Arn Frag 1III
Diana Whaley (ed.) 2017, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Fragments 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 3.
er ‘’
(not checked:)
2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
Mikils ‘’
(not checked:)
mikill (adj.; °mikinn): great, large
Míkáll ‘Michael’
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Míkáll (noun m.): [Michael]
[1] Míkáll: ‘Mikáll’ R, B, ‘Mikiall’ Tˣ, Mikils er W, ‘Mikall’ U
notes
[1] Míkáll ‘Michael’: The majority ms. spelling is followed here, but Tx’s spelling Míkj- is also possible, and is matched, e.g., in the readings of mss 39, F, E for Okík Magn 1/1II Míkjálsmessu; see also ANG §263 on the forms. S. Michael appears with his angels fighting the dragon in an apocalyptic battle in Rev. XII.7. The image of him weighing souls at Doomsday is not Scriptural, but is widespread in medieval art (see, e.g. Johnson 2005, 146-8 for English examples).
vegr ‘weighs’
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2. vega (verb): lift, weigh
þats ‘what’
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þats (conj.): that, which
misgǫrt ‘wrongly done’
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misgera (verb; °-rð-; præt. part. ·gert/gørt/gǫrt): do wrongly
þykkir ‘seems’
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2. þykkja (verb): seem, think
mannvitsfróðr ‘wise with discernment’
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manvitsfróðr (adj.): wise with discernment
notes
[2] mannvitsfróðr ‘wise with discernment’: The adj., written as two words in the mss, is a hap. leg., though cf. Anon Níkdr 3/3 manvitsfrægr ‘famous of understanding’ and Note. Compounds with the first element in the gen. are more characteristic of later poetry (see, e.g. examples in þróttar- ‘strength-’ in LP: þróttar-).
ok ‘and’
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
allt ‘all’
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allr (adj.): all
notes
[2] allt it góða ‘all that is good’: Lit. ‘all the good’.
it ‘’
(not checked:)
2. inn (art.): the
notes
[2] allt it góða ‘all that is good’: Lit. ‘all the good’.
góða ‘good’
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góðr (adj.): good
notes
[2] allt it góða ‘all that is good’: Lit. ‘all the good’.
tyggi ‘the sovereign’
(not checked:)
tyggi (noun m.): prince, sovereign
kennings
tyggi hjalms sólar‘the sovereign of the helmet of the sun ’
= God
the helmet of the sun → SKY/HEAVEN
the sovereign of the SKY/HEAVEN → God
skiptir ‘separates out’
(not checked:)
skipta (verb): share, divide, exchange
síðan ‘then’
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síðan (adv.): later, then
seggjum ‘men’
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seggr (noun m.; °; -ir): man
sólar ‘of the sun’
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sól (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -u/-; -ir): sun
kennings
tyggi hjalms sólar‘the sovereign of the helmet of the sun ’
= God
the helmet of the sun → SKY/HEAVEN
the sovereign of the SKY/HEAVEN → God
sólar ‘of the sun’
(not checked:)
sól (noun f.; °-ar, dat. -u/-; -ir): sun
kennings
tyggi hjalms sólar‘the sovereign of the helmet of the sun ’
= God
the helmet of the sun → SKY/HEAVEN
the sovereign of the SKY/HEAVEN → God
hjalms ‘of the helmet’
(not checked:)
1. hjalmr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i; -ar): helmet
kennings
tyggi hjalms sólar‘the sovereign of the helmet of the sun ’
= God
the helmet of the sun → SKY/HEAVEN
the sovereign of the SKY/HEAVEN → God
hjalms ‘of the helmet’
(not checked:)
1. hjalmr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i; -ar): helmet
kennings
tyggi hjalms sólar‘the sovereign of the helmet of the sun ’
= God
the helmet of the sun → SKY/HEAVEN
the sovereign of the SKY/HEAVEN → God
á ‘at’
(not checked:)
3. á (prep.): on, at
dœmistóli ‘his judgement-seat’
(not checked:)
dœmistóll (noun m.; °·stóls, dat. ·stóli; ·stólar): judgement seat
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
The helmingr is, like Arn Herm, one of five fragments by Arnórr cited in Skm to illustrate kennings for ‘sky/heaven’, here hjalmr sólar ‘helmet of the sun’.
On the Christian content of this striking helmingr, see Edwards (1982-3, 40-1). The helmingr is in hrynhent metre but so unlike Arnórr’s HrynII for Magnús góði ‘the Good’ that it seems improbable that it belongs there (so also Fidjestøl 1982, 128; SnE 1998, I, 181 allows for the possibility). It could instead come from an erfidrápa ‘memorial drápa’ which according to Laxdœla saga (ÍF 5, 229) Arnórr composed for the chieftain Gellir Þorkelsson, telling of his building of a church at Helgafell. Guðbrandur Vigfússon (CPB II, 184) suggested that Arnórr’s hrynhent fragment depicted ‘a painting or hangings on which the Last Judgement is figured’, and if so the poem may have belonged to the ekphrasis or picture-describing genre, just as Úlfr Uggason’s Húsdrápa (ÚlfrU Húsdr, c. 985) describes scenes on the walls of the grand new homestead built by Óláfr pái ‘Peacock’ at Hjarðarholt. On the source poem in the context of skaldic ekphrasis, see Clunies Ross (2006b, 235), and on the significance of the reference to it in Laxdœla saga, see Guðrún Nordal (2001, 131).
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