Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

Bersi Ólfl 3I

Diana Whaley (ed.) 2012, ‘Bersi Skáld-Torfuson, Flokkr about Óláfr helgi 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. 794.

Bersi Skáld-TorfusonFlokkr about Óláfr helgi
23

Krýpk eigi svá, sveigir
sára linns — í ári
búum ólítinn Áta
ǫndur þér til handa —,
at, herstefnir, hafnak,
heiðmildr, eða þá leiðumk,
— ungr kunnak þar þrøngvi
þínn — hollvini mína.

{Sveigir {linns sára}}, krýpk eigi svá — í ári búum {ólítinn ǫndur Áta} til handa þér —, {heiðmildr herstefnir}, at hafnak, eða þá leiðumk, hollvini mína; ungr kunnak þrøngvi þínn þar.

{Swinger {of the snake of wounds}} [SWORD > WARRIOR], I do not crawl in such a way — early on we are [I am] readying {a not small ski of Áti <sea-king>} [SHIP] for you —, {reward-generous army commander} [RULER], that I forsake, or else then tire of, my loyal friends; [when] young, I got to know your enemy there.

Mss: (253r-v) (Hkr); Holm2(13r), R686ˣ(26r), J1ˣ(159v-160r), J2ˣ(136r), 325VI(11rb), 75a(1vb), 68(12r), 61(84vb), Holm4(5ra), 325V(16va), 325VII(5r), Bb(135va), Flat(83vb), Tóm(102v) (ÓH)

Readings: [1] Krýpk (‘Kryp ec’): ‘kryp(or) ec’(?) 325VI, krýp 75a, 61, krýp ek ek 68, ‘Kreyp ec’ Tóm;    sveigir: sveigr R686ˣ, síðan 325VII, Bb    [2] linns: logs Holm4;    í: og R686ˣ;    ári: vári 325V, 325VII, Flat, Tóm    [3] búum: búinn Flat, Tóm;    ólítinn: ‘ollyit(um)’(?) R686ˣ;    Áta: úti Holm2, R686ˣ, J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 325VI, 75a, 68, 61, Holm4, 325V, 325VII, Bb, Flat, Tóm    [4] ǫndur: endr Flat, Tóm;    handa: halda Holm2    [5] ‑stefnir: ‑stefni Holm2, R686ˣ, J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 325VI, 75a, 325V, 325VII, Flat    [6] ‑mildr: ‘‑millr’ 325VII;    eða: er 325VI, en 75a, né 68, 61    [7] kunnak (‘kunna ec’): kunnig Flat;    þar: þá Holm2, J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 325VI, 75a, Holm4, Bb, Tóm, þat 68, 61, þann Flat;    þrøngvi (‘þreyngvi’): ‘þrǫngar’ 325VI, þengill 68, þrøngvir 61    [8] ‑vini mína: ‑vina minna 68

Editions: Skj AI, 276, Skj BI, 255, Skald I, 131, NN §§620, 3222; Hkr 1893-1901, II, 74, IV, 124, ÍF 27, 66-7, Hkr 1991, I, 295 (ÓHHkr ch. 50); Fms 4, 102, Fms 12, 80, ÓH 1941, I, 96 (ch. 40), Flat 1860-8, II, 45.

Context: This follows st. 1 (see Context) and st. 2, with no intervening words.

Notes: [2] í ári ‘early on’: This adverbial could be taken with either clause in the first helmingr, and its sense is somewhat elusive. Although ‘this year’ would be a natural translation, ‘early, at daybreak’, or ‘early, soon, quickly’ seem more likely in context (so Finnur Jónsson in Hkr 1893-1901, IV; he prefers the latter in Skj B and LP: 2. ár 5; cf. Kock’s case for ‘in a hurry’, NN §3222). In Hkr 1991 the phrase is taken with the krýpk-clause and understood as ‘this year, at present’. The variant í vári ‘in the spring’ is viable but seems to be secondary. — [3] búum ‘we are [I am] readying’: The point about readying or preparing a ship is not entirely clear, but it seems to be a promise of service, despite not abandoning former friends (so Finnur Jónsson in Hkr 1893-1901, IV; ÍF 27). If búumk is not taken as ‘prepare’ but ‘dwell, inhabit’ it could instead be a reference to the speaker’s captivity on board ship (so Hkr 1991, which favours taking þér til handa with krýpk eigi svá, hence ‘I do not crawl thus into your power’). — [3] Áta ‘of Áti <sea-king>’: Only this, the reading of , makes sense of ǫndur ‘ski’ in l. 4 by providing the necessary determinant for a ship-kenning; the majority variant úti must have arisen because the name Áti was relatively unfamiliar. — [5, 6, 8] hafnak, eða þá leiðumk, hollvini mína ‘I forsake, or else then tire of, my loyal friends’: Hafna ‘forsake’ normally takes a dat. object; the acc. pl. object hollvini mína ‘my loyal friends’ is determined by leiðumk ‘I tire of’. — [7] þar ‘there’: This may well mean ‘among them’ (so Hkr 1893-1901, IV; ÍF 27). It is taken, rather awkwardly, with ll. 5-6 in Skj B. — [7] þrøngvi ‘enemy’: Lit. ‘forcer, oppressor’; this is among heiti for ‘enemy’ in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 107).

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. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. ÓH 1941 = Johnsen, Oscar Albert and Jón Helgason, eds. 1941. Saga Óláfs konungs hins helga: Den store saga om Olav den hellige efter pergamenthåndskrift i Kungliga biblioteket i Stockholm nr. 2 4to med varianter fra andre håndskrifter. 2 vols. Det norske historiske kildeskriftfond skrifter 53. Oslo: Dybwad.
  9. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
  10. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
  11. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
  12. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  13. Internal references
  14. (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 29 March 2024)
  15. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Óláfs saga helga (in Heimskringla)’ 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=152> (accessed 29 March 2024)
Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close

Stanza/chapter/text segment

Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.

Information tab

Interactive tab

The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.

Full text tab

This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.

Chapter/text segment

This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.