Arn Frag 1^III

Míkáll vegr, þats misgǫrt þykkir,
mannvitsfróðr, ok allt it góða;
tyggi skiptir síðan seggjum
sólar hjalms á dœmistóli.

Mannvitsfróðr Míkáll vegr, þats þykkir misgǫrt ok allt it góða; {tyggi {hjalms sólar}} skiptir síðan seggjum á dœmistóli.

Michael, wise with discernment, weighs what seems wrongly done, and all that is good; {the sovereign {of the helmet of the sun}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = God] then separates out men at his judgement-seat.

Mss: R(26r), Tˣ(27r), W(56), U(29r), B(5r) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Míkáll: ‘Mikáll’ R, B, ‘Mikiall’ Tˣ, Mikils er W, ‘Mikall’ U

Editions: Skj AI, 353, Skj BI, 326, Skald I, 165; SnE 1848-87, I, 320-1, II, 314, 527, III, 50, SnE 1931, 115, SnE 1998, I, 35, 181; Whaley 1998, 312.

Context: 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’.

Notes: [All]: 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 Hryn^II 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). — [1] Míkáll ‘Michael’: The majority ms. spelling is followed here, but T^x’s spelling Míkj- is also possible, and is matched, e.g., in the readings of mss 39, F, E for Okík Magn 1/1^II 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). — [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-). — [2] allt it góða ‘all that is good’: Lit. ‘all the good’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
5. Edwards, Diana C. 1982-3. ‘Christian and Pagan References in Eleventh-Century Norse Poetry: The Case of Arnórr Jarlaskáld’. SBVS 21, 34-53.
6. Fidjestøl, Bjarne. 1982. Det norrøne fyrstediktet. Universitet i Bergen Nordisk institutts skriftserie 11. Øvre Ervik: Alvheim & Eide.
7. Guðrún Nordal. 2001. Tools of Literacy: The Role of Skaldic Verse in Icelandic Textual Culture of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.
8. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
9. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
10. Whaley, Diana, ed. and trans. 1998. The Poetry of Arnórr jarlaskáld: An Edition and Study. Westfield Publications in Medieval Studies 8. Turnhout: Brepols.
11. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
12. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
13. ÍF 5 = Laxdœla saga. Ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson. 1934.
14. Clunies Ross, Margaret. 2006b. ‘The Cultural Politics of the Skaldic Ekphrasis Poem’. In Evans et al. 2006, 227-40.
15. Johnson, Richard Freeman. 2005. St Michael the Archangel in Medieval English Legend. Woodbridge and Rochester: Boydell.
16. Internal references
17. 2022, ‘ Anonymous, Laxdœla saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 1199-1203. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=11> (accessed 16 April 2024)
18. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 16 April 2024)
20. Diana Whaley 2017, ‘ Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Poem about Hermundr Illugason’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 11. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1100> (accessed 16 April 2024)
21. Diana Whaley 2009, ‘ Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Hrynhenda, Magnússdrápa’ 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. 181-206. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1101> (accessed 16 April 2024)
22. Edith Marold with the assistance of Vivian Busch, Jana Krüger, Ann-Dörte Kyas and Katharina Seidel, translated from German by John Foulks 2017, ‘ Úlfr Uggason, Húsdrápa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 402. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1492> (accessed 16 April 2024)
23. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Oddr kíkinaskáld, Poem about Magnús góði 1’ 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. 32.