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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Ólhelg Lv 1I

Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Óláfr inn helgi Haraldsson, Lausavísur 1’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 517.

Óláfr inn helgi HaraldssonLausavísur
12

Fyll ‘Fill’

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fylla (verb): fill

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horn ‘the horn’

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horn (noun n.; °-s; -): horn

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kona ‘woman’

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kona (noun f.; °-u; -ur/-r(KlmA1980 116¹¹), gen. pl. kvenna/kvinna): woman

notes

[1] kona ‘woman’: See Context for the prose compilers’ view of her identity.

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fell ‘fell’

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falla (verb): fall

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af ‘from’

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af (prep.): from

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Rannveigar ‘Rannveig’s’

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Rannveig (noun f.): Rannveig

kennings

sonr Rannveigar
‘Rannveig’s son ’
   = Halldórr

Rannveig’s son → Halldórr

notes

[3] sonr Rannveigar ‘Rannveig’s son [= Halldórr]’: Little is known about Halldórr (HalldR; see Biography), and nothing about his mother Rannveig.

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sonr ‘son’

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sonr (noun m.; °-ar, dat. syni; synir, acc. sonu, syni): son

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sonr Rannveigar
‘Rannveig’s son ’
   = Halldórr

Rannveig’s son → Halldórr

notes

[3] sonr Rannveigar ‘Rannveig’s son [= Halldórr]’: Little is known about Halldórr (HalldR; see Biography), and nothing about his mother Rannveig.

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þars ‘where’

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þars (conj.): where

[4] þars (‘þar er’): er 73aˣ, 71ˣ, 76aˣ

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riðu ‘were riding’

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1. ríða (verb): ride

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drengir ‘the fine fellows’

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drengr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -; -ir, gen. -ja): man, warrior

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eigi ‘’

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3. eigi (adv.): not

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knunu ‘’

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Kunnut ‘do not know’

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kunna (verb): know, can, be able

[5] Kunnut: ‘knunu æigi’ 76aˣ

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seggir ‘’

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seggr (noun m.; °; -ir): man

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Sygnir ‘The Sygnir’

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Sygnir (noun m.; °; -ir): the Sygnir

[5] Sygnir: seggir 73aˣ, 71ˣ, 76aˣ

notes

[5] Sygnir: The people of Sogn, a district in western Norway. The variant reading seggir ‘men’ is an obvious lectio facilior. The basis for the insult is perhaps that the people of Sogn, a region of very steep terrain where the main transport routes were by sea, were regarded as more handy with boats than horses. Óláfr’s origins, by contrast, appear to have lain in the flatter regions to the east. Ethnic identifications are prevalent in verse insults and may have formed a staple ingredient in court entertainment; cf. the þáttr of the Icelander Sneglu-Halli (Snegl, Mork 1928-32, 234-47; cf. Fraser 2005).

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á ‘on’

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3. á (prep.): on, at

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sǫðul ‘saddle’

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sǫðull (noun m.; °-s, dat. sǫðli/sǫðuli; sǫðlar): °sadel < sǫðuldýr (noun n.): [saddle-beasts]

kennings

sǫðuldýrum;
‘saddle-beasts; ’
   = HORSES

saddle-beasts; → HORSES
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dýrum ‘beasts’

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1. dýr (noun n.; °-s (spec.: dyʀiɴs KonrA 66⁴‡, etc., cf. Seip 1955 188-189); -): animal < sǫðuldýr (noun n.): [saddle-beasts]

kennings

sǫðuldýrum;
‘saddle-beasts; ’
   = HORSES

saddle-beasts; → HORSES
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fullvel ‘very well’

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fullvel (adv.): very well, full well

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fœr ‘bring’

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2. fœra (verb): bring

[8] fœr: fá 73aˣ, 71ˣ, 76aˣ

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ok ‘and’

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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also

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þér ‘to you’

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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you

notes

[8] þér ‘you’: The referent of this 2nd pers. pron. is unclear. If not the woman of l. 1, it might be a fellow-drinker and comrade of the speaker.

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Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses

The young Óláfr goes hunting in a forest. With him rides a man from Sogn called Halldórr Rannveigarson, who falls from his horse. That evening, as drinks are served (by Óláfr’s mother Ásta in person in 61, or by a courteous serving-woman in the Bæb transcripts 73aˣ, 71ˣ and 76aˣ), Óláfr speaks the stanza. Halldórr then retorts with a stanza (HalldR Lv) about an alleged prank on Óláfr’s part, when he saddled up a goat instead of a horse for his stepfather, Sigurðr sýr ‘Sow’. The stanza exchange is set in the forest in Flat.

Lines 1 and 8 are syntactically separate from the remainder of the stanza. They place the stanza in the context of a drinking session, in conflict with the Flat narrative (see Context). It is conceivable that the stanza, along with HalldR Lv, may have belonged to a more extensive set of stanzas in the genre of mannjafnaðr ‘comparison of men’ or senna ‘flyting, contest of insults’ (Clover 1979; Clover 1980), in which rivals competed for the attention of a woman presiding over the drinking-horn.

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