Anon Bjark 1III
Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Bjarkamál in fornu 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 497.
Dagrs ‘Day’
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dagr (noun m.; °-s, dat. degi/dag/dagi(Thom¹ 332¹n.); -ar): day
upp ‘has’
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upp (adv.): up
kominn ‘broken’
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koma (verb; kem, kom/kvam, kominn): come
dynja ‘rustle’
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dynja (verb; °dunði): resound
notes
[2] fjaðrar hana dynja ‘the rooster’s feathers rustle’: It is just before dawn, when roosters rustle their feathers as they are about to crow.
hana ‘the rooster’s’
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hani (noun m.; °-a; -ar): rooster
[2] hana fjaðrar: ‘han[…] fjaðrar’ Holm4, ‘hana hanafjadrir’ 61
notes
[2] fjaðrar hana dynja ‘the rooster’s feathers rustle’: It is just before dawn, when roosters rustle their feathers as they are about to crow.
fjaðrar ‘feathers’
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fjǫðr (noun f.): feather
[2] hana fjaðrar: ‘han[…] fjaðrar’ Holm4, ‘hana hanafjadrir’ 61; fjaðrar: ‘fíadrir’ Tóm
notes
[2] fjaðrar hana dynja ‘the rooster’s feathers rustle’: It is just before dawn, when roosters rustle their feathers as they are about to crow.
máls ‘it is time’
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1. mál (noun n.; °-s; -): speech, matter
víl ‘of toil’
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1. víl (noun n.; °-s): °nød, elendighed, besvær < vílmǫgr (noun m.): [for sons of toil]
[3] vílmǫgum: víkingum 68, Tóm, víkingum at vaka Flat, vílmǫgum corrected from víkingum at vaka in another hand 141ˣ
kennings
vílmǫgum‘for the sons of toil ’
= SERVANTS
for the sons of toil → SERVANTS
notes
[3] vílmǫgum ‘for the sons of toil [SERVANTS]’: A circumlocution for servants or workmen, who must be about their business at the crack of dawn; cf. Skí 35/4, Hávm 134/12, Þul Manna 10/10 and Note there. The reading víkingum ‘for vikings’ is clearly secondary and inappropriate to the context of ll. 1-4.
mǫgum ‘for the sons’
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mǫgr (noun m.; °; megir, acc. mǫgu): son, boy < vílmǫgr (noun m.): [for sons of toil]
[3] vílmǫgum: víkingum 68, Tóm, víkingum at vaka Flat, vílmǫgum corrected from víkingum at vaka in another hand 141ˣ
kennings
vílmǫgum‘for the sons of toil ’
= SERVANTS
for the sons of toil → SERVANTS
notes
[3] vílmǫgum ‘for the sons of toil [SERVANTS]’: A circumlocution for servants or workmen, who must be about their business at the crack of dawn; cf. Skí 35/4, Hávm 134/12, Þul Manna 10/10 and Note there. The reading víkingum ‘for vikings’ is clearly secondary and inappropriate to the context of ll. 1-4.
vinna ‘get’
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2. vinna (verb): perform, work
[4] vinna: vekja 61, 325V, ‘vækia’ 325VII, ‘veikia’ Bb
erfiði ‘to work’
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erfiði (noun n.; °-s): hardship
[4] erfiði: ‘ærbiðe’ 325VII, ‘erfvidí’ Bb, ‘erfuide’ Flat
Vaki ‘Wake’
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4. vaka (verb): awaken
notes
[5] vaki æ ‘wake now’: The adv. æ, lit. ‘always’, is an intensifier here; cf. Anon Nkt 9/5II and Note there.
æ ‘now’
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2. æ (adv.): always, forever
[5] æ ok: ok á Holm2, ok æ J2ˣ, Bæb, Holm4, 61, 325V, ok 325VII, Bb, Flat, Tóm, 141ˣ
notes
[5] vaki æ ‘wake now’: The adv. æ, lit. ‘always’, is an intensifier here; cf. Anon Nkt 9/5II and Note there.
ok ‘and’
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
[5] æ ok: ok á Holm2, ok æ J2ˣ, Bæb, Holm4, 61, 325V, ok 325VII, Bb, Flat, Tóm, 141ˣ
vina ‘friends’
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vinr (noun m.; °-ar, dat. -/(-i OsvReyk 92.17); -ir): friend
notes
[6] hǫfuð vina ‘friends’: Lit. ‘heads of friends’. Hǫfuð ‘head’ is used here in a circumlocutionary sense, based on the sense ‘person’ (cf. LP: hǫfuð 2). Saxo (Saxo 2005, I, 2, 7, 4, p. 170) has quisquis se regis amicum … fatetur ‘whoever would prove … that he is a friend to the king’. The Germanic leader was traditionally primus inter pares with his personal followers; cf. Green (1965, 106-7). It has been argued by Hofmann (1955, 94-5), and before him Kock (1921, 117), that the Old Norse use of vinr in the sense of a leader as friend to his followers and vice versa shows the influence of West Germanic usage; cf. the Old English Beowulf where wine ‘friend’ can refer either to the leader or his retainers.
hǫfuð ‘’
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hǫfuð (noun n.; °-s; -): head
notes
[6] hǫfuð vina ‘friends’: Lit. ‘heads of friends’. Hǫfuð ‘head’ is used here in a circumlocutionary sense, based on the sense ‘person’ (cf. LP: hǫfuð 2). Saxo (Saxo 2005, I, 2, 7, 4, p. 170) has quisquis se regis amicum … fatetur ‘whoever would prove … that he is a friend to the king’. The Germanic leader was traditionally primus inter pares with his personal followers; cf. Green (1965, 106-7). It has been argued by Hofmann (1955, 94-5), and before him Kock (1921, 117), that the Old Norse use of vinr in the sense of a leader as friend to his followers and vice versa shows the influence of West Germanic usage; cf. the Old English Beowulf where wine ‘friend’ can refer either to the leader or his retainers.
allir ‘all’
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allr (adj.): all
inir ‘the’
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2. inn (art.): the
notes
[8] of sinnar Aðils ‘companions of Aðils’: Aðils was a legendary king in Sweden, and the enemy of Hrólfr kraki, so it would seem inappropriate here to refer to Hrólfr’s men by such a phrase, and Olrik (in Hollander 1919, 197) suggested an (unmetrical) emendation to *aðalsinnar ‘excellent followers’. However, Bugge (1887, 13) had previously suggested that the phrase might refer to an earlier episode in the legend of Hrólfr kraki, as reported in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 58-9), in which he sent his twelve berserks to help Aðils gain the kingdom of the Svíar from a rival, Áli, and this is plausible enough. In ll. 7-8 Bb, Flat and Tóm have allir inir œztu | Aðils ok Svía ‘all the noblest [men] of Aðils and the Swedes’.
of ‘’
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3. of (prep.): around, from; too
[8] of: so Holm2, Bæb, 68, Holm4, 61, 325V, 325VII, um Kˣ, ok J2ˣ, Bb, Flat, Tóm, 141ˣ
notes
[8] of sinnar Aðils ‘companions of Aðils’: Aðils was a legendary king in Sweden, and the enemy of Hrólfr kraki, so it would seem inappropriate here to refer to Hrólfr’s men by such a phrase, and Olrik (in Hollander 1919, 197) suggested an (unmetrical) emendation to *aðalsinnar ‘excellent followers’. However, Bugge (1887, 13) had previously suggested that the phrase might refer to an earlier episode in the legend of Hrólfr kraki, as reported in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 58-9), in which he sent his twelve berserks to help Aðils gain the kingdom of the Svíar from a rival, Áli, and this is plausible enough. In ll. 7-8 Bb, Flat and Tóm have allir inir œztu | Aðils ok Svía ‘all the noblest [men] of Aðils and the Swedes’.
sinnar ‘companions’
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1. sinni (noun m.; °-a; -ar): companion
[8] sinnar: sinna Holm4, sína 325VII, svía Bb, Flat, Tóm, sinnar corrected from ‘snia’ in right margin in another hand 141ˣ
notes
[8] of sinnar Aðils ‘companions of Aðils’: Aðils was a legendary king in Sweden, and the enemy of Hrólfr kraki, so it would seem inappropriate here to refer to Hrólfr’s men by such a phrase, and Olrik (in Hollander 1919, 197) suggested an (unmetrical) emendation to *aðalsinnar ‘excellent followers’. However, Bugge (1887, 13) had previously suggested that the phrase might refer to an earlier episode in the legend of Hrólfr kraki, as reported in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 58-9), in which he sent his twelve berserks to help Aðils gain the kingdom of the Svíar from a rival, Áli, and this is plausible enough. In ll. 7-8 Bb, Flat and Tóm have allir inir œztu | Aðils ok Svía ‘all the noblest [men] of Aðils and the Swedes’.
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
King Óláfr awakens early while his men are still asleep and asks for his skald, Þormóðr, who is close by. The king asks Þormóðr to recite a poem to them (‘Tel þú oss kvæði nǫkkut’ ÍF 27, 361). The skald sits up and recites sts 1 and 2 very loudly so that the whole army can hear him. The two stanzas are said to be the beginning (upphaf) of Bjarkamál in fornu.
The stanza is somewhat similar to lines near the opening of the Old English heroic fragment The Fight at Finnsburg, ll. 10-12 (Beowulf 2008, 283): Ac onwacniġeað nū, | wīġend mīne, | habbað ēowre linda, | hicgeaþ on ellen, | winnað on orde, | wesað on mōde! ‘But awaken now, my warriors, take hold of your shields, think of valour, fight in the vanguard, be courageous!’. — The stanza’s first helmingr evokes the sounds and activities of domesticity, with roosters crowing and servants starting the day’s work, while the second helmingr changes the focus to the warrior band who are still at rest and are urged by the speaker to get up and prepare for battle.
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