Máni Lv 1^II

Byr gef brátt, inn ǫrvi,
Bjǫrgynjar til mǫrgum
— þess biðjum vér — þjóðum,
þungstóls konungr sólar.
Angrar oss, þats lengi
útnyrðingr heldr fyrðum
— vindrs til seinn at sundi
sunnrœnn — í dys Unnar.

{Inn ǫrvi konungr {þungstóls sólar}}, gef brátt mǫrgum þjóðum byr til Bjǫrgynjar; vér biðjum þess. Angrar oss, þats útnyrðingr heldr fyrðum lengi í Unnardys; sunnrœnn vindrs til seinn at sundi.

{Generous king {of the heavy seat of the sun}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = God], give quickly many people fair wind to Bergen; we ask for that. It grieves us that the north-western wind keeps men long in Hummerdus; the southern wind is too slow [in coming] across the sea.

Mss: 327(44r) (Sv)

Readings: [1] gef: gefðu 327    [4] ‑stóls: ‑stáls 327    [7] sundi: ‘suði’ 327

Editions: Skj AI, 538, Skj BI, 519, Skald I, 253, NN §3120; ÍF 30, 130 (ch. 85), Sv 1920, 90.

Context: After joining Magnús’s retinue, Máni accompanies the king on his final voyage from Tønsberg to Bergen. There is no wind, and the fleet is held up for a week in Hummerdus off Lista. Máni comments on the situation with the following st.

Notes: [All]: After having been laid up in Hummerdus, Magnús sailed north along the coast with his fleet. The forces of Magnús and Sverrir joined battle at Fimreite in Sogndal (western Norway), and Magnús fell in that battle (15 June 1184). — [4] þungstóls ‘of the heavy seat’: Þungstáls ‘of the heavy steel’ (so 327) violates the full rhyme and makes no sense in the present context. — [7] vindrs til seinn at sundi ‘the wind is too slow [in coming] across the sea’: Skj B translates this as den sydlige vind er for langsom over havet ‘the southern wind is too slow across the sea’. It is more likely, however, that til seinn ‘too slow’ refers to the fact that the wind is slow to appear rather than to the actual force of the wind (see NN §3120). — [7] sundi (n. dat. sg.) ‘the sea’: The ms. reading ‘suði’ (at súði ‘toward the ship’ (?)) lacks internal rhyme and has been emended to sundi in keeping with earlier eds. — [8] í Unnardys ‘in Hummerdus’: A small island off Farsund near Lista in southern Norway. The p. n. lit. translates as ‘wave’s cairn’. Separation of the two elements in a cpd p. n. (í dys Unnar) is not uncommon in skaldic poetry if the form of the name makes it difficult for the skald to accommodate it in a poetic l. (see, e.g. Gísl Magnkv 11/3 Ǫnguls við ey ‘near Anglesey’).

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. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Sv 1920 = Indrebø, Gustav, ed. 1920. Sverris saga etter Cod. AM 327 4°. Christiania (Oslo): Dybwad. Rpt. 1981. Oslo: Norsk historisk kjeldeskrift-institutt.
6. ÍF 30 = Sverris saga. Ed. Þorleifur Hauksson. 2007.
7. Internal references
8. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Gísl Illugason, Erfikvæði about Magnús berfœttr 11’ 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. 424.