Eskál Vell 23^I

Varð fyr Vinða myrði
víðfrægt, en gramr síðan
gerðisk mest at morði,
mannfall við styr annan.
Hlym-Narfi bað hverfa
hlífar flagðs ok lagði
Jalks við ǫndurt fylki
ǫndur †fꜹrf† at landi.

Víðfrægt mannfall varð fyr {myrði Vinða} við annan styr, en síðan gerðisk gramr mest at morði. {{{Hlífar flagðs} hlym}-Narfi} bað hverfa {ǫndur Jalks} †fꜹrf† at landi ok lagði við ǫndurt fylki.

There was a widely renowned slaughter before {the killer of the Wends} [= Hákon jarl] in the second battle, and then the ruler eagerly set out for battle. {The Narfi <supernatural being> {of the din {of the troll-woman of the shield}}} [(lit. ‘din-Narfi of the troll-woman of the shield’) AXE > BATTLE > WARRIOR = Ragnfrøðr?] ordered {the ski of Jálkr <sea-king>} [SHIP] to be turned … towards land and pulled up alongside the front of the host.

Mss: Kˣ(142r), F(23va), J1ˣ(82v), J2ˣ(77v), 325VIII 1(3rb) (Hkr); 61(11v), 53(9va), 54(5rb-va), Bb(15rb) (ÓT)

Readings: [1] Vinða: víga 61, 53, 54, Bb;    myrði: morði 54, Bb    [2] ‑frægt: ‑frægr 325VIII 1, Bb    [3] gerðisk: gjǫrðask 54    [5] Hlym‑: ‘hlum‑’ J1ˣ, ‘hlun‑’ 61, 53, 54, Bb;    Narfi: ‘‑rarfi’ J1ˣ, ‘‑nar fyr’ 53, 54, Bb;    bað: bauð 53, 54, Bb    [6] flagðs: ‘fladz’ 325VIII 1    [7] við: var 61, 53, 54, Bb;    ǫndurt: ‘ondvert’ 53, ‘ondyrt’ 54, Bb    [8] ǫndur: ‘ꜹndr’ J1ˣ, ‘ondvt’ 53;    †fꜹrf†: ‘þorf’ F, ‘forf’ 325VIII 1, ‘vorp’ 61, 53, 54, Bb;    at: af F, á 53, 54, Bb

Editions: Skj AI, 128, Skj BI, 121, Skald I, 68, NN §§403, 404, 1828, 1885, 2244; Hkr 1893-1901, I, 286, IV, 76-7, ÍF 26, 246, Hkr 1991, I, 164 (ÓTHkr ch. 18), F 1871, 107; Fms 1, 95, Fms 12, 35, ÓT 1958-2000, I, 102-3 (ÓT ch. 56).

Context: Hákon jarl takes the entire host south toward Staðr (Stadlandet) and learns that King Ragnfrøðr has moved into Sogn with his forces. Learning of this, he heads there, lands, stakes out the battlefield and positions his troops on it.

Notes: [1-4]: Many suggestions have been made for the interpretation of this helmingr, which consists of two main clauses. (a) The construal above is the most straightforward, and is adopted in ÍF 26 and Hkr 1991. A difficulty here is that síðan ‘then’ (l. 2) would seem to imply that having created mannfall ‘slaughter’, Hákon readied himself for a further battle, although only two (in the north of Sunnmøre and in Sogneforden) are recounted in the prose sources and Ragnfrøðr is said to have fled from Norway after the battle in Sogn (Hkr, ÍF 26, 247; Fsk, ÍF 29, 115), leaving Hákon in control. Possibly the meaning is that Hákon was always ready for battle, or conceivably that the gramr ‘ruler’ is Ragnfrøðr, who was preparing for more strife (cf. Note to ll. 5-8). (b) It is perhaps in order to obviate this difficulty that most interpreters construe the first clause as Gramr varð fyr Vinða myrði við annan styr ‘The ruler encountered the killer of the Wends in a second battle’. En and síðan (l. 2) are then construed with the second clause: en síðan gerðisk mest víðfrægt mannfall at morði ‘and then an immense, widely renowned slaughter arose in battle’ (Fms 12; Vell 1865, 60; Hkr 1893-1901, IV; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 149-50; Skj B). This produces a better narrative sequence but assumes extreme fragmentation in l. 2: víðfrægt, en, gramr, síðan. — [1] myrði Vinða ‘the killer of the Wends [= Hákon jarl]’: This kenning is usually associated with Hákon jarl and interpreted as an allusion either to unknown raids in the Baltic Sea region or to the battle at the Danevirke (see Introduction). Morawiec (2006, 709) doubts any relationship to the battle, because it ended in defeat; however, the poem portrays the events as heroic and victorious acts of the ruler (see sts 26-8). The ÓT ms. tradition has replaced Vinða with víga ‘of the battles’, which yields a periphrasis ‘killer of the battles’ that resists interpretation. Freudenthal (Vell 1865, 60) suggests, implausibly, that this is a reference to Hákon jarl as a peaceable ruler. — [5] Narfi ‘Narfi <supernatural being>’: Son of the malevolent trickster-god Loki and brother of Hel and the wolf Fenrir (see Note to Yt 7/5-6). Narfi is himself turned into a wolf in the prose epilogue to Lok and in Gylf (SnE 2005, 49). His name therefore seems unsuitable as a base-word of a warrior-kenning praising Hákon jarl, because it cannot be understood as praise, and the kenning may refer to Hákon’s enemy Ragnfrøðr. — [7] við ǫndurt fylki ‘alongside the front of the host’: Fylki is here regarded as referring not to a region, but to a ‘host’ (cf. LP: fylki 1). It could, however, be interpreted as a regional term, and then the phrase would mean the outermost part of a fylki, cf. Icel. Ǫndvert nes (giving the p. n. Öndverðarnes) and Ǫndurð-eyrr (ÍF 26, 247 n.). But that is less likely, as fylki does not refer to a landscape feature like nes ‘headland’. — [7, 8] ǫndur Jalks ‘the ski of Jálkr <sea-king> [SHIP]’: Jálkr appears several times as a name for Óðinn (LP: Jalkr), but it seems to be used here as a name of a sea-king, cf. Hást Lv 3/8^IV. — [8] †fꜹrf† ‘…’: So far no interpretation of the ms. readings (fǫrf, vorp, þǫrf) has been conclusive. Most previous interpreters assume that the word formed an expression for ‘ship’ in conjunction with ǫndur Jalks ‘ski of Jálkr <sea-king>’. Specific suggestions have been: (a) Fǫr Jalks ǫndurs ‘the vehicle of the Jálkr of the ski [= Ullr > SHIP]’ (Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 152), to which Finnur Jónsson (Hkr 1893-1901, IV) objects because of the short syllable fǫr. (b) Eggert Ó. Brím (ÓT 1892, 375) interprets þǫrf as an adv. in the sense of þarflega ‘as it was necessary’, but does not comment on the grammatical form. (c) Kock (NN §§404, 2244) suggests two configurations of the three words ǫndurr ‘ski’, fors ‘of the wave/waterfall’ and Jalks ‘of Jálkr/sea-king’ that could yield a ship-kenning, but in both the word fors ‘waterfall’ is superfluous.

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. 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. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
8. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
9. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
10. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
11. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
12. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
13. Morawiec, Jakub. 2006. ‘Vinða myrðir, Vinðum háttr: Viking Raids on the Territory of the Slavs in the Light of Skaldic Poetry’. In McKinnell et al. 2006, II, 707-17.
14. ÓT 1958-2000 = Ólafur Halldórsson, ed. 1958-2000. Saga Óláfs Tryggvasonar en mesta. 3 vols. EA A 1-3. Copenhagen: Munksgaard (Reitzel).
15. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
16. ÓT 1892 = Eggert Ó. Brím, ed. 1892. Saga Óláfs Tryggvasonar. Reykjavík: Ísafoldarprentsmiðja.
17. Vell 1865 = Freudenthal, Axel Olof. 1865. Einar Skålaglams Vellekla / öfversatt och förklarad af Axel Olof Freudenthal. Helsingfors: Frenckell.
18. Internal references
19. (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 10 May 2024)
20. (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 10 May 2024)
21. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=60> (accessed 10 May 2024)
22. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ 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=113> (accessed 10 May 2024)
23. Not published: do not cite ()
24. Not published: do not cite (Hást Lv 3^IV)
25. Edith Marold (ed.) 2012, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Ynglingatal 7’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 19.