Bjbp Jóms 10^I

Heldu dreyrgra darra
Danmarkar til sterkir
— þeim gafsk rausn ok ríki —
rjóðendr skipum síðan.
Ok auðbrotar erfi
ógnrakkastir drukku
— þeim frák ýmsum aukask
annir — feðra sinna.

{Sterkir rjóðendr dreyrgra darra} heldu síðan skipum til Danmarkar; rausn ok ríki gafsk þeim. Ok {ógnrakkastir auðbrotar} drukku erfi feðra sinna; frák annir aukask ýmsum þeim.

{The strong reddeners of bloody spears} [WARRIORS] then sailed ships to Denmark; splendour and power came their way. And {the extremely battle-bold wealth-breakers} [GENEROUS MEN] drank a funeral feast for their fathers; I have heard that troubles increased for certain of them.

Mss: R(53v); 61(18vb), 54(14vb), Bb(25ra) (ÓT)

Readings: [1] dreyrgra: ‘dryrgra’ Bb    [2] sterkir: styrkir all others    [3] gafsk: gaf Bb    [4] síðan: so all others, sínum R    [5] auðbrotar: ǫrbrjótar Bb    [6] ‑rakkastir: ‑rakkir þar all others    [7] ýmsum: ýmsar 54

Editions: Skj AII, 3, Skj BII, 3, Skald II, 2; Fms 11, 165, Fms 12, 242, Jvs 1879, 106-7; Fms 1, 161, Fms 12, 39, ÓT 1958-2000, I, 178 (ch. 86), Ólafur Halldórsson 2000, 22, 75-6.

Context: King Sveinn tjúguskegg Haraldsson of Denmark plans to hold a funeral feast in memory of his deceased father, Haraldr blátǫnn Gormsson. Strút-Haraldr, jarl of Skáney (Skåne), and Véseti of Borgundarhólmr (Bornholm) have also died recently and Sveinn sends word to their sons, Sigvaldi jarl Strút-Haraldsson, and Búi digri and Sigurðr kápa Vésetasynir, that they should attend the wake and commemorate their fathers too. The Jómsvíkingar set off for Denmark with an impressive band.

Notes: [2]: The line is metrically irregular, since constructions with enclitic prepositions (here Danmarkar til ‘to Denmark’) do not normally occur except in later poetry (Kuhn 1983, 120-2). — [3] gafsk ‘came’: The verb, placed before the subject, is sg. though the subject is the cpd rausn ok ríki ‘splendour and power’; cf. NS §70. — [4] síðan ‘then’: The adv. in the ÓT mss 61, 54, and Bb is preferable to the poss. pron. sínum ‘their’ in R, since it fulfils the metrical requirement for skothending in this even line. — [6] ógnrakkastir ‘extremely battle-bold’: Ógn is a battle-heiti with the specific sense ‘terror, threat’ (LP: ógn). In the ÓT mss, ógnrakkr ‘battle-bold’, the same adj. in the positive degree, is also possible, the extra syllable being supplied by þar ‘there’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
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. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
6. Kuhn, Hans (1899). 1983. Das Dróttkvætt. Heidelberg: Winter.
7. ÓT 1958-2000 = Ólafur Halldórsson, ed. 1958-2000. Saga Óláfs Tryggvasonar en mesta. 3 vols. EA A 1-3. Copenhagen: Munksgaard (Reitzel).
8. Jvs 1879 = Petersens, Carl af, ed. 1879. Jómsvíkinga saga (efter Cod. AM. 510, 4:to) samt Jómsvíkinga drápa. Lund: Gleerup.
9. Ólafur Halldórsson. 2000a. Danish Kings and the Jomsvikings in the Greatest Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason. London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
10. Internal references
11. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta’ 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=60> (accessed 18 April 2024)
12. Matthew Townend 2012, ‘(Biography of) Sveinn tjúguskegg Haraldsson’ 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. 378.