Bjbp Jóms 24^I

Sigvaldi bað sína
sóknstranga vel ganga
— hann varat samr á sáttir —
sveit Hákuni á móti.
Haralds arfi klauf hjálma
hildarǫrr ok skjǫldu;
framm gekk hann fyr hlífar
hart nakkvara snertu.

Sigvaldi bað sóknstranga sveit sína ganga vel á móti Hákuni; hann varat samr á sáttir. {Hildarǫrr arfi Haralds} klauf hjálma ok skjǫldu; hann gekk framm hart fyr hlífar nakkvara snertu.

Sigvaldi bade his attack-strong band advance strongly against Hákon; he was not willing for settlement. {The battle-keen heir of Haraldr} [= Sigvaldi] split helmets and shields; he pressed forward strongly before shields in a certain short attack.

Mss: R(54r), 65ˣ(381v)

Readings: [1] Sigvaldi: ‘[…]gvalldi’ R, Sigvaldi 65ˣ, ‘S[…]gvalldi’ RCP, RFJ    [3] sáttir: ‘satt[…]’ R, RCP, RFJ, ‘sett’ 65ˣ    [4] sveit: ‘[…]’ R, ‘[…]eit’ 65ˣ, sveit RCP, RFJ;    Hákuni: ‘[…]’ R, harri 65ˣ, ‘hak[…]i’ RCP, RFJ;    á móti: ‘[…]’ R, á mót 65ˣ, ‘a m…’ RCP, RFJ    [8] snertu: ‘sn[…]’ R, sínum 65ˣ, ‘sn(er)t(v)’(?) RCP, snertu RFJ

Editions: Skj AII, 5-6, Skj BII, 6, Skald II, 4; Fms 11, 169-70, Fms 12, 244, Jvs 1879, 112-13.

Notes: [2] ganga (inf.) ‘advance’: This produces aðalhending with -strang-, which is irregular for this poem (see Introduction). Konráð Gíslason (1877, 35-6) accordingly emended to 3rd pers. pres. subj. gengi, and Skj B followed by Skald similarly reads gingi. Similarly, in st. 29/4 gengu has been printed in some eds as gingu to avoid aðalhending with drengir. — [3] sáttir ‘settlement’: The word stands at the end of a line where the vellum has been torn away in R (and already was at the time of 65ˣ and the early eds), but the ending, here -ir, can safely be assumed on the basis of metre and sense. — [4] Hákuni ‘Hákon’: The situation is the same as for l. 3 sáttir. — [6] hildarǫrr ‘battle-keen’: This is treated as a cpd here (as also in Fms 12); cf. LP: hildardjarfr ‘battle-bold’, hildarramr ‘battle-powerful’. It could alternatively be seen as a phrase.  — [8] nakkvara snertu ‘in a certain short attack’: (a) Snerta in prose means ‘a short stretch of time or place’, i.e. a short time or distance (Fritzner: snerta 1, 2); in poetry it most often means a sharp, relatively short attack, or a whole battle (LP: snerta 1, 2), and the sense ‘attack’ is appropriate here. Nakkvara snertu makes a f. acc. sg. phrase which appears to be quasi-temporal and used adverbially, cf. expressions such as fara dag ok nótt ‘to travel day and night’ (NS §98a). (b) Jvs 1879 notes that the abbreviation at the end of the word is unclear but that the reading is not ‘sinnum’. Fms 11 prints sinnum ‘at times’, dat. pl. of sinn ‘time’; so also Wisén (1870, 82). This is grammatically incompatible with the preceding word nakkvara ‘some, a certain’, which must be m. acc. pl. or f. acc. sg. Sveinbjörn Egilsson’s gloss nokkrum in Fms 12 equates this with dat. pl., but this is doubtful.

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. 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.
6. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
7. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
8. Konráð Gíslason. 1877. Om helrim i förste og tredje linie af regelmæssigt ‘dróttkvætt’ og ‘hrynhenda’. Indbydelsesskrift til Kjøbenhavns universitets aarsfest til erindring om kirkens reformation. Copenhagen: Schultz.
9. Jvs 1879 = Petersens, Carl af, ed. 1879. Jómsvíkinga saga (efter Cod. AM. 510, 4:to) samt Jómsvíkinga drápa. Lund: Gleerup.
10. Wisén, Theodor, ed. 1870. Úrval af norrænum fornkvæðum handa hinum bókmennta-iðkendum. Lund: Berling.