991, 578 (Mgóð ch. 19), F 1871, 179, E 1916, 19; Fms 6, 47-8 (Mgóð ch. 24), Fms 12, 131; Flat 1860-8, III, 271, Andersson and Gade 2000, 110-11, 468 (MH); Whaley 1998, 162-4.

Context: See st. 9. In Hkr, st. 10 is preceded by a short description of the ship Visundr: it has more than thirty benches and a gilded bison’s head and tail at prow and stern. In Flat, no comment separates the two sts, but they are followed by a remark that Magnús’s journey is referred to. In H-Hr a brief comment that Magnús sailed south to Denmark links the two.

Notes: [1] lypting ‘the after-deck’: The presumed derivation from lypta ‘lift’ (AEW: lypta) suggests a raised structure, and the skaldic contexts (here, in st. 16, ESk Lv 6/8 and Sigv Erlfl 3/7^I) would suggest a space that is enclosed or defended in some way. However, Jesch (2001a, 153) finds little archaeological evidence for such a feature except for the slightly raised decking aft in the Gokstad ship, and cf. the ‘elevated half-deck’ in the Oseberg ship mentioned by Shetelig and Falk (1937, 260, 270). — [2] it rauða goll ‘the red gold’: The reference may be to gilding on the whole ship, or else, as Snorri seems to take it in the Hkr Context (above), specifically to the prow and stern. Skj B adopts an unnecessary emendation here, dismissed by Kock in NN §813. — [4] garmr fýris ‘hound of the fir-tree [WIND]’: The variant angr fýris ‘grief of fir’ (so H, Hr, Flat) would make equally good sense in the context: cf. Meissner 102 for similar wind-kennings. — [4] ok ‘and’: (a) The reading ok (so E, J2ˣ, H, Hr, Flat) gives good sense, linking lypting ‘after-deck’ (l. 1) with stýri skeiðar ‘warship’s helm’ (l. 4), also in the stern, so that the two complete the cl. ljótu lauðri dreif á ‘foul surf surged against’. Ok stýri skeiðar could be alternatively taken with it rauða goll bifðisk ‘the red gold shuddered’ (l. 2), but ‘helm’ and ‘gold’ are a rather ill-assorted pair. (b) The variant um stýri skeiðar (so Kˣ, 39, F) would also work: ljótu lauðri dreif útan á lypting um stýri skeiðar ‘foul surf surged in against the after-deck around the helm of the warship’. (c) It is also conceivable that stýri skeiðar is acc. sg. of a kenning referring to Magnús as seafarer (so Fms 12, 131). ‘Agent noun’ kennings with stýrir as base-word and ‘ship’ as determinant are recorded: see LP: stýrir. — [6] álar bifðusk fyrir ‘currents shuddered in front’: Álar is most logically construed as subject to bifðusk ‘shuddered, foamed’. Ms. ‘fyri’ is here assumed to be the stressed adverb, normalised fyrir, and translated ‘in front (of the advancing ship)’; the spellings ‘fyri’ and ‘firi’ are well attested in early mss as alternatives to ‘fyrir’ etc. Kock (NN §814) suggested (havet bävade) därvid ‘(the sea trembled) at that’. — [7-8] typpi élmars glóðu uppi glík eldi ‘the mast-heads of the storm-steed [SHIP] glowed aloft like fire’: Like its cognate toppr, typpi probably means both ‘mast-heads’ and ‘forelocks’ and therefore resonates with both levels of imagery: the actual ship and the metaphorical ship-as-steed. The simile of mast-heads glowing like fire may be inspired by the similar image in Sigv ErfÓl 16^I. Reinskou (1922, 34-5) pointed out that both skalds are referring to the ship Visundr, and suggested that gilding on the mast-head, since not mentioned in earlier poetry, may have been an innovation in Óláfr helgi’s time. Hougen (1974, 18-19) doubted whether the skalds’ references to gold and gilded prows on ships out at sea are more than a poetic hyperbole, but cf. Encomium Emmae Reginae (ed. Campbell 1998, 12-13) for another C11th example.

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. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
11. Whaley, Diana, ed. and trans. 1998. The Poetry of Arnórr jarlaskáld: An Edition and Study. Westfield Publications in Medieval Studies 8. Turnhout: Brepols.
12. 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.
13. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
14. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
15. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
16. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
17. Campbell, Alistair, ed. 1998. Encomium Emmae Reginae. Edition of 1949 with a supplementary introduction by Simon Keynes. Camden Classic Reprints 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
18. Hougen, Bjørn. 1974. ‘Den havdjerve’. Viking: Tidsskrift for norrøn arkeologi 38, 10-29.
19. Reinskou, Finn. 1922. ‘Olav den helliges vimpel?’. MM, 32-6.
20. Shetelig, Haakon and Hjalmar Falk. 1937. Scandinavian Archaeology. Trans. E. V. Gordon. Oxford: Clarendon.
21. Internal references
22. (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 26 April 2024)
23. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Flateyjarbók’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=44> (accessed 26 April 2024)
24. (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 26 April 2024)
25. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Magnúss saga góða ok Haralds harðráða’ 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=147> (accessed 26 April 2024)
26. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Lausavísur 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. 573-4.
27. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Erfidrápa Óláfs helga 16’ 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. 683.
28. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Flokkr about Erlingr Skjálgsson 3’ 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. 633.