Mark Eirdr 10^II

Stóra sótti Haralds hlýri
helga dóma út frá Rómi;
hringum varði áttkonr yngva
auðig skrín ok golli rauðu.
Mildingr fór of munka veldi
móðum fœti sôl at bœta;
sveitir kníði allvaldr útan;
Eirekr vas til Róms í þeiri.

{Hlýri Haralds} sótti stóra helga dóma út frá Rómi; {áttkonr yngva} varði auðig skrín hringum ok rauðu golli. Mildingr fór móðum fœti of veldi munka at bœta sôl; allvaldr kníði sveitir útan; Eirekr vas til Róms í þeiri.

{Haraldr’s brother} [= Eiríkr] visited great holy relics outside Rome; {the descendant of a king} [KING] adorned rich shrines with rings and red gold. The generous one went on weary foot through the monks’ empire to redeem his soul; the mighty ruler urged his men back; Eiríkr came to Rome on that [journey].

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

Readings: [3] varði: eyddi 20b I, ‘vannde’ 180b;    áttkonr: ‘ad kon’ 180b    [4] ok: með 20b I, í 180b    [5] of (‘um’): om. 180b    [7] kníði: kenndu 180b;    ‑valdr: ‑valds 180b

Editions: Skj AI, 446-7, Skj BI, 416, Skald I, 205, NN §2789; JÓ 1741, 148-9, ÍF 35, 218 (ch. 74).

Context: Eiríkr presented generous donations to monasteries and holy shrines on his travels away from Rome and on his return to Rome.

Notes: [All]: Saxo (2005, II, 12, 5, 2, pp. 72-5) also mentions that Eiríkr left Rome and then returned to Rome before he set out for Denmark, but he does not give an account of where he went when he left Rome for the first time. See also Note to st. 8 [All] above. — [1] hlýri Haralds ‘Haraldr’s brother [= Eiríkr]’: This was Haraldr hein ‘Hone’ Sveinsson (r. 1074-80). Hlýri, a poetic word for ‘brother, friend’, lit. means ‘cheek’, a term of intimacy. — [3] varði ‘adorned’: 20b I’s reading, eyddi ‘destroyed’, must have resulted from the scribe’s attempt at syntactic simplification in l. 3: áttkonr yngva eyddi hringum ‘the descendant of a king destroyed rings’, i.e. he distributed treasure. See Note to st. 5/5. — [5] veldi munka ‘the monks’ empire’: While not a kenning, this is an apt circumlocution for that part of Italy (the environs of Rome), where there were many monasteries.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. ÍF 35 = Danakonunga sǫgur. Ed. Bjarni Guðnason. 1982.
5. JÓ 1741 = Jón Ólafsson, ed. 1741. Æfi dana-konunga eda Knytlinga saga: Historia Cnutidarum regum Daniæ. Copenhagen: [n. p.].