Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

Eþver Lv 1I

Diana Whaley (ed.) 2012, ‘Einarr þveræingr Eyjólfsson, Lausavísa 1’ 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. 804.

Einarr þveræingr EyjólfssonLausavísa1

Trautt erumk lausa at láta
— leiðs oss konungs reiði —
(gjarn es gramr at arna)
Grímsey (of trǫð fleyja).
Hǫldum vér fyr hildar
— hanns dýrr konungr — stýri
holmgjarðar — fremsk hilmir
hagli peitu — nagla.

Erumk trautt at láta Grímsey lausa; reiði konungs [e]s oss leið; gramr es gjarn at arna of {trǫð fleyja}. Hǫldum vér {nagla {holmgjarðar}} fyr {stýri hildar}; hanns dýrr konungr; hilmir fremsk {hagli peitu}.

I am reluctant to let Grímsey go; the king’s anger is hateful to us [me]; the prince is eager to travel over {the path of vessels} [SEA]. Let us hold {the stud {of the islet-belt}} [SEA > ISLAND] against {the controller of battle} [WARRIOR]; he is a splendid king; the ruler advances himself {by the hail of the spear} [BATTLE].

Mss: 61(103vb) (ÓH)

Readings: [2] konungs: konungsins 61    [4] of: und 61    [7] ‑gjarðar: ‑gerðar 61    [8] peitu: ‘peitv’ or ‘pettv’ 61

Editions: Skj AI, 307, Skj BI, 284-5, Skald I, 145; Fms 4, 282, Fms 12, 87, ÓH 1941, II, 809.

Context: In ÓH (1941, I, 326-9) and Hkr (ÍF 27, 215-7), Þórarinn Nefjólfsson at the Icelandic alþingi declaims a message from King Óláfr Haraldsson that he wishes to annex the island of Grímsey in exchange for friendship and unspecified benefits. The men of the Northern quarter are most affected and, swayed in their discussion by Guðmundr Eyjólfsson of Möðruvellir, incline to accept, but then his brother Einarr, in a now-famous speech about Iceland’s past and future freedom, swings opinion against the bid. Only in 61 does he also recite the stanza.

Notes: [1] erumk trautt ‘I am reluctant’: Lit. ‘it is unwelcome to us’.  — [2]: An aðalhending involving leið ‘hateful’ and reiði ‘anger’ is also the basis for Hfr Lv 9/6V (Hallfr 12) and Stefnir Lv 2/2. — [3] arna ‘to travel’: The verb occurs with both long and short vowel (ANG §127.1), but the aðalhending on gjarn ‘eager’ in Anon Liðs 3/2 favours the short variant there, and possibly here also. This seems to be the weak verb árna/arna ‘travel (as an envoy), wander’, but the juxtaposition of árna Grímsey seems to pun on its commoner homophone, árna ‘gain, achieve’, referring to Óláfr Haraldsson’s territorial ambitions.  — [4] Grímsey: Island in the extreme north of Iceland, situated on the Arctic Circle. — [4] of trǫð fleyja ‘over the path of vessels [SEA]’: Ms. und would yield the sense (or rather nonsense) ‘under the sea’, and emendation to um, hence normalised of ‘over’, has been generally accepted. — [7, 8] nagla holmgjarðar ‘the stud of the islet-belt [SEA > ISLAND]’: The slight emendation, first proposed by Konráð Gíslason (1892, 94) is contextually necessary, and produces a phrasing so reminiscent of Egill Lv 43/7-8V (Eg 123) eyneglð gjǫrð jarðar ‘island-studded belt of the land [SEA]’ that direct influence seems likely. LP: eyneglðr also points out that nagli ‘nail, stud’ appears in the name of a Norwegian skerry (Rygh et al. 1897-1936, XII, 221). — [8] peitu ‘of the spear’: The kenning requires this form, although the 61 reading is slightly doubtful; Árni Magnússon in 761bˣ transcribed it as pettu. The word may originally have referred to prestige weaponry from Poitou (see Note to Arn Hryn 9/8II).

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
  3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  4. 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.
  5. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
  6. ÓH 1941 = Johnsen, Oscar Albert and Jón Helgason, eds. 1941. Saga Óláfs konungs hins helga: Den store saga om Olav den hellige efter pergamenthåndskrift i Kungliga biblioteket i Stockholm nr. 2 4to med varianter fra andre håndskrifter. 2 vols. Det norske historiske kildeskriftfond skrifter 53. Oslo: Dybwad.
  7. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
  8. Konráð Gíslason, ed. 1892a. Udvalg af oldnordiske skjaldekvad, med anmærkninger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
  9. Internal references
  10. (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 29 March 2024)
  11. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Óláfs saga helga’ 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=53> (accessed 29 March 2024)
  12. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Hrynhenda, Magnússdrápa 9’ 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, pp. 193-4.
  13. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 123 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Lausavísur 43)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 369.
  14. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2022, ‘Hallfreðar saga 12 (Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Lausavísur 9)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 887.
  15. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Anonymous Poems, Liðsmannaflokkr 3’ 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. 1019.
  16. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2012, ‘Stefnir Þorgilsson, Lausavísur 2’ 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. 450.
Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close

Stanza/chapter/text segment

Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.

Information tab

Interactive tab

The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.

Full text tab

This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.

Chapter/text segment

This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.