Glúmr Gráf 2^I

Hafði fǫr til ferju
fróðr Skáneyjar góða
blakkríðandi bakka
barnungr þaðan farna.
Rógeisu vann ræsir
ráðvandr á Skotlandi;
sendi seggja kindar
sverðbautinn her Gauti.

{{Bakka blakk}ríðandi}, fróðr til ferju, hafði barnungr farna þaðan góða fǫr Skáneyjar. Ráðvandr ræsir vann {rógeisu} á Skotlandi; sendi sverðbautinn her {kindar seggja} Gauti.

{The rider {of the steed of the bank}} [(lit. ‘steed-rider of the bank’) SHIP > SEAFARER], skilful in seafaring, had in early youth made a good voyage to Skåne from there. The judicious ruler attacked Scotland {with strife-fire} [SWORD]; he sent a sword-beaten host {of the offspring of men} [MEN] to Gautr [Óðinn].

Mss: Kˣ(85v), F(15ra), J1ˣ(50v), J2ˣ(48r) (Hkr); 61(4ra), Bb(5rb), Flat(7rb) (ÓT)

Readings: [1] ferju: freyju Bb    [3] blakk‑: blik F;    ‑ríðandi: rjóðandi 61, ríðanda Flat;    bakka: blakka F, barka J1ˣ, J2ˣ    [4] barnungr: bragningr Bb, barnvígr Flat    [5] ‑eisu: ‑reisir Flat;    vann: var Flat    [6] ráðvandr: rand‑Ullr F, J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 61, Bb, Flat    [7] seggja: ‘seggis’ Bb;    kindar: kindir J1ˣ, J2ˣ, Flat    [8] ‑bautinn: ‘bautis’ Bb;    Gauti: ‘gꜹtt’ J2ˣ, gauta Flat

Editions: Skj AI, 75, Skj BI, 65-6, Skald I, 40, NN §§1058, 1059; Hkr 1893-1901, I, 173-4, IV, 44-5, ÍF 26, 155-6, Hkr 1991, I, 98 (HákGóð ch. 5), F 1871, 67; Fms 1, 25, Fms 12, 25, ÓT 1958-2000, I, 24-5 (ch. 16), Flat 1860-8, I, 51 -2.

Context: This and the following stanza are cited to support the statement that the Eiríkssynir (or Gunnhildarsynir), forced into exile after their father’s death, took control of Orkney and Shetland and spent some summers raiding around the British Isles.

Notes: [All]: For a suggestion that this stanza, together with st. 3, could belong to Glúmr’s fragmentary drápa for Eiríkr blóðøx (Glúmr Eir), see Introduction. — [1-4]: No interpretation of the helmingr is without drawbacks. (a) This edn tentatively follows the interpretation of ÍF 26, which is based on points made by Kock (NN §1058). Kock notes parallels to góða fǫr Skáneyjar ‘a good voyage to Skåne’ such as Sigv ErfÓl 27/1-2 góðri fǫr Róms ‘the good journey to Rome’. He defends the use of bakki ‘bank’ as the determinant in a ship-kenning, though it refers to dry land rather than sea, citing parallels such as GunnlI Lv 6/3-4^V (Gunnl 10) ǫndurr andness ‘ski of the headland’; unlike andnes, bakki is not usually a coastal feature, but see ONP: bakki 1.1, and cf. LP: marbakki, sjóvarbakki ‘sea-shore’; see also Note to Anon (Styrb) 2/4. Kock further construes fróðr til ferju as a phrase meaning ‘skilful in seafaring’, since til can be expected to govern the immediately following gen. sg. ferju. However, í, á or um rather than til is normally used with fróðr (Fritzner, ONP: fróðr) and although ferja is a heiti for ‘ship’ (Þul Skipa 4/6^III), its use here is curious. Finnur Jónsson proposed the following three solutions, but all of them are problematic since they separate til and ferju, which are consecutive in l. 1. (b) In Hkr 1893-1901 Finnur emended bakka to bekkja ‘of streams’, with ferju as a free-standing dat. ‘by ship’. (c) In a note in Hkr 1893-1901, IV, however, Finnur expresses dissatisfaction with this usage of ferju, and adds the possibility of construing it within the phrase fróðr ferju ‘skilful in seafaring’; this is adopted in Hkr 1991. (d) In Skj B Finnur formulates the kenning blakkríðandi bakka ferju ‘rider of the steed of the bank of the ferry [(lit. ‘steed-rider of the bank of the ferry’) SEA > SHIP > SEAFARER]’. — [5-8]: The overall sense of the helmingr is clear, but the detail is uncertain. (a) The interpretation above avoids emendation and adopts ráðvandr ‘judicious’ (lit. ‘counsel-careful’), the reading of the main ms. Kˣ. Rógeisu ‘battle-fire’ is a standard sword-kenning (cf. dolgeisa ‘battle-fire’ in st. 3/1), and vann á Skotlandi is taken to mean ‘attacked Scotland’. (b) Rand-Ullr ‘shield-Ullr <god> [WARRIOR]’ in l. 6 is the reading of all mss except Kˣ. It is taken in ÍF 26 and Hkr 1991 in apposition with ræsir ‘ruler’. Such apposition is unusual, but a further possiblity would be that rand-Ullr is the subject of sendi in l. 7. ÍF 26 also assumes rógeisa ‘strife-fire’ in l. 6 is a battle-kenning, rather than the expected sword-kenning. (c) Finnur Jónsson (Skj B; LP: rógeisa) takes ræsir rógeisu as a kenning, ‘wielder of strife-fire [SWORD > WARRIOR]’, reads ráðvandr ‘careful in counsel’ in l. 6 and emends sendi ‘sent’ in l. 7 to sendan, hence combining the two clauses with the construction vann sendan, lit. ‘managed to send’. Although this solution is attractive, ræsir is normally a heiti for ‘ruler’, not a base-word in a kenning, and the emendation is unwarranted (cf. Kock, NN §1059). — [7, 8] sendi … her … Gauti ‘sent … a host … to Gautr [Óðinn]’: I.e. killed them, a pagan conception consonant with the references to Óðinn in sts 8/2 and 13/4 below.

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. Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
8. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
9. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
10. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
11. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
12. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
13. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
14. ÓT 1958-2000 = Ólafur Halldórsson, ed. 1958-2000. Saga Óláfs Tryggvasonar en mesta. 3 vols. EA A 1-3. Copenhagen: Munksgaard (Reitzel).
15. Internal references
16. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Hákonar saga góða’ 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=130> (accessed 24 April 2024)
17. Diana Whaley 2017, ‘ Glúmr Geirason, Poem about Eiríkr blóðøx’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 194. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1208> (accessed 24 April 2024)
18. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Skipa heiti 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 867.
19. Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Styrbjarnar þáttr Svíakappa 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. 1078.
20. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2022, ‘Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu 10 (Gunnlaugr ormstunga Illugason, Lausavísur 6)’ 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. 839.