ESk Frag 18^III

The helmingr (ESk Frag 18) describes a sea-voyage during which the poet, who is identified as Einarr (no patronymic) in all mss, may have been present. It is recorded in Skm (SnE) in mss R (main ms.), Tˣ, A, B and C. Ms. B is now too damaged to be read with any certainty, and 744ˣ has been used in its place.

Né framlyndir fundu
fyrr, (hykkat lô kyrrðu)
þars sær á við varra
(vini óra) fell stórum.

Framlyndir né fundu fyrr, þars sær fell stórum á {við varra}; hykkat lô kyrrðu vini óra.

The confident ones did not discover it earlier, where the sea fell violently on {the wood of the wake} [SHIP]; I do not believe the wave calmed our friends.

Mss: R(38v), Tˣ(40r), A(13v), B(6r), 744ˣ(36v), C(7v) (SnE)

Readings: [1] framlyndir: framlynd Tˣ, ‘framlý..dir’ 744ˣ;    fundu: fundusk 744ˣ    [2] hykkat lô: ‘hyck acla’ Tˣ, hykkat ek lô C;    kyrrðu: kyrra C    [3] á: um C;    varra: ‘vorv’ R, fóru Tˣ, ‘varv’ A, ‘varo’ 744ˣ, ‘vara’ C    [4] vini óra: ‘ymi vra’ Tˣ;    fell: fellr C

Editions: Skj AI, 482, Skj BI, 454, Skald I, 223, NN §961; SnE 1848-87, I, 502-3, II, 452, 535, 601, III, 105, SnE 1931, 176, SnE 1998, I, 96.

Context: Lá is given among the heiti for ‘wave’ in Skm.

Notes: [All]: The sense of the helmingr is that, during a sea-voyage, the poet’s friends were surprised by a wave that either hit the ship or poured in over the railing. — [3] á við varra ‘on the wood of the wake [SHIP]’: Skj B separates the preposition á ‘on’ from the following nominal phrase and construes a prepositional phrase á vini óra ‘on our friends’, taking við varra ‘the wood of the wake’ as the object of kyrrðu ‘calmed’ (past inf., l. 2). Such a word order is otherwise unattested in skaldic syntax (see NN §961). — [3] varra (m. gen. pl.) ‘of the wake’: The ms. variants make no sense in this context, and the emendation is in keeping with earlier eds. Vǫrr can either mean ‘wake (of a ship)’ or ‘oar-stroke’, both of which are suitable as determinants in a kenning for ‘ship’. See also Note to Frag 12/2 above.

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. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
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. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
7. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
8. Internal references
9. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
10. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 18 April 2024)
11. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Fragments 18’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 168.