ESk Geisl 29^VII

Lét jarplitan ôtu
(arnar jóðs) inn góði
(munn rauð malmþings kennir)
Magnús Hugins fagna.
Hrætt varð folk á flótta
— frôn beit egg — at leggja;
sorg biðu víf, en vargar,
vinðversk, of hræ ginðu.

Magnús inn góði lét jarplitan fagna {ôtu Hugins}; {kennir {malmþings}} rauð munn arnar jóðs. Hrætt folk varð at leggja á flótta; frôn egg beit; vinðversk víf biðu sorg, en vargar ginðu of hræ.

Magnús the Good made the brown-coloured one rejoice {with the food of Huginn <raven>} [CORPSES]; {the tester {of the weapon-meeting}} [BATTLE > WARRIOR] reddened the mouth of the eagle’s offspring. The frightened army had to take to flight; the sharp blade bit; Wendish women experienced sorrow, and wolves gaped over carrion.

Mss: Flat(2ra), Bb(117va); Hr(9ra) (H-Hr)

Readings: [1] ‑litan: so Bb, ‘‑lidr’ Flat, ‘leitan’ Hr    [3] malmþings: mildingr Bb, Hr;    kennir: innan Bb, Hr    [4] Hugins: ‘huginn’ Bb, ‘hugan’ Hr    [6] beit: leit Bb;    at: á Hr;    leggja: leggi Hr    [7] biðu: hlutu Bb, Hr

Editions: Skj AI, 464, Skj BI, 434, Skald I, 214, NN §936; Flat 1860-8, I, 4, Cederschiöld 1873, 5, Chase 2005, 79, 146-7; Fms 6, 66-7.

Context: Immediately following st. 28 H-Hr reads: Eptir fall Regbuss gerðisk Magnús konúngr svꜽ ákafr, at hann var fremstr sinna manna, ok beið eigi merkjanna, hann hjo [sic] á 2 hendr, ok drap heiðíngja niðr sem búfꜵ; sá Vindr þá eingan sinn kost vænna enn flýja, þeir sem því kómu við ‘After the fall of Regbus [a Wendish king] King Magnús became so vehement that he was [fighting] at the front of his men and did not wait for the standards. He hacked to both sides, and struck the heathens down like cattle. The Wends who were able to then saw no better option than to flee’. The prose text continues in H (Dreifðisk þá herrinn víðs vegar... ‘The army was widely scattered’), which omits st. 29, but Hr first inserts the phrase svá segir Einarr ‘thus says Einarr’ followed by the text of this st.

Notes: [1] jarplitan ‘brown-coloured’: The adj. does not occur elsewhere, but is a cpd of jarpr ‘brown’ and litr ‘coloured.’ The skalds often used the characteristic epithets ‘black’ and ‘dark-coloured’ in reference to the raven (see Meissner, 117), and Einarr sustains the metaphor by using tu Hugins ‘food of Huginn’ as a kenning for the slain. St. 29 thus contains references to the three traditional beasts of battle: the raven, the eagle, and the wolf. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) understands the references to the birds of battle rather differently in ll. 1-4, construing Magnús enn góði lét hugin fagna tu; malmþings kennir rauð munn jarplitaðs arnar jóðs ‘Magnús the Good let the raven enjoy food; the warrior [tester of the weapon-meeting] reddened the beak of the brown-coloured eagle [offspring of the eagle]’. Here he adopts an emendation, jarplitaðs (l. 1), originally suggested in Nj 1875-8, II, 293-5. — [8] ginðu ‘gaped’: An example of a weak pret. form of a strong verb (see ANG §482, Anm. 2). The vowel has been shortened to facilitate aðalhending with vinðversk (Kahle 1892, 57-9 discusses this phenomenon).

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. Cederschiöld, Gustaf J. Chr., ed. 1873b. ‘Bandamanna saga’. Acta Universitatis Lundensis 10.
5. Nj 1875-89 = Konráð Gíslason and Eiríkur Jónsson. 1875-89. Njála: Udgivet efter gamle håndskrifter. Íslendingasögur udgivne efter gamle haandskrifter af Det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-selskab 4. Copenhagen: Thiele.
6. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
7. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
8. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
9. 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.
10. Cederschiöld, Gustaf J. Chr., ed. 1873a. Geisli eða Óláfs Drápa ens Helga er Einarr orti Skúlason: efter ‘Bergsboken’ utgifven. Acta Universitatis Lundensis 10. Lund: Berling.
11. Chase, Martin, ed. 2005. Einarr Skúlason’s Geisli. A Critical Edition. Toronto Old Norse and Icelandic Studies 1. Toronto, Buffalo and London: Toronto University Press.
12. 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.
13. Kahle, Bernhard. 1892. Die Sprache der Skalden auf Grund der Binnen- und Endreime. Verbunden mit einem Rimarium. Strassburg: Trübner.
14. Internal references
15. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Hulda-Hrokkinskinna’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=84> (accessed 25 April 2024)