Emily Lethbridge (ed.) 2012, ‘Bjarni byskup Kolbeinsson, Jómsvíkingadrápa 30’ 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. 985.
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2. hverr (pron.): who, whom, each, every < hvervetna (adv.): everywhere
[1] Hver‑: huar‑ 61, ‘Hvo᷎r‑’ Bb
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-vetna (adv.): [where] < hvervetna (adv.): everywhere
[1] ‑vetna: so 54, Bb, ‑vitna R, 61
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1. fregna (verb): hear of
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herr (noun m.; °-s/-jar, dat. -; -jar, gen. -ja/herra): army, host
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gnýr (noun m.): din, tumult
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darr (noun n.; °; *-um): spear
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fyr (prep.): for, over, because of, etc.
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hregg (noun n.): storm < hreggviðr (noun m.)
[3, 4] hjǫrva hreggviðum rǫkkum gunnar ‘trees of the storm of swords [(lit. ‘storm-trees of swords’) BATTLE > WARRIORS] bold in battle’: The cpd hreggviðir ‘storm-trees’ also forms part of an inverted warrior-kenning in st. 20/5. Rekkum (m. dat. pl.) ‘warriors’, the variant to rǫkkum in 61 and Bb, does not fit the context since another noun is superfluous.
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hregg (noun n.): storm < hreggviðr (noun m.)
[3, 4] hjǫrva hreggviðum rǫkkum gunnar ‘trees of the storm of swords [(lit. ‘storm-trees of swords’) BATTLE > WARRIORS] bold in battle’: The cpd hreggviðir ‘storm-trees’ also forms part of an inverted warrior-kenning in st. 20/5. Rekkum (m. dat. pl.) ‘warriors’, the variant to rǫkkum in 61 and Bb, does not fit the context since another noun is superfluous.
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1. viðr (noun m.; °-ar, dat. -i/-; -ir, acc. -u/-i): wood, tree < hreggviðr (noun m.)
[3, 4] hjǫrva hreggviðum rǫkkum gunnar ‘trees of the storm of swords [(lit. ‘storm-trees of swords’) BATTLE > WARRIORS] bold in battle’: The cpd hreggviðir ‘storm-trees’ also forms part of an inverted warrior-kenning in st. 20/5. Rekkum (m. dat. pl.) ‘warriors’, the variant to rǫkkum in 61 and Bb, does not fit the context since another noun is superfluous.
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hjǫrr (noun m.): sword
[3, 4] hjǫrva hreggviðum rǫkkum gunnar ‘trees of the storm of swords [(lit. ‘storm-trees of swords’) BATTLE > WARRIORS] bold in battle’: The cpd hreggviðir ‘storm-trees’ also forms part of an inverted warrior-kenning in st. 20/5. Rekkum (m. dat. pl.) ‘warriors’, the variant to rǫkkum in 61 and Bb, does not fit the context since another noun is superfluous.
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hjǫrr (noun m.): sword
[3, 4] hjǫrva hreggviðum rǫkkum gunnar ‘trees of the storm of swords [(lit. ‘storm-trees of swords’) BATTLE > WARRIORS] bold in battle’: The cpd hreggviðir ‘storm-trees’ also forms part of an inverted warrior-kenning in st. 20/5. Rekkum (m. dat. pl.) ‘warriors’, the variant to rǫkkum in 61 and Bb, does not fit the context since another noun is superfluous.
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1. hrøkkva (verb): coil
[3, 4] hjǫrva hreggviðum rǫkkum gunnar ‘trees of the storm of swords [(lit. ‘storm-trees of swords’) BATTLE > WARRIORS] bold in battle’: The cpd hreggviðir ‘storm-trees’ also forms part of an inverted warrior-kenning in st. 20/5. Rekkum (m. dat. pl.) ‘warriors’, the variant to rǫkkum in 61 and Bb, does not fit the context since another noun is superfluous.
[3, 4] hjǫrva hreggviðum rǫkkum gunnar ‘trees of the storm of swords [(lit. ‘storm-trees of swords’) BATTLE > WARRIORS] bold in battle’: The cpd hreggviðir ‘storm-trees’ also forms part of an inverted warrior-kenning in st. 20/5. Rekkum (m. dat. pl.) ‘warriors’, the variant to rǫkkum in 61 and Bb, does not fit the context since another noun is superfluous.
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áðr (adv.; °//): before
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í (prep.): in, into
[5] í drífu ǫrva ‘in the snow-storm of arrows [BATTLE]’: This phrase is taken here with grimmr ýtum ‘cruel to men’. It could alternatively modify blóta ‘make a sacrifice’ if it refers to the overall course of the battle, rather than the thick of the fighting. According to the ÓT account (see Context above) Hákon went ashore to sacrifice.
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ǫr (noun f.; °dat. -/-u; ǫrvar/ǫrar): arrow
[5] í drífu ǫrva ‘in the snow-storm of arrows [BATTLE]’: This phrase is taken here with grimmr ýtum ‘cruel to men’. It could alternatively modify blóta ‘make a sacrifice’ if it refers to the overall course of the battle, rather than the thick of the fighting. According to the ÓT account (see Context above) Hákon went ashore to sacrifice.
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1. drífa (noun f.; °-u): snow-storm
[5] í drífu ǫrva ‘in the snow-storm of arrows [BATTLE]’: This phrase is taken here with grimmr ýtum ‘cruel to men’. It could alternatively modify blóta ‘make a sacrifice’ if it refers to the overall course of the battle, rather than the thick of the fighting. According to the ÓT account (see Context above) Hákon went ashore to sacrifice.
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ýtr (noun m.): man; launcher
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grimmr (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): fierce
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5. at (nota): to (with infinitive)
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2. blóta (verb; °-að-): sacrifice
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fram (adv.): out, forth, forwards, away
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koma (verb; kem, kom/kvam, kominn): come
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heift (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): hatred, enmity
[7] heipt ‘violence’: It is unclear what sense of heipt is intended here, and hence whether the line refers to Hákon jarl’s sacrifice of his young son for victory (see Context) or the progress of the battle. Its normal senses of ‘hate, enmity’ and actions arising from those (LP: heipt 1) or ‘battle-fury, aggression’ (LP: heipt 2), seem inadequate to the situation. Skj B offers for l. 7, det hårde sind viste sig i gærningen ‘the ruthless mind showed itself in the action’.
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2. inn (art.): the
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harðr (adj.; °comp. -ari; superl. -astr): hard, harsh
[8] Hákun: The variant ‘hal(l)kæm’ in 54 and Bb could be an assimilated form of the adj. haldkvæm(r) ‘fit, meet, convenient’, but this could only qualify f. nom. sg. heipt ‘violence’, which is already qualified by the weak adj. harða ‘harsh’, and the clause would lack a nominal subject.
[8] þegar ‘at once’: This, the R reading, makes sense in context. The ÓT variant syni ‘son’ also gives good sense and makes explicit reference to Hákon’s alleged human sacrifice (otherwise lacking in the stanza) by providing a grammatical (dat.) object for at blóta ‘to sacrifice’. It is adopted in Jvs 1879, Skj B and Skald.
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2. taka (verb): take
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Hvervetna frák hǫlða |
I have heard that everywhere men recoiled before trees of the storm of swords [(lit. ‘storm-trees of swords’) BATTLE > WARRIORS] bold in battle — the army caused the din of spears [BATTLE] to increase —, before Hákon, cruel to men in the snow-storm of arrows [BATTLE], proceeded at once to make a sacrifice; the harsh violence proceeded.
Hákon jarl sees that the battle is not going his way; he goes ashore and sacrifices his seven-year-old son Erlingr in order to attain victory.
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