ESk Lv 2^II

Erlendr hefir undan
allvalds gleði haldit;
gramr, skaltattu, gumna,
Gapamunn of þat kunna.
Hafa munu heiðar jǫfra
hlíðrœkjanda fríðum
— geta verðr þess fyr gotnum —
galdrs nauðsynjar valdit.

Erlendr hefir haldit undan gleði allvalds; gramr gumna, skaltattu kunna Gapamunn of þat. Nauðsynjar munu hafa valdit {{{fríðum {jǫfra heiðar} galdrs} hlíð}rœkjanda}; verðr geta þess fyr gotnum.

Erlendr has fled from the cheer of the mighty ruler; leader of men, you must not fault Gapamunnr (‘Gaping-mouth’) for that. Necessities must have forced {the handsome cultivator {of the slope {of the chant {of the chieftains of the heath}}}} [(lit. ‘slope-cultivator of the chant of the chieftains of the heath’) GIANTS > GOLD > WOMAN > MAN]; one must recount that before the people.

Mss: H(111v), Hr(73vb) (H-Hr); Mork(31r) (Mork); F(65va)

Readings: [2] allvalds gleði haldit: ‘[...]’ Mork    [3] gramr skaltattu gumna: ‘[...]’ Mork;    skaltattu: skallattu H, F, skalattu Hr    [4] Gapamunn of: ‘[...]’ Mork;    ‑munn: so Hr, F, ‑munnr H    [5] munu: mun Hr;    heiðar jǫfra: ‘heidur a iofrar’ Hr, heiðir jǫfrar Mork, hæðar jǫfra F    [7] verðr þess fyr gotnum: ‘[...]’ Mork    [8] galdrs nauðsynjar valdit: ‘[...]’ Mork;    galdrs: ‘galldus’ Hr

Editions: Skj AI, 483, Skj BI, 455, Skald I, 224, NN §§962, 3108A; Fms 7, 167 (Msona ch. 50); Mork 1867, 192, Mork 1928-32, 392, Andersson and Gade 2000, 352-3, 490 (Msona); F 1871, 303 (Msona).

Context: Erlendr gapamunnr falls out of favour with King Sigurðr jórsalafari because he holds the king under water in an attempt to save a man whom Sigurðr is trying drown during a swimming competition. The king asks Einarr Erlendr’s whereabouts.

Notes: [All]: This episode is also told in Hkr (ÍF 28, 269-70) in a slightly different version and with different characters (an Icelander, Jón, being saved by Sigurðr’s retainer, Sigurðr Sigurðarson). It is one of a series of episodes included in Mork (and Hkr) to document Sigurðr jórsalafari’s growing insanity (see Mork 1928-32, 388-99; ÍF 28, 262, 269). In his old age, Sigurðr suffered increasingly from delusions, and he was aware of his own mental state. According to Mork (1928-32, 397), he uttered the following prophetic statement about the future political situation in Norway: Illa ero þer at staddir Noregs menn at hafa øran konvng ifir yþr. en sva segir mer hvgr vm at þer myndot rꜹþo gulli cꜹpa af stvndo at ec vera helldr konvngr en þeir Haralldr oc M. aɴaʀ er grimr en aɴaʀ vvitr ‘You people of Norway are in a bad way having a mad king ruling you. But my mind tells me that you would soon wish to pay red gold to have me as a king rather than Haraldr and Magnús. One is mean and the other a fool’. — [All]: Mork is partly damaged, and H has been chosen as the main ms. The st. must have been composed prior to the death of Sigurðr jórsalafari in 1130. — [1] Erlendr: Erlendr gapamunnr ‘Gaping-mouth’ is otherwise unknown. — [1] hefir ‘has’: An early occurrence of the disyllabic, 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. form of the verb hafa ‘have’. The form is secured by the metre here. — [3] skaltattu (2nd pers. sg. pres. indic.) ‘you must not’: Skallattu (so H, F; skalattu Hr) ‘you must not’ has been emended to skaltattu (i.e. skalt-at-þú lit. ‘must-not-you’). The metre requires a long syllable in position 2, and the correct form of the 2nd pers. sg. pres. indic. of the verb skulu ‘must’ is skalt. — [5-6, 8] jǫfra heiðar galdrs hlíðrœkjanda ‘the cultivator of the slope of the chant of the chieftains of the heath [(lit. ‘slope-cultivator of the chant of the chieftains of the heath’) GIANTS > GOLD > WOMAN > MAN]’: The interpretation of this kenning was suggested by Kock (NN §962). Skj B construes it as follows: rœkjanda galdrs hlíð-jǫfra heiðar ‘the cultivator of the chant of the slope-chieftains of the heath’ i.e. ‘the cultivator of the chant of the giants’ (‘the cultivator of gold’). The problem with that interpretation is that the first element (hlíð- ‘slope-’) of the cpd hlíðrœkjanda ‘slope-cultivator’ must be a determinant for the base-word rœkjanda ‘cultivator’, and it cannot function as a determinant for jǫfra ‘chieftains’. Although Kock’s interpretation is the only possible one, it is not completely satisfactory, because, outside of Krákumál (Anon Krm^VIII), men are not represented in kennings as ‘husband’ or ‘beloved’ (see Meissner 351). However, if we assume an agricultural/sexual sense here (see Note to Anon Nkt 8/1, 2), this objection disappears. The kenning ‘chant of the giant’ for ‘gold’ refers to the story about a giant’s wealth being measured in mouthfuls (see SnE 1998, I, 3).

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. 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.
7. Andersson, Theodore M. and Kari Ellen Gade, trans. 2000. Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157). Islandica 51. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
8. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
9. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
10. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
11. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
12. Mork 1867 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1867. Morkinskinna: Pergamentsbog fra første halvdel af det trettende aarhundrede. Indeholdende en af de ældste optegnelser af norske kongesagaer. Oslo: Bentzen.
13. Internal references
14. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Heimskringla’ 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=4> (accessed 24 April 2024)
15. (forthcoming), ‘ Anonymous, Gull-Ásu-Þórðar þáttr’ 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=20> (accessed 24 April 2024)
16. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Morkinskinna’ 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=87> (accessed 24 April 2024)
17. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Magnússona saga’ 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=149> (accessed 24 April 2024)
18. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Anonymous Poems, Nóregs konungatal 8’ 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. 767.
19. Rory McTurk 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Krákumál’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 706. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1020> (accessed 24 April 2024)