Oddi Lv 3^II

Hafði hollvinr lofða,
hinns mjǫð drekkr inni
sunda logs með sveigi,
sjau dœgr muni hœgri.
En ríklundaðr renndi
Rǫgnvaldr með lið skjaldat
hesti halli glæstum
hlunns at Nǫrvasundum.

Hollvinr lofða, hinns drekkr mjǫð inni með {sveigi {logs sunda}}, hafði sjau dœgr muni hœgri. En ríklundaðr Rǫgnvaldr renndi {hesti hlunns}, glæstum halli, með skjaldat lið, at Nǫrvasundum.

The loyal friend of men [I, the poet], who drinks mead indoors with {the bender {of the fire of straits}} [GOLD > GENEROUS MAN = Rǫgnvaldr], has had seven considerably more comfortable days. And mighty-spirited Rǫgnvaldr ran {the horse of the roller} [SHIP], adorned with paint, with a shield-equipped troop, to the Straits of Gibraltar.

Mss: Flat(140rb), R702ˣ(48r) (Orkn)

Readings: [1] lofða: jǫfra R702ˣ    [3] logs: so R702ˣ, lauks Flat    [4] sjau: sex R702ˣ    [5] renndi: reyndi R702ˣ    [8] Nǫrvasundum: so R702ˣ, Njǫrvasundum Flat

Editions: Skj AI, 529, Skj BI, 510, Skald I, 250, NN §2087; Flat 1860-8, II, 482, Orkn 1887, 168, Orkn 1913-16, 244, ÍF 34, 220 (ch. 87), Bibire 1988, 235.

Context: Oddi is said to have recited this st. after a difficult passage along the coast of Spain, as the crusaders furled their sail and beat to windward into the Straits of Gibraltar.

Notes: [All]: This st. is cited in Orkn between Rv Lv 21-2 (ÍF 34, 219-20), all three of them referring to difficult sailing along the coast of Spain and into the Straits of Gibraltar. — [1] hollvinr lofða ‘the loyal friend of men [I, the poet]’: The adj. hollr can imply either ‘gracious’, of a lord, or ‘loyal’, of a retainer (Jesch 2001a, 261). In this context, the phrase would apply to the speaking poet, and the variant reading hollvinr jǫfra ‘loyal friend of chieftains’ may make more sense semantically but the l. would then have a less exact skothending (NN §2087). — [3] logs ‘of the fire’: Whereas in l. 1 the main ms. had a metrically superior (if semantically inferior) reading, here its reading (lauks ‘of the leek’) is both unmetrical and provides a kenning difficult, though not impossible, to construe. Sveigir lauks sunda ‘bender of the leek of the strait’ could conceivably be a kenning for a ‘seafarer’, as laukr can be used for masts (Jesch 2001a, 160), but a kenning meaning ‘generous man’ is more appropriate in this context in which the poet is expressing his loyalty to his lord despite the hardships. Skj B emends logs to leygs (with the same meaning), presumably to avoid a skothending between a short vowel and a diphthong. — [4] sjau dœgr ‘seven days’: The prose context specifies that the sailors lay at anchor for three days to sit out a storm (ÍF 34, 219) but gives no further details about the length of their journey past Spain. The comp. contrasts the journey with unspecified periods of seven days in the past which were more comfortable. — [8] Nǫrvasundum ‘the Straits of Gibraltar’: This form of this name is also found in the majority of mss of Hskv Útdr 6/4.

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. 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. ÍF 34 = Orkneyinga saga. Ed. Finnbogi Guðmundsson. 1965.
8. Orkn 1913-16 = Sigurður Nordal, ed. 1913-16. Orkneyinga saga. SUGNL 40. Copenhagen: Møller.
9. Bibire, Paul. 1988. ‘The Poetry of Earl Rǫgnvaldr’s Court’. In Crawford 1988, 208-40.
10. Orkn 1887 = Gudbrand Vigfusson 1887-94, I.
11. Internal references
12. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Orkneyinga 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=47> (accessed 25 April 2024)
13. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Halldórr skvaldri, Útfarardrápa 6’ 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. 488.
14. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2009, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl Kali Kolsson, Lausavísur 21’ 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. 599-600.