Gunnh Lv 1^I

Hô ‘Há’

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3. hár (adj.; °-van; compar. hǽrri, superl. hǽstr): high < Hákon (noun m.): Hákon

notes

[1, 2] Hôkun ‘Hákon’: Hákon Haraldsson, later inn góði ‘the Good’. Hákon’s name is distributed between the lines using tmesis. Kock (NN §249) would emend to Hôr- … konr ‘high (i.e. famous) man’ in order to make the play on the name cleverer. (Fsk 1902-3 also adopts konr.) Olsen (1945a, 4) replies that this is unnecessary, as there are undoubted examples of tmesis in the corpus that do not involve further word-play, and r is not required by the hending, as the next word begins with r, and rhyme across word boundaries is not uncommon.

reið ‘rode’

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1. ríða (verb): ride

á ‘on’

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3. á (prep.): on, at

bak ‘back’

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bak (noun n.; °-s; *-): back

notes

[1] bak ‘back’: Kock (NN §3224) maintains that this is a suffixless dat.; Olsen (1945a, 12-16) examines the slender evidence for similar forms among n. a-stems and rejects it.

bôru ‘the billow’s’

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1. bára (noun f.; °-u; -ur): wave

notes

[1] bôru ‘the billow’s’: Olsen (1945a, 8-9) sees this as a pun on the name of a daughter Bára of the sea-giant Ægir (SnE 1998, I, 36).

borð ‘the plank’

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borð (noun n.; °-s; -): side, plank, board; table < borðhestr (noun m.)

kennings

hesti ‘horse’

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hestr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i; -ar): horse, stallion < borðhestr (noun m.)

kennings

kun ‘kon’

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1. kyn (noun n.; °-s; -): kin < Hákon (noun m.): Hákon

notes

[1, 2] Hôkun ‘Hákon’: Hákon Haraldsson, later inn góði ‘the Good’. Hákon’s name is distributed between the lines using tmesis. Kock (NN §249) would emend to Hôr- … konr ‘high (i.e. famous) man’ in order to make the play on the name cleverer. (Fsk 1902-3 also adopts konr.) Olsen (1945a, 4) replies that this is unnecessary, as there are undoubted examples of tmesis in the corpus that do not involve further word-play, and r is not required by the hending, as the next word begins with r, and rhyme across word boundaries is not uncommon.

festan ‘’

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festr (noun f.; °dat. & acc. -i; -ar/-ir): mooring, betrothal

vestan ‘from the west’

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vestan (prep.): from the west

[2] vestan: festan all

skonungr ‘’

skonngr ‘’

skǫrungr ‘the champion’

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skǫrungr (noun m.; °; -ar): champion

[3] skǫrungr: ‘skonngr’ or ‘skonungr’ FskAˣ, ‘skonungr’ 52ˣ, 301ˣ

notes

[3] skǫrungr ‘the champion’: A minor emendation from ms. ‘skonongr’ (so also Fsk 1902-3; ÍF 29). Skj B, followed by Skald, emends to konungr, but it is likelier that an uncommon word like skǫrungr would be corrupted to ‘skonongr’ than that a common one like konungr would be, especially since konungr would often have been abbreviated. In any case, at this point in his career Hákon was not a king, as the following prose in Fsk tells us, and it is difficult to see why Gunnhildr, of all people, should be imagined to have called him one.

léta ‘did not let’

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láta (verb): let, have sth done

notes

[3-4] léta bǫrð bíta brim ‘did not let the ship’s stems bite the surf’: I.e. did not let the ship rest, like a horse pausing to graze. (a) This translation is in most respects congruent with the interpretation of Olsen (1945a, 6-7), which resolves the apparent contradiction in the helmingr (Hákon seemingly was and was not sailing his ship). Olsen perceives much word-play in the stanza (with, e.g., brim punning on Brimangr, the island of Bremangerlandet at the mouth of Nordfjord), and his interpretation involves the metaphor of a rider allowing his mount to graze upon completion of the journey (cf. Skí 15). In other contexts, bíta in connection with ships means ‘tack, beat (up against the wind)’ (ONP: bíta 10), but ‘graze upon’ is also a common meaning. The point of these lines is thus that Hákon did not even pause upon reaching Norway, but, far from leaving Eiríkr safe, he has already taken control of Fjordane. The reference to Gunnhildr’s magic arts in Fsk (see Context) is thus designed to explain how she knew this. (b) Skj B’s interpretation of these lines (similarly ÍF 29) takes brim as subject and bǫrð as object of bíta, hence ‘The king did not allow the surf to bite (swallow) the prow, since the prince has [landed in] Fjordane’. (c) Kock (NN §1926; Skald) reads, with the transcripts of FskA, lét á for léta, emending er (normalised es) to en, and interprets the lines to mean ‘The daring one let the prow bite the wave. He has now reached Fjordane’, but this assumes a construction bíta á which Olsen (1945a, 6-7) rejects as unparalleled.

brim ‘the surf’

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brim (noun n.): surf

notes

[3-4] léta bǫrð bíta brim ‘did not let the ship’s stems bite the surf’: I.e. did not let the ship rest, like a horse pausing to graze. (a) This translation is in most respects congruent with the interpretation of Olsen (1945a, 6-7), which resolves the apparent contradiction in the helmingr (Hákon seemingly was and was not sailing his ship). Olsen perceives much word-play in the stanza (with, e.g., brim punning on Brimangr, the island of Bremangerlandet at the mouth of Nordfjord), and his interpretation involves the metaphor of a rider allowing his mount to graze upon completion of the journey (cf. Skí 15). In other contexts, bíta in connection with ships means ‘tack, beat (up against the wind)’ (ONP: bíta 10), but ‘graze upon’ is also a common meaning. The point of these lines is thus that Hákon did not even pause upon reaching Norway, but, far from leaving Eiríkr safe, he has already taken control of Fjordane. The reference to Gunnhildr’s magic arts in Fsk (see Context) is thus designed to explain how she knew this. (b) Skj B’s interpretation of these lines (similarly ÍF 29) takes brim as subject and bǫrð as object of bíta, hence ‘The king did not allow the surf to bite (swallow) the prow, since the prince has [landed in] Fjordane’. (c) Kock (NN §1926; Skald) reads, with the transcripts of FskA, lét á for léta, emending er (normalised es) to en, and interprets the lines to mean ‘The daring one let the prow bite the wave. He has now reached Fjordane’, but this assumes a construction bíta á which Olsen (1945a, 6-7) rejects as unparalleled.

bíta ‘bite’

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bíta (verb; °bítr; beit, bitu; bitinn): bite

notes

[3-4] léta bǫrð bíta brim ‘did not let the ship’s stems bite the surf’: I.e. did not let the ship rest, like a horse pausing to graze. (a) This translation is in most respects congruent with the interpretation of Olsen (1945a, 6-7), which resolves the apparent contradiction in the helmingr (Hákon seemingly was and was not sailing his ship). Olsen perceives much word-play in the stanza (with, e.g., brim punning on Brimangr, the island of Bremangerlandet at the mouth of Nordfjord), and his interpretation involves the metaphor of a rider allowing his mount to graze upon completion of the journey (cf. Skí 15). In other contexts, bíta in connection with ships means ‘tack, beat (up against the wind)’ (ONP: bíta 10), but ‘graze upon’ is also a common meaning. The point of these lines is thus that Hákon did not even pause upon reaching Norway, but, far from leaving Eiríkr safe, he has already taken control of Fjordane. The reference to Gunnhildr’s magic arts in Fsk (see Context) is thus designed to explain how she knew this. (b) Skj B’s interpretation of these lines (similarly ÍF 29) takes brim as subject and bǫrð as object of bíta, hence ‘The king did not allow the surf to bite (swallow) the prow, since the prince has [landed in] Fjordane’. (c) Kock (NN §1926; Skald) reads, with the transcripts of FskA, lét á for léta, emending er (normalised es) to en, and interprets the lines to mean ‘The daring one let the prow bite the wave. He has now reached Fjordane’, but this assumes a construction bíta á which Olsen (1945a, 6-7) rejects as unparalleled.

bǫrð ‘the ship’s stems’

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barð (noun n.): prow, stern (of a ship)

notes

[3-4] léta bǫrð bíta brim ‘did not let the ship’s stems bite the surf’: I.e. did not let the ship rest, like a horse pausing to graze. (a) This translation is in most respects congruent with the interpretation of Olsen (1945a, 6-7), which resolves the apparent contradiction in the helmingr (Hákon seemingly was and was not sailing his ship). Olsen perceives much word-play in the stanza (with, e.g., brim punning on Brimangr, the island of Bremangerlandet at the mouth of Nordfjord), and his interpretation involves the metaphor of a rider allowing his mount to graze upon completion of the journey (cf. Skí 15). In other contexts, bíta in connection with ships means ‘tack, beat (up against the wind)’ (ONP: bíta 10), but ‘graze upon’ is also a common meaning. The point of these lines is thus that Hákon did not even pause upon reaching Norway, but, far from leaving Eiríkr safe, he has already taken control of Fjordane. The reference to Gunnhildr’s magic arts in Fsk (see Context) is thus designed to explain how she knew this. (b) Skj B’s interpretation of these lines (similarly ÍF 29) takes brim as subject and bǫrð as object of bíta, hence ‘The king did not allow the surf to bite (swallow) the prow, since the prince has [landed in] Fjordane’. (c) Kock (NN §1926; Skald) reads, with the transcripts of FskA, lét á for léta, emending er (normalised es) to en, and interprets the lines to mean ‘The daring one let the prow bite the wave. He has now reached Fjordane’, but this assumes a construction bíta á which Olsen (1945a, 6-7) rejects as unparalleled. — [4] bǫrð ‘the ship’s stems’: Barð denotes all or part of a ship’s stem, and is used especially of the fore-stem (Jesch 2001a, 150). If LP: barð 3 is correct that there was a barð on both sides of the prow, pl. bǫrð could simply refer to the prow, and it is translated thus (stavnen) in Skj B.

bǫrð ‘the ship’s stems’

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barð (noun n.): prow, stern (of a ship)

notes

[3-4] léta bǫrð bíta brim ‘did not let the ship’s stems bite the surf’: I.e. did not let the ship rest, like a horse pausing to graze. (a) This translation is in most respects congruent with the interpretation of Olsen (1945a, 6-7), which resolves the apparent contradiction in the helmingr (Hákon seemingly was and was not sailing his ship). Olsen perceives much word-play in the stanza (with, e.g., brim punning on Brimangr, the island of Bremangerlandet at the mouth of Nordfjord), and his interpretation involves the metaphor of a rider allowing his mount to graze upon completion of the journey (cf. Skí 15). In other contexts, bíta in connection with ships means ‘tack, beat (up against the wind)’ (ONP: bíta 10), but ‘graze upon’ is also a common meaning. The point of these lines is thus that Hákon did not even pause upon reaching Norway, but, far from leaving Eiríkr safe, he has already taken control of Fjordane. The reference to Gunnhildr’s magic arts in Fsk (see Context) is thus designed to explain how she knew this. (b) Skj B’s interpretation of these lines (similarly ÍF 29) takes brim as subject and bǫrð as object of bíta, hence ‘The king did not allow the surf to bite (swallow) the prow, since the prince has [landed in] Fjordane’. (c) Kock (NN §1926; Skald) reads, with the transcripts of FskA, lét á for léta, emending er (normalised es) to en, and interprets the lines to mean ‘The daring one let the prow bite the wave. He has now reached Fjordane’, but this assumes a construction bíta á which Olsen (1945a, 6-7) rejects as unparalleled. — [4] bǫrð ‘the ship’s stems’: Barð denotes all or part of a ship’s stem, and is used especially of the fore-stem (Jesch 2001a, 150). If LP: barð 3 is correct that there was a barð on both sides of the prow, pl. bǫrð could simply refer to the prow, and it is translated thus (stavnen) in Skj B.

es ‘for’

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2. er (conj.): who, which, when

gramr ‘the prince’

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1. gramr (noun m.): ruler

notes

[4] gramr ‘the prince’: Hákon: see Note to ll. 3-4.

hefr ‘has’

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hafa (verb): have

Fjǫrðu ‘Fjordane’

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Firðir (noun m.)

notes

[4] Fjǫrðu ‘Fjordane’: The region of Firðir (Fjordane) is in the westernmost part of Norway.