Mark Eirdr 24^II

Blíðan gœddi bjǫrtum auði
Bjarnar hlýra Frakklands stýrir;
stórar lét sér randgarðs rýrir
ríks keisara gjafir líka.
Hônum lét til hervígs búna
harra spjalli láðmenn snjalla
alla leið, áðr ǫðlingr næði
Jóta grundar Césars fundi.

{Stýrir Frakklands} gœddi {blíðan hlýra Bjarnar} bjǫrtum auði; {rýrir randgarðs} lét sér líka stórar gjafir {ríks keisara}. {Spjalli harra} lét hônum snjalla láðmenn, búna til hervígs, alla leið, áðr {ǫðlingr {grundar Jóta}} næði fundi Césars.

{The ruler of France} [= Philip I] endowed {the pleasant brother of Bjǫrn} [= Eiríkr] with bright wealth; {the diminisher of the shield-wall} [WARRIOR] found himself pleased with the great gifts {of the powerful emperor} [= Henry IV]. {The companion of lords} [RULER = Henry IV] gave him brave guides, ready for battle, all the way, before {the noble leader {of the land of the Jótar}} [= Denmark > = Eiríkr] was able to meet Caesar.

Mss: JÓ(164), 873ˣ(54v), 20b I(9v) (ll. 1-5), 180b(31r), 20b II(3ra) (Knýtl)

Readings: [1] Blíðan: blíðum 180b    [3] lét: leit 180b    [5] lét: leit 180b    [6] harra: ‘hara’ 180b;    snjalla: alla 180b    [7] alla: snjalla 180b    [8] fundi: ‘fynnde’ 180b

Editions: Skj AI, 450, Skj BI, 418-19, Skald I, 207; JÓ 1741, 164-5, ÍF 35, 233-4 (ch. 78).

Context: This st. is cited after the narrative of Eiríkr’s decision to go to Jerusalem, to support the saga’s account of gifts received from the Frankish king and Eiríkr’s renewed good terms with the Saxon emperor Henry IV.

Notes: [All]: Knýtl (ÍF 35, 232-3) provides no overt motivation for Eiríkr’s decision to embark on a journey to Jerusalem. According to Saxo (2005, II, 12, 6, 1-4, pp. 74-7), Eiríkr, a man of exceptional physical strength, had, at a moment of temporary insanity induced by a lyre-playing minstrel, killed four of his retainers. When he came to his senses, he decided to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to atone for his sins. A veiled reference to the reasons behind Eiríkr’s pilgrimage is provided in st. 26/1-4 below. — [2] hlýri Bjarnar ‘the brother of Bjǫrn [= Eiríkr]’: According to Saxo (2005, II, 12, 3, 6, pp. 70-1), Bjǫrn Sveinsson, Eiríkr’s brother, was murdered at a legal assembly in southern Denmark. For hlýri ‘brother’, see Note to st. 10/1 above. — [2] stýrir Frakklands ‘the ruler of France [= Philip I]’: Philip ruled 1052-1108. Foote (1975, 70-1 and n. 50) equates this ruler with Emperor Henry IV (see Note to l. 4 below). While Foote’s argumentation is persuasive, the Knýtl prose does make a distinction between the two here, and that distinction is maintained in the present edn. Frakkland denoted the kingdom of the Franks, which did not extend as far east as modern France. Foote (1975, 69) defines Frakkland as ‘the territory which to the west and north-west was bordered by Valland (Normandy and the lower Seine region), Flæmingjaland (Flanders), Frísland (Frisia), to the north-east by Saxland and to the south-east by Langbarðaland (Lombardy)’. — [3] randgarðs ‘of the shield-wall’: See Note to st. 18/1 above. — [4] ríks keisara ‘of the powerful emperor’: The saga assumes that this emperor is Henry IV, although the poem itself does not make this explicit. — [4] gjafir ‘gifts’: So all mss. Inflected as a f. i-stem here (see ANG §375). Other eds emend to gjafar ‘gifts’ (inflected as a f. ō-stem). — [5]: 20b I ends with the first element of the cpd her-. — [6] láðmenn ‘guides’: Attested in poetry with certainty only here, and apparantly a loanword from OE lāðmann ‘guide’ (see LP: láðmaðr). — [8] Césars ‘Caesar’: The Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081-1118).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
4. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
5. ÍF 35 = Danakonunga sǫgur. Ed. Bjarni Guðnason. 1982.
6. Foote, Peter G. 1975. ‘Aachen, Lund, Hólar’. In Les relations littéraires Franco-Scandinaves au moyen âge: Actes du Colloque de Liège (avril 1972). Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres de l’Université de Liège 208. Paris: Société d’Editions ‘Les Belles Lettres’, 53-75. Rpt. in Foote 1984a, 101-20.
7. JÓ 1741 = Jón Ólafsson, ed. 1741. Æfi dana-konunga eda Knytlinga saga: Historia Cnutidarum regum Daniæ. Copenhagen: [n. p.].
8. Internal references
9. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Knýtlinga saga’ 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=19> (accessed 18 April 2024)