Mark Eirdr 9^II

Bróðir gekk í Bôr út síðan
— bragningr vildi guðdóm magna —
(hylli guðs mun hlífa stilli)
hǫfuðskjǫldunga fimm (at gjǫldum).

{Bróðir fimm hǫfuðskjǫldunga} gekk síðan út í Bôr; bragningr vildi magna guðdóm; hylli guðs mun at gjǫldum hlífa stilli.

{The brother of five principal kings} [= Eiríkr] then walked out to Bari; the ruler wanted to strengthen God’s dominion; the grace of God will in return protect the prince.

Mss: JÓ(148), 873ˣ(49v), 20b I(7r), 180b(29v) (Knýtl)

Editions: Skj AI, 446, Skj BI, 416, Skald I, 205; JÓ 1741, 148-9, ÍF 35, 218 (ch. 74).

Context: From Rome, Eiríkr proceeded on foot to Venice (see st. 8 above) and then to Bari.

Notes: [1] Bôr ‘Bari’: A town in south-eastern Italy, where the relics of S. Nicholas, C4th bishop of Myra, were taken in 1087. The shrine, consecrated by Pope Urban II in 1089, became one of the great pilgrimage destinations of medieval Europe. Bari, which is mentioned in Abbot Nikulás’s Leiðarvísir (AÍ I, 20), was apparently a place of special interest to the Icelanders. See also Anon Nikdr^III and Sigfús Blöndal 1949. — [2] vildi magna guðdóm ‘wanted to strengthen God’s dominion’: I.e. by undertaking a pilgrimage on foot to a holy site associated with a popular saint. — [4] fimm hǫfuðskjǫldunga ‘of five principal kings’: Lit. ‘five main Skjǫldungar’. Skjǫldungr, which is a heiti for ‘king, prince’, lit. means ‘descendant of Skjǫldr’. Skjǫldr was a legendary Dan. king (see ÍF 35, 1-90; SnE 1998, II, 507). For Eiríkr’s brothers, the sons of Sveinn Úlfsson, see Note to Anon (Knýtl) 1/8. Five of them (Haraldr, S. Knútr, Eiríkr, Óláfr and Nikulás) were kings of Denmark.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. AÍ = Kålund, Kristian and Natanael Beckman. 1908-18. Alfræði íslenzk: Islandsk encyklopædisk litteratur. 3 vols. SUGNL 37, 41 and 45. Copenhagen: Møller.
4. ÍF 35 = Danakonunga sǫgur. Ed. Bjarni Guðnason. 1982.
5. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
6. JÓ 1741 = Jón Ólafsson, ed. 1741. Æfi dana-konunga eda Knytlinga saga: Historia Cnutidarum regum Daniæ. Copenhagen: [n. p.].
7. Sigfús Blöndal. 1949. ‘St. Nikulás og dýrkun hans, sérstaklega á Íslandi’. Skírnir 123, 69-97.
8. Internal references
9. Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Nikulásdrápa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 565. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1034> (accessed 20 April 2024)
10. Kari Ellen Gade and Diana Whaley (eds) 2009, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísa from Knýtlinga saga 1’ 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, pp. 826-7.