Hfr ErfÓl 20^I

†Samr† vas ôrr of ævi
oddbragðs, hinns þat sagði,
at lofða gramr lifði,
læstyggs burar Tryggva.
Vesa kveðr ǫld ór éli
Ôleif kominn stála;
menn geta máli sǫnnu
— mjǫks verr an svá — ferri.

{Ôrr {oddbragðs}}, hinns sagði þat, at {gramr lofða} lifði, vas †samr† of ævi {læstyggs burar Tryggva}. Ǫld kveðr Ôleif vesa kominn ór {éli stála}; menn geta ferri sǫnnu máli; mjǫks verr an svá.

{The envoy {of the point-thrust}} [BATTLE > WARRIOR], who said that {the ruler of warriors} [= Óláfr] was alive was … about the life {of the deceit-shunning son of Tryggvi} [= Óláfr]. People say Óláfr escaped {the blizzard of steel weapons} [BATTLE]; men guess [things] further from the true story; it is much worse than that.

Mss: FskAˣ(144-145) (Fsk); Kˣ(216v), 22ˣ(102r marg), F(36vb), J1ˣ(134v), J2ˣ(117r) (Hkr); 61(69va), 53(66ra), 54(67rb-va), 325VIII 2 g(1rb-va), Bb(103ra) (ÓT)

Readings: [1] vas ôrr (‘var arr’): so Kˣ, 22ˣmarg, F, J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 61, 53, 54, 325VIII 2 g, Bb, varrar FskAˣ    [2] odd‑: ‘oð‑’ J1ˣ, J2ˣ;    ‑bragðs: so J1ˣ, J2ˣ, ‘‑flaghs’ FskAˣ, ‑brags Kˣ, 22ˣmarg, ‑braks F, ‑flagðs 61, 53, 54, 325VIII 2 g, Bb;    hinns (‘hinn er’): er 53    [3] lifði: ‘liðe’ Kˣ    [4] burar: sonr or sonar Kˣ, sonar J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 61, 53, 54, 325VIII 2 g, Bb    [5] kveðr: kveða 22ˣmarg, F, J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 61, 53;    ǫld: hǫlð 22ˣmarg, ‘áls’ F    [7] geta: gefa 22ˣmarg, akta 54, 325VIII 2 g, Bb;    máli: ‘mal̄’ J1ˣ, J2ˣ, málin 61, 53, 54, Bb, ‘milín’ 325VIII 2 g    [8] verr an svá: verr ek var 61, ‘[…] sva’ 325VIII 2 g;    ferri: færi J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 54, 325VIII 2 g, Bb

Editions: Skj AI, 164, Skj BI, 155, Skald I, 84, NN §§512, 513, 2757; Fsk 1902-3, 132 (ch. 22), ÍF 29, 161 (ch. 24); Hkr 1893-1901, I, 456, IV, 102, ÍF 26, 368-9, Hkr 1991, 250 (ÓTHkr ch. 112), F 1871, 166; SHI 3, 8-9, ÓT 1958-2000, II, 292-3 (ch. 256).

Context: All three prose sources cite this stanza after their description of the battle of Svǫlðr, as part of a group of stanzas attributed to Hallfreðr and concerned with the question of whether or not King Óláfr survived the defeat of his force.

Notes: [1-4]: The helmingr is syntactically difficult and the unanimously attested samr resists explanation. As none of the proposed interpretations is satisfactory and no alternative ms. readings for samr exist, it has been obelised in the Text. Most previous eds emend samr: (a) to sumr ‘some (envoy …)’ (Jón Þorkelsson 1884, 63); (b) to sá ‘that (envoy …)’ (Hkr 1893-1901; Skj B), though it is unclear to whom this would refer; (c) or most audaciously to the rare adj. svífr ‘unreliable’ (Skald; NN §2757), giving svífr vas ôrr ‘the envoy was unreliable’. Other scholars avoid emendation by ingenious interpretations of samr. (d) ÍF 26 construes samr as an attributive adj., ‘seemly, worthy’ from sama ‘to suit, befit’, qualifying ôrr oddbraks ‘the envoy of the point-clash [BATTLE > WARRIOR]’, and similarly ÍF 29, Hkr 1991, with variants on ‑braks. But such an adj. is not well attested in verse or prose; the single, later skaldic parallel is breks ósamr ‘disinclined to treachery’ GunnLeif Merl I 2/7^VIII. (e) Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SHI 3) suggests samr meaning ‘constant’, hence hinn ... var um æfi samr oddflagðs árr ‘that one ... was [his] whole life an envoy of the point-trollwife [AXE > WARRIOR] devoted (to Óláfr)’. (f) Kock, as an alternative to his construal in Skald, also proposes a tmesis, óðbragðssamr vas ôrr ‘the envoy was very deceitful’ (NN §512). — [1] †samr† vas ôrr of ævi ‘the envoy ... was ... about the life’: The line lacks skothending. Finnur Jónsson’s emendation of Samr to Sá ‘that’ gives a so-called empty rhyme, in which vowels rhyme without the participation of following consonants, here sá : ævi (Kuhn 1983, 76; Kristján Árnason 1991, 99-102, 107-10; Gade 1995a, 5-6, 32). — [1-2] ôrr oddbragðs ‘the envoy of the point-thrust [BATTLE > WARRIOR]’: The base-word ôrr is particularly appropriate here because of its associations with verbal communication, in what is clearly a warrior-kenning with a kenning for ‘battle’ or a weapon as a determinant. No ms. has oddbragðs, but its constituent elements are represented in the paradosis, and HSt Rst 18/1 has the very similar kenning ærir ǫrbragðs ‘envoys of arrow-thrust’ alongside other echoes from ErfÓl, suggesting that Hallar-Steinn knew a version of this stanza which contained oddbragðs. It is the only acceptable kenning which gives aðalhending (ÓT’s ôrr oddflagðs ‘envoy of the point-trollwife [AXE > WARRIOR]’ lacks close parallels), and bragðs (attested in J1ˣ, J2ˣ) is a plausible starting-point for the readings brags, -flagðs and -braks. — [4] læstyggs burar Tryggva ‘of the deceit-shunning son of Tryggvi [= Óláfr]’: Cf. st. 13/2 hugdyggvan son Tryggva ‘steadfast son of Tryggvi’; sts 23/8, 28/4 flugstyggs sonar Tryggva ‘of the flight-shunning son of Tryggvi’. Hkr and ÓT’s sonar ‘son’ gives equally good sense here. — [7, 8] ferri sǫnnu máli ‘further from the true story’: Máli (n. dat. sg.) ‘story, speech’ cannot be the object of geta ‘create’, which takes acc. or gen., so this phrase must be governed by the comp. adj. ferri ‘farther from’.  — [8] mjǫks verr ‘it is much worse’: Konráð Gíslason and Eiríkur Jónsson (Nj 1875-8, II, 243-4) object to mjǫk before a comp. adj. (verr ‘worse’) and suggest attaching mjǫk to the main clause in ll. 7-8 rather than the intercalary. Finnur Jónsson follows them (Hkr 1893-1901, IV, 102; Fsk 1902-3, 132; Skj B), but more recent eds accept mjǫks verr without comment (ÍF 26; ÍF 29; Hkr 1991; see also NS §61 Anm.). The statement mjǫks verr an svá, lit. ‘it is much worse than so’, presumably expresses disbelief at the optimistic rumour, reported in the stanza, about Óláfr having escaped. — [8] ferri ‘further’: On this form, see Note to st. 25/2.

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. 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.
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. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
7. Kristján Árnason. 1991. The Rhythms of Dróttkvætt and Other Old Icelandic Metres. Reykjavík: Institute of Linguistics, University of Iceland.
8. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
9. Kuhn, Hans (1899). 1983. Das Dróttkvætt. Heidelberg: Winter.
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. Fsk 1902-3 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1902-3. Fagrskinna: Nóregs kononga tal. SUGNL 30. Copenhagen: Møller.
15. Jón Þorkelsson [J. Thorkelsson]. 1884. ‘Bemærkninger til nogle steder i versene i Heimskringla’. Aftryk af oversigt over det kgl. danske videnskabs selskabs forhandlinger 1884. Copenhagen: Luno.
16. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
17. ÓT 1958-2000 = Ólafur Halldórsson, ed. 1958-2000. Saga Óláfs Tryggvasonar en mesta. 3 vols. EA A 1-3. Copenhagen: Munksgaard (Reitzel).
18. SHI = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1828-46. Scripta historica islandorum de rebus gestis veterum borealium, latine reddita et apparatu critico instructa, curante Societate regia antiquariorum septentrionalium. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp etc. and London: John & Arthur Arch.
19. Internal references
20. (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 20 April 2024)
21. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta’ 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=60> (accessed 20 April 2024)
22. Rolf Stavnem (ed.) 2012, ‘Hallar-Steinn, Rekstefja 18’ 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. 918.