Edáð Banddr 7^I

Frák, hvar fleina sævar
fúrherðir styr gerði
endr í eyja sundi.
Eirekr und sik geira.
Hrauð fúrgjafall fjórar
folkmeiðr Dana skeiðar
— vér frôgum þat — vága.
Veðrmildr ok semr hildi.

Frák, hvar {{{fleina sævar} fúr}herðir} gerði endr styr í sundi eyja. Eirekr und sik geira … {Folkmeiðr}, {vága fúr}gjafall, hrauð fjórar skeiðar Dana; vér frôgum þat. Veðrmildr ok semr hildi …

I have heard where {the hardener {of the fire {of the sea of barbs}}} [(lit. ‘fire-hardener of the sea of barbs’) BLOOD > SWORD > WARRIOR = Eiríkr] again made war in the sound of islands. Eiríkr under himself of spears … {The battle-tree} [WARRIOR], bountiful {with the fire of bays} [(lit. ‘fire-bountiful of bays’) GOLD], cleared four warships of the Danes; we [I] have heard that. Storm-generous and contrives warfare …

Mss: Kˣ(200r-v), F(34ra), J1ˣ(123r), J2ˣ(109r) (Hkr)

Readings: [4] geira: so F, abbrev. as ‘g’ Kˣ, J1ˣ, J2ˣ    [5] Hrauð: so J1ˣ, rauð Kˣ, F    [8] Veðrmildr ok semr hildi: abbrev. as ‘v. m ok s. h.’ J1ˣ, J2ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 201, Skj BI, 192, Skald I, 101; Hkr 1893-1901, I, 418, IV, 94-5, ÍF 26, 339-40, Hkr 1991, I, 230-1 (ÓTHkr ch. 90), F 1871, 154.

Context: Hkr places sts 7 and 8 almost immediately after st. 6, as part of an account of Eiríkr’s raids on the Estonian districts of Aðalsýsla (Suuremaa, or mainland Estonia) and Eysýsla (Saaremaa in Estonian, Ösel in Swedish). Eiríkr captures four Danish warships and slaughters their crews.

Notes: [All]: Lines 4 and 8 belong to the klofastef ‘split refrain’ and stand outside the syntax of the stanza; see st. 9 and Notes. — [2, 5] fúr- ‘of/with the fire’: This word occurs as a base-word for two different types of kenning, referring to ‘sword’ and ‘gold’ respectively, in the one stanza. In both cases the structure is inverted, fúr- forming a kenning with an element other than the one it is compounded with. — [3] sundi eyja ‘the sound of islands’: Probably a bay or sound with a profusion of islands. This would fit the Gulf of Riga; cf. Ohlmarks (1958, 510), who suggests that Ösel, Dagö and Wormsö (Estonian Saaremaa, Hiiumaa and Vormsi), off the Estonian mainland, are the islands referred to. That localisation is compatible with the geographical information in Hkr (see Context). However, the detailed accuracy of Hkr at this point is disputed, and Fsk (ÍF 29, 165), although it does not cite the stanza, places the capture of the Danish warships more plausibly in the Eyrarsund (Øresund). Fidjestøl (1982, 113, and cf. CPB II, 52, 570) suggests an error for Eyrarsundi in the stanza and favours the Fsk account, but ultimately there is no means of knowing whether Fsk is correct or is substituting a familiar location for an unfamiliar one. Finnur Jónsson (Hkr 1893-1901, IV; similarly ÍF 26) understands sundi eyja as ‘sound between two islands’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. Fidjestøl, Bjarne. 1982. Det norrøne fyrstediktet. Universitet i Bergen Nordisk institutts skriftserie 11. Øvre Ervik: Alvheim & Eide.
4. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
5. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
6. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
7. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
8. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
9. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
10. Ohlmarks, Åke. 1958. Tors skalder och Vite-Krists. Trosskiftestidens isländska furstelovskalder, 980-1013. Stockholm: Geber.
11. Internal references
12. (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 26 April 2024)
13. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Fagrskinna’ 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=56> (accessed 26 April 2024)