Arn Þorfdr 19^II

Ek ‘I’

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ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me

[1] Ek em: Em ek Flat

notes

[1] ek em ‘I am’: The emendation (or normalisation) of ms. ‘em ek’ to ek em is necessary in order to supply hending with hnek-.

em ‘am’

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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am

[1] Ek em: Em ek Flat

notes

[1] ek em ‘I am’: The emendation (or normalisation) of ms. ‘em ek’ to ek em is necessary in order to supply hending with hnek-.

síz ‘since’

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síz (conj.): since

ýtar ‘men’

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ýtr (noun m.): man; launcher

notes

[1] ýtar ‘men’: It seems likely that the men who, directly or indirectly, destroyed the peace between the jarls were Kálfr Árnason and his Norw. followers who, according to Orkn ch. 25, stirred up discontent in Þorfinnr over Rǫgnvaldr controlling two thirds of the Isles. Kálfr’s support for Þorfinnr is commemorated in BjHall Kálffl 8^I.

hnekkðu ‘thwarted’

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hnekkja (verb): drive off, reject

jarla ‘the jarls’

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jarl (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i; -ar): poet, earl

sætt ‘the truce’

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sætt (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): settlement

es ‘as’

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2. er (conj.): who, which, when

vættik ‘I anticipated’

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vætta (verb): expect

jǫfn ‘from both sides alike’

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jafn (adj.; °comp. -ari, superl. -astr): even, just

notes

[3] jǫfn hræ fengusk hrǫfnum ‘from both sides alike flesh was found for ravens’: As Björn Magnússon Ólsen (1909a, 299) pointed out, the sentence cannot mean that an equal number of men were slain on both sides at Rauðabjǫrg, since st. 22/3-4 state that one jarl’s losses were much smaller.

fengusk ‘was found’

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2. fá (verb; °fǽr; fekk, fengu; fenginn): get, receive

notes

[3] jǫfn hræ fengusk hrǫfnum ‘from both sides alike flesh was found for ravens’: As Björn Magnússon Ólsen (1909a, 299) pointed out, the sentence cannot mean that an equal number of men were slain on both sides at Rauðabjǫrg, since st. 22/3-4 state that one jarl’s losses were much smaller.

hræ ‘flesh’

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hræ (noun n.; °; -): corpse, carrion

notes

[3] jǫfn hræ fengusk hrǫfnum ‘from both sides alike flesh was found for ravens’: As Björn Magnússon Ólsen (1909a, 299) pointed out, the sentence cannot mean that an equal number of men were slain on both sides at Rauðabjǫrg, since st. 22/3-4 state that one jarl’s losses were much smaller.

hrǫfnum ‘for ravens’

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hrafn (noun m.; °hrafns; dat. hrafni; hrafnar): raven

notes

[3] jǫfn hræ fengusk hrǫfnum ‘from both sides alike flesh was found for ravens’: As Björn Magnússon Ólsen (1909a, 299) pointed out, the sentence cannot mean that an equal number of men were slain on both sides at Rauðabjǫrg, since st. 22/3-4 state that one jarl’s losses were much smaller.

hegju ‘of events’

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hegja (noun f.): [condition, events]

trauðr ‘loath’

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trauðr (adj.): reluctant

[4] trauðr: ‘trudr’ Flat

notes

[4] trauðr ‘loath’: Ms. ‘trudr’ looks like trúðr ‘juggler’, but can have no meaning in this context.

at ‘to’

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5. at (nota): to (with infinitive)

segja ‘speak’

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segja (verb): say, tell

Sleit ‘wore to shreds’

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slíta (verb): to tear

notes

[5, 6] sleit blôu tjaldi ‘wore to shreds the dark awnings’: (a) Slíta ‘tear, break’ usually governs an acc. object, but it is also used in the sense ‘wear out’ with a dat. object denoting some kind of clothing or footwear. Jesch (2001a, 164-5) suggests that tjald here, as in Arn Hryn 16/4, refers to a sail. She points out that a sail is more likely than awnings to have been worn out at sea and that sails are described as ‘blue, dark’ in Sigv Knútdr 8/2^I bl segl; reference to a sail would also be consonant with the probable reference to a mast in l. 8 (líma). (b) An attractive alternative would be to take slíta tjǫldum as a phrase synonymous with bregða tjǫldum ‘strike tents/take down awnings’ and related idioms. Clearing a ship of its awnings would be a pregnant action: a necessary preliminary to a battle or a great voyage (cf. ÞjóðA Har 2), but slíta tjǫldum/tjaldi does not appear to have been used in this sense. (c) Björn Magnússon Ólsen (1909a, 299) suggested that sætt ‘truce, peace’ in l. 2 is carried over into the second helmingr and understood as object to allvaldr sleit ‘the mighty ruler tore’ in l. 5, but this seems improbable, especially since there is no trace of such a linkage between the two helmingar in any other st. by Arnórr.

fyr ‘’

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fyr (prep.): for, over, because of, etc.

eyjar ‘the islands’

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1. ey (noun f.; °-jar, dat. -ju/-; -jar): island

notes

[5] eyjar ‘the islands’: It is impossible to know whether the word is to be read as the common noun or as the place-name equivalent to Orkneyjar ‘Orkney Islands’, as apparently in st. 24 (see Note to st. 24/5).

útan ‘out beyond’

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útan (prep.): outside, without

allvaldr ‘The mighty ruler’

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allvaldr (noun m.; °-s; -ar): mighty ruler

blôu ‘the dark’

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blár (adj.): black

[6] blôu: ‘blꜳ’ Flat

notes

[5, 6] sleit blôu tjaldi ‘wore to shreds the dark awnings’: (a) Slíta ‘tear, break’ usually governs an acc. object, but it is also used in the sense ‘wear out’ with a dat. object denoting some kind of clothing or footwear. Jesch (2001a, 164-5) suggests that tjald here, as in Arn Hryn 16/4, refers to a sail. She points out that a sail is more likely than awnings to have been worn out at sea and that sails are described as ‘blue, dark’ in Sigv Knútdr 8/2^I bl segl; reference to a sail would also be consonant with the probable reference to a mast in l. 8 (líma). (b) An attractive alternative would be to take slíta tjǫldum as a phrase synonymous with bregða tjǫldum ‘strike tents/take down awnings’ and related idioms. Clearing a ship of its awnings would be a pregnant action: a necessary preliminary to a battle or a great voyage (cf. ÞjóðA Har 2), but slíta tjǫldum/tjaldi does not appear to have been used in this sense. (c) Björn Magnússon Ólsen (1909a, 299) suggested that sætt ‘truce, peace’ in l. 2 is carried over into the second helmingr and understood as object to allvaldr sleit ‘the mighty ruler tore’ in l. 5, but this seems improbable, especially since there is no trace of such a linkage between the two helmingar in any other st. by Arnórr.

tjaldi ‘awnings’

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tjald (noun n.; °-s; *-): tent, awning

notes

[5, 6] sleit blôu tjaldi ‘wore to shreds the dark awnings’: (a) Slíta ‘tear, break’ usually governs an acc. object, but it is also used in the sense ‘wear out’ with a dat. object denoting some kind of clothing or footwear. Jesch (2001a, 164-5) suggests that tjald here, as in Arn Hryn 16/4, refers to a sail. She points out that a sail is more likely than awnings to have been worn out at sea and that sails are described as ‘blue, dark’ in Sigv Knútdr 8/2^I bl segl; reference to a sail would also be consonant with the probable reference to a mast in l. 8 (líma). (b) An attractive alternative would be to take slíta tjǫldum as a phrase synonymous with bregða tjǫldum ‘strike tents/take down awnings’ and related idioms. Clearing a ship of its awnings would be a pregnant action: a necessary preliminary to a battle or a great voyage (cf. ÞjóðA Har 2), but slíta tjǫldum/tjaldi does not appear to have been used in this sense. (c) Björn Magnússon Ólsen (1909a, 299) suggested that sætt ‘truce, peace’ in l. 2 is carried over into the second helmingr and understood as object to allvaldr sleit ‘the mighty ruler tore’ in l. 5, but this seems improbable, especially since there is no trace of such a linkage between the two helmingar in any other st. by Arnórr.

hafði ‘had’

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hafa (verb): have

notes

[7-8] hreggsvǫl dúfa hafði fezk hrími ‘the snow-cold billow had fastened itself in frost’: The nom. hreggsvǫl dúfa ‘snow-cold billow’ is subject to hafði which, since it has no object, must be an auxiliary verb, forming a pluperfect tense with a p. p. (a) There is no p. p. in the helmingr as it stands but the emendation of ‘fast’ to fezk, i.e. fest-sk from festa ‘fasten’, adopted here produces one. Alternatives are: (b) Björn Magnússon Ólsen suggested emending hrími to hrímat ‘encrusted with frost’ (1909, 301; also Finnbogi Guðmundsson, ÍF 34). This is plausible, and the verb hríma is known in ModIcel. (Sigfús Blöndal 1920-4), but the only trace of it in ON is in the past participles óhrímaðr and óhrímðr, which mean ‘not encrusted with soot’ (Fritzner: úhrímaðr; úhrímðr). (c) Kock (NN §835) emends líma to límat ‘encrusted’ and reads: Hafði hreggsvǫl dúfa | hrími fast um límat ‘The snow-cold billow had encrusted [it] thickly with frost’. An objection to this is that the object of hafði ... límat must be understood as a repetition, now acc. sg., of blu tjaldi ‘dark sail/awnings’ in l. 6. An advantage is that sleit tjaldi ‘wore out the sail/awnings in the previous cl. would be explained.

hreggsvǫl ‘the snow-cold’

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hreggsvalr (adj.): [snow-cold]

notes

[7-8] hreggsvǫl dúfa hafði fezk hrími ‘the snow-cold billow had fastened itself in frost’: The nom. hreggsvǫl dúfa ‘snow-cold billow’ is subject to hafði which, since it has no object, must be an auxiliary verb, forming a pluperfect tense with a p. p. (a) There is no p. p. in the helmingr as it stands but the emendation of ‘fast’ to fezk, i.e. fest-sk from festa ‘fasten’, adopted here produces one. Alternatives are: (b) Björn Magnússon Ólsen suggested emending hrími to hrímat ‘encrusted with frost’ (1909, 301; also Finnbogi Guðmundsson, ÍF 34). This is plausible, and the verb hríma is known in ModIcel. (Sigfús Blöndal 1920-4), but the only trace of it in ON is in the past participles óhrímaðr and óhrímðr, which mean ‘not encrusted with soot’ (Fritzner: úhrímaðr; úhrímðr). (c) Kock (NN §835) emends líma to límat ‘encrusted’ and reads: Hafði hreggsvǫl dúfa | hrími fast um límat ‘The snow-cold billow had encrusted [it] thickly with frost’. An objection to this is that the object of hafði ... límat must be understood as a repetition, now acc. sg., of blu tjaldi ‘dark sail/awnings’ in l. 6. An advantage is that sleit tjaldi ‘wore out the sail/awnings in the previous cl. would be explained.

dúfa ‘billow’

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1. dúfa (noun f.; °-u; -ur, gen. -na): billow, wave

notes

[7-8] hreggsvǫl dúfa hafði fezk hrími ‘the snow-cold billow had fastened itself in frost’: The nom. hreggsvǫl dúfa ‘snow-cold billow’ is subject to hafði which, since it has no object, must be an auxiliary verb, forming a pluperfect tense with a p. p. (a) There is no p. p. in the helmingr as it stands but the emendation of ‘fast’ to fezk, i.e. fest-sk from festa ‘fasten’, adopted here produces one. Alternatives are: (b) Björn Magnússon Ólsen suggested emending hrími to hrímat ‘encrusted with frost’ (1909, 301; also Finnbogi Guðmundsson, ÍF 34). This is plausible, and the verb hríma is known in ModIcel. (Sigfús Blöndal 1920-4), but the only trace of it in ON is in the past participles óhrímaðr and óhrímðr, which mean ‘not encrusted with soot’ (Fritzner: úhrímaðr; úhrímðr). (c) Kock (NN §835) emends líma to límat ‘encrusted’ and reads: Hafði hreggsvǫl dúfa | hrími fast um límat ‘The snow-cold billow had encrusted [it] thickly with frost’. An objection to this is that the object of hafði ... límat must be understood as a repetition, now acc. sg., of blu tjaldi ‘dark sail/awnings’ in l. 6. An advantage is that sleit tjaldi ‘wore out the sail/awnings in the previous cl. would be explained.

hrími ‘frost’

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hrím (noun n.; °-s; -): rime frost

notes

[7-8] hreggsvǫl dúfa hafði fezk hrími ‘the snow-cold billow had fastened itself in frost’: The nom. hreggsvǫl dúfa ‘snow-cold billow’ is subject to hafði which, since it has no object, must be an auxiliary verb, forming a pluperfect tense with a p. p. (a) There is no p. p. in the helmingr as it stands but the emendation of ‘fast’ to fezk, i.e. fest-sk from festa ‘fasten’, adopted here produces one. Alternatives are: (b) Björn Magnússon Ólsen suggested emending hrími to hrímat ‘encrusted with frost’ (1909, 301; also Finnbogi Guðmundsson, ÍF 34). This is plausible, and the verb hríma is known in ModIcel. (Sigfús Blöndal 1920-4), but the only trace of it in ON is in the past participles óhrímaðr and óhrímðr, which mean ‘not encrusted with soot’ (Fritzner: úhrímaðr; úhrímðr). (c) Kock (NN §835) emends líma to límat ‘encrusted’ and reads: Hafði hreggsvǫl dúfa | hrími fast um límat ‘The snow-cold billow had encrusted [it] thickly with frost’. An objection to this is that the object of hafði ... límat must be understood as a repetition, now acc. sg., of blu tjaldi ‘dark sail/awnings’ in l. 6. An advantage is that sleit tjaldi ‘wore out the sail/awnings in the previous cl. would be explained.

fezk ‘fastened itself’

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2. festa (verb): fasten, betrothe, promise

[8] fezk: ‘fast’ Flat

notes

[7-8] hreggsvǫl dúfa hafði fezk hrími ‘the snow-cold billow had fastened itself in frost’: The nom. hreggsvǫl dúfa ‘snow-cold billow’ is subject to hafði which, since it has no object, must be an auxiliary verb, forming a pluperfect tense with a p. p. (a) There is no p. p. in the helmingr as it stands but the emendation of ‘fast’ to fezk, i.e. fest-sk from festa ‘fasten’, adopted here produces one. Alternatives are: (b) Björn Magnússon Ólsen suggested emending hrími to hrímat ‘encrusted with frost’ (1909, 301; also Finnbogi Guðmundsson, ÍF 34). This is plausible, and the verb hríma is known in ModIcel. (Sigfús Blöndal 1920-4), but the only trace of it in ON is in the past participles óhrímaðr and óhrímðr, which mean ‘not encrusted with soot’ (Fritzner: úhrímaðr; úhrímðr). (c) Kock (NN §835) emends líma to límat ‘encrusted’ and reads: Hafði hreggsvǫl dúfa | hrími fast um límat ‘The snow-cold billow had encrusted [it] thickly with frost’. An objection to this is that the object of hafði ... límat must be understood as a repetition, now acc. sg., of blu tjaldi ‘dark sail/awnings’ in l. 6. An advantage is that sleit tjaldi ‘wore out the sail/awnings in the previous cl. would be explained.

of ‘about’

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3. of (prep.): around, from; too

notes

[8] of líma ‘about the mast’: (a) Lími ‘rod, twig, broom’ here probably has the sense ‘mast’ (so also Finnbogi Guðmundsson, ÍF 34), just as vǫndr can mean ‘twig, rod’ and ‘mast’ and indeed is used by Arnórr in this sense in Hryn 4/5; cf. also laukr ‘leek, upright plant, mast’. The resulting image of sea-spray frosting the mast is entirely credible and finds approximate parallels in OE poetry (Whaley 1998, 306). (b) Björn Magnússon Ólsen (1909a, 300-1) suggested that lími shares with vǫndr another meaning: the stripe or coloured decoration on a sail, or here on the ship’s awnings. He reads líma blu tjaldi ‘the decoration of the dark awnings’ together as object to ‘the wave had thickly encrusted with frost’. But this assumes tjaldi to be a poss. dat., which is otherwise very unusual when the possessor is an inanimate object. (The parallels cited by Björn, in NS §100 anm. 3, are not close.)

líma ‘the mast’

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lím (noun n.; °-s): [mortar, mast]

notes

[8] of líma ‘about the mast’: (a) Lími ‘rod, twig, broom’ here probably has the sense ‘mast’ (so also Finnbogi Guðmundsson, ÍF 34), just as vǫndr can mean ‘twig, rod’ and ‘mast’ and indeed is used by Arnórr in this sense in Hryn 4/5; cf. also laukr ‘leek, upright plant, mast’. The resulting image of sea-spray frosting the mast is entirely credible and finds approximate parallels in OE poetry (Whaley 1998, 306). (b) Björn Magnússon Ólsen (1909a, 300-1) suggested that lími shares with vǫndr another meaning: the stripe or coloured decoration on a sail, or here on the ship’s awnings. He reads líma blu tjaldi ‘the decoration of the dark awnings’ together as object to ‘the wave had thickly encrusted with frost’. But this assumes tjaldi to be a poss. dat., which is otherwise very unusual when the possessor is an inanimate object. (The parallels cited by Björn, in NS §100 anm. 3, are not close.)