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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Arn Þorfdr 4II

Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Þorfinnsdrápa 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. 234-5.

Arnórr jarlaskáld ÞórðarsonÞorfinnsdrápa
345

sýn ‘manifest’

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sýn (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): sight

[1] sýn of (‘syn vm’): so U, sín en R, Tˣ, W, sinn en 2368ˣ, 743ˣ

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of ‘for’

(not checked:)
3. of (prep.): around, from; too

[1] sýn of (‘syn vm’): so U, sín en R, Tˣ, W, sinn en 2368ˣ, 743ˣ

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mínir ‘My’

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minn (pron.; °f. mín, n. mitt): my

[1] mínir: minnir 2368ˣ, 743ˣ

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morð ‘battle’

(not checked:)
1. morð (noun n.; °-s; -): killing, battle < morðkenndr (adj.)

[2] morð‑: mærþ U

kennings

þess morðkennds sessa þengils.
‘of that battle-skilled bench-mate of the monarch.’
   = RULER = Þorfinnr

that battle-skilled bench-mate of the monarch. → RULER = Þorfinnr
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kennds ‘skilled’

(not checked:)
kenna (verb): know, teach < morðkenndr (adj.)

[2] ‑kennds: kennd W, 2368ˣ, 743ˣ, kenndr U

kennings

þess morðkennds sessa þengils.
‘of that battle-skilled bench-mate of the monarch.’
   = RULER = Þorfinnr

that battle-skilled bench-mate of the monarch. → RULER = Þorfinnr
Close

taka ‘begin’

(not checked:)
2. taka (verb): take

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enda ‘the death’

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endi (noun m.): end

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þess ‘of that’

(not checked:)
1. sá (pron.; °gen. þess, dat. þeim, acc. þann; f. sú, gen. þeirrar, acc. þá; n. þat, dat. því; pl. m. þeir, f. þǽ---): that (one), those

[3] þess of: þessum U

kennings

þess morðkennds sessa þengils.
‘of that battle-skilled bench-mate of the monarch.’
   = RULER = Þorfinnr

that battle-skilled bench-mate of the monarch. → RULER = Þorfinnr
Close

of ‘at’

(not checked:)
3. of (prep.): around, from; too

[3] þess of: þessum U

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þengils ‘of the monarch’

(not checked:)
þengill (noun m.): prince, ruler

kennings

þess morðkennds sessa þengils.
‘of that battle-skilled bench-mate of the monarch.’
   = RULER = Þorfinnr

that battle-skilled bench-mate of the monarch. → RULER = Þorfinnr
Close

sessa ‘bench-mate’

(not checked:)
sessi (noun m.; °-a; -ar): bench-mate

kennings

þess morðkennds sessa þengils.
‘of that battle-skilled bench-mate of the monarch.’
   = RULER = Þorfinnr

that battle-skilled bench-mate of the monarch. → RULER = Þorfinnr
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þung ‘heavy’

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þungr (adj.): heavy

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mein ‘sorrows’

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mein (noun n.; °-s; -): harm, injury

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ungir ‘young’

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ungr (adj.): young

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Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses

In Skm and LaufE, the helmingr illustrates the statement that jarls and royal retainers can be referred to as the intimates or bench-mates of a king (konungs rúnar eða málar eða sessar).

[1-4]: The syntactic relationships within this isolated helmingr are extremely elusive. The analyses presented here (beginning with the rationale for the construal above) have severe drawbacks, and one must suspect corruption in the text. (a) Taka is construed with the inf. bera, hence ‘begin to bear’, with mínir ungir synir ‘my young sons’ as the subject, and þung mein ‘heavy sorrows’ the object, to bera—all well-paralleled idioms. Sín en mik ‘his and I’ (l. 1) in R, and W does not make sense, however the helmingr is construed, so that the U reading ‘syn vm mik’, normalised sýn of mik, has been adopted. Sýn ‘manifest, visible’ qualifies mein, and of mik is assumed to mean ‘for me, on my account’, cf. of/um sik in expressions such as sýsla/hyggja of sik ‘trouble about oneself’ (so Konráð Gíslason 1877, 56, and Skj B; Kock’s interpretations of taka and sýn in NN §827 are on the other hand unsupported by recorded usage). Of in l. 3 can hardly be the intensive prefix to the word þengils since þengils alliterates and must be fully stressed; nor can it be an expletive particle, since þengill does not belong to any of the categories of noun that usually follow the particle (Kuhn 1929a, 26-31). It is therefore construed as a causal prep., governing enda þess sessa þengils, hence ‘at/because of the death of the bench-mate of the monarch’. Morðkennds ‘battle-skilled’ or ‘battle-renowned’ in a eulogy for Þorfinnr seems most likely to refer to him, in the kenning sessa þengils ‘of the bench-mate of the monarch’ rather than the unnamed þengils ‘monarch’ embedded in the kenning. Þengill could refer to Óláfr helgi or to Magnús inn góði, both of whom Þorfinnr was obliged to placate (Orkn chs 18 and 30). Of enda þess morðkennds sessa þengils is understood as an elaboration of mein, hence ‘sorrows at the death of the battle-skilled bench-mate of the monarch’. The main objection to this analysis is that it presupposes an extremely complex w. o. in the helmingr. In particular, the placing of the finite verb taka, far from the beginning of the cl., is abnormal, as is that of of (l. 3) if þung mein of enda ‘heavy sorrows at the death’ are taken together. (b) The following analysis obviates these difficulties, but involves the assumption of some usages that are not precisely paralleled in ON. The st. is construed as Þung, sýn mein bera of mik; mínir ungir synir taka enda þessum sessa morðkennds þengils ‘Heavy, manifest sorrows loom over me; my young sons learn of the death of that bench-mate of the battle-skilled monarch.’ Bera of mik is here taken as predicate to þung mein, hence ‘heavy sorrows loom over me’. This use of bera of/yfir is attested in Sigfús Blöndal 1920-4: bera (p. 71, col. a) in a quotation from 1908 in which an observer states that he saw a black speck or cloud bera yfir Látrafjöllin ‘looming over Látrafjöll’. Taka is assumed to have the sense ‘hear, learn, receive news of’. This receives some support from idioms such as hann tók því vel ‘he received that favourably’ where því refers to news or a greeting; cf. also the partially synonymous nema, whose meaning shades into ‘take in, understand’ or ‘listen to’ (as in nemi drótt ‘let the retinue take in’, st. 15/1). The U variant þessum is taken with (enda) sessa þengils as a dat. indicating possession or respect, hence ‘death of that bench-mate of the monarch’. Since sessa is assumed to be dat. sg., morðkennds ‘battle-skilled’ must qualify þengils. (c) For a further set of possibilities, see Whaley 1998, 227-8.

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