Gizsv Frag 1^III

Fylkir gleðr í folki
flagðs blakk ok svan Hlakkar;
Ôleifr of viðr élum
Yggs gǫgl fegin Skǫglar.

Fylkir gleðr {blakk flagðs} ok {svan Hlakkar} í folki; Ôleifr of viðr {gǫgl Yggs} fegin {élum Skǫglar}.

The ruler gladdens {the steed of the troll-woman} [WOLF] and {the swan of Hlǫkk <valkyrie>} [RAVEN/EAGLE] in battle; Óláfr makes {the goslings of Yggr <= Óðinn>} [RAVENS] joyful {with the storms of Skǫgul <valkyrie>} [BATTLES].

Mss: R(39r), Tˣ(40v), B(7r), 744ˣ(46r), C(8v) (SnE); 761bˣ(124r)

Readings: [2] flagðs blakk: flakk R, B, 761bˣ, ‘flac’ Tˣ, fleinblakk C;    svan: ‘su[…]’ B, ‘suan’ 744ˣ    [3] of: ‘of’(?) B, of 744ˣ;    viðr: ‘[…]dr’ B, ‘vidr’ 744ˣ    [4] Yggs: so C, ‘ygs’ R, Tˣ, 761bˣ, ‘[…]’ B, ‘ýggs’ 744ˣ;    Skǫglar: so Tˣ, C, 761bˣ, ‘skavgar’ R, ‘[…]glar’ B, ‘sko᷎glar’ 744ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 316, Skj BI, 292, Skald I, 149, NN §1937B; SnE 1848-87, I, 512-3, II, 545, 604, III, 107, SnE 1931, 180, SnE 1998, I, 99.

Context: The lines are cited in SnE (Skm) within a sequence illustrating terms for rulers. They are followed by a remark that a king is called fylkir because he lines up his army in their fylkingar ‘battle ranks’ (SnE 1998, I, 100).

Notes: [2] blakk flagðs ‘the steed of the troll-woman [WOLF]’: Flakk in most mss provides alliteration and rhyme but leaves l. 2 short by one syllable, and does not match known Old Norse vocabulary, since flakk n. ‘wandering, vagrancy’ is recorded in Modern Icelandic but not in Old Norse, though the verb flakka ‘wander (as a vagrant)’ is. (a) Emendation seems to be unavoidable, and the syntax and sense, including ok ‘and’, suggest that what is required is a phrase denoting a beast of battle with svan Hlakkar ‘the swan of Hlǫkk <valkyrie> [RAVEN/EAGLE]’ as the joint object to gleðr ‘gladdens’ (l. 1). Flagðs blakk ‘troll-woman’s steed’, suggested in Nj 1875-89, II, 305-8, is adopted in Skj B, this edn and elsewhere. (b) Konráð Gíslason (Nj 1875-89, II, 306-7) rejects a claim of Sveinbjörn Egilsson that flakkr, here and in a variant reading flaks for fáks in Þhorn Gldr 3/3^I, could be a word for ‘wolf’. Flakk is retained in CPB II, 166, with the translation ‘roving wolf’. (c) The C reading fleinblakk is metrically satisfactory but its meaning would be the nonsensical ‘arrow-steed’. — [3] Ôleifr ‘Óláfr’: See Introduction. — [3, 4] gǫgl Yggs … élum Skǫglar ‘the goslings of Yggr <= Óðinn> [RAVENS] … with the storms of Skǫgul <valkyrie> [BATTLES]’: Yggs, gen. sg. of the Óðinn-name Yggr ‘terrible, fearsome one’, is clearly needed here, rather than ýgs, gen. sg. of the adj. ýgr ‘fierce, fearsome’.

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. Nj 1875-89 = Konráð Gíslason and Eiríkur Jónsson. 1875-89. Njála: Udgivet efter gamle håndskrifter. Íslendingasögur udgivne efter gamle haandskrifter af Det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-selskab 4. Copenhagen: Thiele.
5. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
7. 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.
8. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
9. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
10. Internal references
11. 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].
12. (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 2 May 2024)
13. Edith Marold (ed.) 2012, ‘Þorbjǫrn hornklofi, Glymdrápa 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. 81.
14. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2022, ‘Njáls saga 18 (Skarpheðinn Njálsson, Lausavísur 3)’ 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. 1243.