ESk Geisl 40^VII

Veitk, at Vinðr fyr skauti
(verðr bragr af því) skerði
gjalfrs Niðbranda grundar
(greiddr) sárliga meiddu,
ok endr frá trú týndir
tírar sterks ór kverkum
auðskýfanda óðar
ôr grimmliga skôru.

Veitk, at Vinðr meiddu {skerði {Niðbranda}} sárliga fyr skauti {grundar gjalfrs}; bragr verðr greiddr af því; ok týndir endr frá trú skôru grimmliga {ôr óðar} ór kverkum {auðskýfanda}, tírar sterks.

I know that the Wends mutilated {the diminisher {of Nið <river>-flames}} [GOLD > GENEROUS MAN] painfully by the edge {of the land of ocean-din} [SEA]; poetry is made from that; and [men] lost long ago from the faith cut horribly {the oar of poetry} [TONGUE] from the throat {of the distributor of riches} [GENEROUS MAN], strong in honour.

Mss: Bb(117vb), Flat(2rb)

Readings: [2] af því skerði: en þeir skerðu Flat    [3] Niðbranda: ‘nidranda’ Flat    [4] greiddr: ‘greiddra’ Flat    [5] frá: fyr Flat;    týndir (‘tindir’): ‘tindri’ Flat

Editions: Skj AI, 466, Skj BI, 437, Skald I, 215, NN §1794; Flat 1860-8, I, 4, Cederschiöld 1873, 6, Chase 2005, 90, 151-2.

Notes: [All]: Chase 2005, 90 presents the following text, based on Flat:

Veitk, at Vinðr fyr skauti verðr bragr (en þeir skerðu) gjalfrs niðranda grundar greiddr (sárliga) meiddu,

ok endr fyr trú týndir tírar sterks ór kverkum auðskýfanda óðar r grimmliga skru.

Veitk, at Vinðr meiddu skauti grundar gjalfrs fyr niðranda, en þeir skerðu sárliga – bragr verðr greiddr; ok endr fyr trú týndir skru grimmliga óðar r ór kverkum tírar sterks auðskýfanda ‘I know that the Wends mutilated the twig of the land of noise [MOUTH > TONGUE] on the riverbank, and they cut [it] painfully. Poetry is made; and men lost from the faith long ago horribly cut the oar of poetry [TONGUE] from the throat of the most honourable distributor of riches [MAN]’. In this interpretation skauti (dat. sg.) (l.1) is understood as ‘twig’ (lit. ‘corner, flap, edge’ of something) and taken with grundar gjalfrs to produce a tongue-kenning, while Flat’s niðranda (l.3) is taken with fyr (l. 1) to produce the sense ‘on the riverbank’. Nið is here understood as referring to any body of water, and randi is taken as a poetic form of rǫnd ‘rim, edge’. Fyr niðranda means ‘beside the seacoast’ or ‘on the riverbank’, perhaps a pun on the name Niðaróss ‘estuary of the Nið’. — [All]: Sts 40-1 recount a miracle of S. Óláfr which is also told in the prose versions (see Chase 2005, 40-1 and n. 120). A group of Wends took a man named Halldórr and cut out his tongue. Halldórr then visited Óláfr’s shrine on his feast day and was cured. The account in AM 325 4° IV (Louis-Jensen 1970) says that this took place while Cardinal Nicholas Breakspear was in Norway, in the year before Geisl’s recital, and that this and the cure involving Kolbeinn (see sts 37-9) were witnessed by a monk named Hallr. Geisl is the only account of the miracle that specifies a location for the maiming (according to the interpretation below). — [All]: The text above is based mainly on Bb (as in Skj B and Skald) on the grounds that it produces better and less syntactically strained sense, especially in l. 1 (fyr skauti) and l. 4, where Flat’s text requires sárliga to be set off by two different sentence boundaries. — [2] skerði (dat. sg.) ‘the diminisher’: Skerðir ‘diminisher, destroyer’ is frequently a base-word of man-kennings that have ‘gold’ as the determinant, as here. Flat’s text requires skerðu ‘they cut’, 3rd pers. pl. pret. indic. of skerða ‘to cut a notch, diminish, harm’. — [3] Niðbranda ‘of Nið <river>-flames’: A kenning for gold, in which the name of the river Nið (Norw. Nidelven) that flows through Niðaróss, the older name for Trondheim, functions as a river-heiti, though one that may well also have had specific reference in this context, see LP: 2 Nið.

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. Cederschiöld, Gustaf J. Chr., ed. 1873b. ‘Bandamanna saga’. Acta Universitatis Lundensis 10.
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. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. Louis-Jensen, Jonna. 1970a. ‘“Syvende og ottende brudstykke”. Fragmentet AM 325 IV 4to.’. Opuscula 4, 31-60. BA 30. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
11. Internal references
12. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Magnúss saga berfœtts’ 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=144> (accessed 26 April 2024)
13. Martin Chase 2007, ‘ Einarr Skúlason, Geisli’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 5-65. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1144> (accessed 26 April 2024)