Ill Har 3^II

Opt gekk á frið Frakka
— fljótreitt at bý snótar
vasa dǫglingi duglum —
dróttinn minn fyr óttu.

Opt gekk dróttinn minn á frið Frakka fyr óttu; vasa fljótreitt duglum dǫglingi at bý snótar.

Often my lord destroyed the peace of the Normans before dawn; it was not a speedy ride for the capable ruler to the residence of the woman.

Mss: H(21v), Hr(16rb) (H-Hr); Flat(192va) (Flat)

Readings: [1] Frakka: ‘frakk’ Flat    [2] ‑reitt: reið Flat    [3] duglum: dolgar Flat    [4] fyr: om. Hr;    óttu: ótta all

Editions: Skj AI, 384, Skj BI, 354, Skald I, 178; Fms 6, 133 (HSig ch. 3), Flat 1860-8, III, 290, Mork 1928-32, 59, Andersson and Gade 2000, 132, 471-2 (MH).

Context: Haraldr campaigned against the Normans.

Notes: [1] Frakka ‘of the Normans’: Lit. ‘of the Franks’. The Greeks referred to the Normans as ‘Franks’ (See ÍF 28, 81-2 n. 1). According to the prose of Flat and H-Hr, Haraldr harried in France and Lombardy on his way to Constantinople. This information seems to have been caused by a misunderstanding of Frakkar in the present st. and of land Langbarða ‘land of the Lombards’ in ÞjóðA Sex 5/1-2. The Frakkar were the Norman inhabitants of the kingdom of Sicily and southern Italy. The Varangian commander Georgios Maniakes (ON Gyrgir) was in alliance with the Normans from Salerno under the leadership of the two sons of Tancred de Hauteville, William and Drogo, and the Longobard Ardouin. Later, in the spring of 1041, the Normans defected, and this is the only time Haraldr could have fought against his former allies. The Langbarðaland ‘land of the Lombards’ mentioned in the prose was not present-day Lombardy in northern Italy; rather, it was the Byzantine province of Longobardia in southern Italy (see ÍF 28, 81-2 n. 1; Sigfús Blöndal 1978, 56, 65-71; Jesch 2001a, 87). — [2-3]: The embedded cl. refers to Sigurðr’s deceptive wooing of Brynhildr. See Gríp 37-9 and Sigsk 3, 35 (NK 169-70, 206, 212-13) and SnE 1998, I, 47-8. — [4] fyr óttu (f. dat. sg.) ‘before dawn’: Fyr ótta (m. dat. sg.) ‘on account of terror’ (so all mss) has been emended to fyr óttu ‘before dawn’ with earlier eds.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Andersson, Theodore M. and Kari Ellen Gade, trans. 2000. Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157). Islandica 51. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
5. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
6. 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.
7. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
8. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
9. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
10. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
11. Sigfús Blöndal. 1978. The Varangians of Byzantium: An Aspect of Byzantine Military History. Trans. and rev. Benedikt S. Benedikz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. First published 1954 as Væringja saga. Reykjavík: Ísafoldarprentsmiðja.
12. Internal references
13. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Flateyjarbók’ 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=44> (accessed 19 April 2024)
14. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Hulda-Hrokkinskinna’ 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=84> (accessed 19 April 2024)
15. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Haralds saga Sigurðssonar’ 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=142> (accessed 19 April 2024)
16. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Magnúss saga góða ok Haralds harðráða’ 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=147> (accessed 19 April 2024)
17. Not published: do not cite ()
18. Not published: do not cite ()
19. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Sexstefja 5’ 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. 117.