Anon Liðs 4I
Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Anonymous Poems, Liðsmannaflokkr 4’ 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. 1020.
Þóttut ‘did not seem’
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2. þykkja (verb): seem, think
notes
[1] þóttut ‘did not seem’: With this stanza comes an abrupt switch to pret. narration.
mér ‘to me’
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ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me
es ‘when’
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2. er (conj.): who, which, when
þáttak ‘I saw [them]’
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1. þekkja (verb): perceive, know
notes
[1] þáttak ‘I saw’: 1st pers. sg. pret. indic. of þekkja ‘notice, recognise’.
Þorkels ‘Þorkell’s’
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Þórkell (noun m.): [Þorkell]
notes
[2] Þorkels ‘Þorkell’s’: Þorkell inn hávi ‘the Tall’, a jarl and war-lord whom Norse tradition, notably Jvs, makes the brother of Sigvaldi Strút-Haraldsson, jarl of Jómsborg; see also Introduction, and Keynes (1980, 216-22); see Note to st. 5/1 on the nickname.
liðar ‘followers’
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lið (noun n.; °-s; -): retinue, troop
dvelja ‘to delay’
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dvelja (verb; °dvalði; dvalðr/dvalinn (præs. sg. 3. pers. dvel [$1138$], [$1140$])): delay, stay, dwell
sôusk ‘fear’
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2. sjá (verb): see
eigi ‘did not’
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3. eigi (adv.): not
þeir ‘they’
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hann (pron.; °gen. hans, dat. honum; f. hon, gen. hennar, acc. hana): he, she, it, they, them...
sverða ‘of swords’
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sverð (noun n.; °-s; -): sword
kennings
sǫng sverða —,‘the song of swords —, ’
= BATTLE
the song of swords —, → BATTLE
sǫng ‘the song’
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sǫngr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -vi/-; -var): song
kennings
sǫng sverða —,‘the song of swords —, ’
= BATTLE
the song of swords —, → BATTLE
í ‘into’
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í (prep.): in, into
folk ‘the engagement’
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folk (noun n.): people
at ‘in’
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5. at (nota): to (with infinitive)
ganga ‘going’
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2. ganga (verb; geng, gekk, gengu, genginn): walk, go
† ‘’
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(non-lexical)
notes
[5] á †hauðr† heiði ‘on … heath’: Both the Flat reading ‘haurd’ (normalised hǫrð f. nom. sg. ‘hard’) and the DG8 reading ‘haudr’ (normalised hauðr n. ‘land’) are difficult to accommodate in the helmingr. (a) Finnur Jónsson in Skj B emends to hjǫrs, hence hríð hjǫrs ‘storm of the sword [BATTLE]’. (b) Kock in Skald and NN §2772 emends to Hǫðs (the battle-god Hǫðr). (c) However, hríð can stand alone in the sense ‘battle’ or ‘onslaught, phase in a battle’ as in st. 5/8 (and cf. Note to Edáð Banddr 6/2), and if it does so here, the readings ‘haudr’ and ‘haurd’ might instead represent the first element in a cpd p. n. *hau(r)ð(r)-heiði, separated by tmesis in order to accommodate the name within regular dróttkvætt metre (cf., e.g., Hfr Óldr 2/7, 8 Heiðabý(r) and Gade 1995a, 214). But whether a p. n. is intended and what name it might represent remains unclear (CPB II, 107; Poole 1987, 287; Townend 1998, 33). (d) The Flat readings ‘er’ (normalised es) and ‘haurd’ (hǫrð) give Áðr es harða hǫrð hríð á heiði; víkingar kníðu ‘Earlier, there is a very hard battle on the heath; vikings pressed on’. Knýja ‘strike, press on’ can be intransitive, and the collocation hǫrð hríð ‘hard battle’ also occurs in sts 5/7, 8 and 6/3, 4; the adv. harða ‘very’ could be normalised to the older form harðla. However, the pres. tense es ‘is’ would be anomalous in this stanza and would sit awkwardly with áðr ‘before’.
notes
[5] á †hauðr† heiði ‘on … heath’: Both the Flat reading ‘haurd’ (normalised hǫrð f. nom. sg. ‘hard’) and the DG8 reading ‘haudr’ (normalised hauðr n. ‘land’) are difficult to accommodate in the helmingr. (a) Finnur Jónsson in Skj B emends to hjǫrs, hence hríð hjǫrs ‘storm of the sword [BATTLE]’. (b) Kock in Skald and NN §2772 emends to Hǫðs (the battle-god Hǫðr). (c) However, hríð can stand alone in the sense ‘battle’ or ‘onslaught, phase in a battle’ as in st. 5/8 (and cf. Note to Edáð Banddr 6/2), and if it does so here, the readings ‘haudr’ and ‘haurd’ might instead represent the first element in a cpd p. n. *hau(r)ð(r)-heiði, separated by tmesis in order to accommodate the name within regular dróttkvætt metre (cf., e.g., Hfr Óldr 2/7, 8 Heiðabý(r) and Gade 1995a, 214). But whether a p. n. is intended and what name it might represent remains unclear (CPB II, 107; Poole 1987, 287; Townend 1998, 33). (d) The Flat readings ‘er’ (normalised es) and ‘haurd’ (hǫrð) give Áðr es harða hǫrð hríð á heiði; víkingar kníðu ‘Earlier, there is a very hard battle on the heath; vikings pressed on’. Knýja ‘strike, press on’ can be intransitive, and the collocation hǫrð hríð ‘hard battle’ also occurs in sts 5/7, 8 and 6/3, 4; the adv. harða ‘very’ could be normalised to the older form harðla. However, the pres. tense es ‘is’ would be anomalous in this stanza and would sit awkwardly with áðr ‘before’.
† ‘’
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(non-lexical)
notes
[5] á †hauðr† heiði ‘on … heath’: Both the Flat reading ‘haurd’ (normalised hǫrð f. nom. sg. ‘hard’) and the DG8 reading ‘haudr’ (normalised hauðr n. ‘land’) are difficult to accommodate in the helmingr. (a) Finnur Jónsson in Skj B emends to hjǫrs, hence hríð hjǫrs ‘storm of the sword [BATTLE]’. (b) Kock in Skald and NN §2772 emends to Hǫðs (the battle-god Hǫðr). (c) However, hríð can stand alone in the sense ‘battle’ or ‘onslaught, phase in a battle’ as in st. 5/8 (and cf. Note to Edáð Banddr 6/2), and if it does so here, the readings ‘haudr’ and ‘haurd’ might instead represent the first element in a cpd p. n. *hau(r)ð(r)-heiði, separated by tmesis in order to accommodate the name within regular dróttkvætt metre (cf., e.g., Hfr Óldr 2/7, 8 Heiðabý(r) and Gade 1995a, 214). But whether a p. n. is intended and what name it might represent remains unclear (CPB II, 107; Poole 1987, 287; Townend 1998, 33). (d) The Flat readings ‘er’ (normalised es) and ‘haurd’ (hǫrð) give Áðr es harða hǫrð hríð á heiði; víkingar kníðu ‘Earlier, there is a very hard battle on the heath; vikings pressed on’. Knýja ‘strike, press on’ can be intransitive, and the collocation hǫrð hríð ‘hard battle’ also occurs in sts 5/7, 8 and 6/3, 4; the adv. harða ‘very’ could be normalised to the older form harðla. However, the pres. tense es ‘is’ would be anomalous in this stanza and would sit awkwardly with áðr ‘before’.
á ‘on’
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3. á (prep.): on, at
notes
[5] á †hauðr† heiði ‘on … heath’: Both the Flat reading ‘haurd’ (normalised hǫrð f. nom. sg. ‘hard’) and the DG8 reading ‘haudr’ (normalised hauðr n. ‘land’) are difficult to accommodate in the helmingr. (a) Finnur Jónsson in Skj B emends to hjǫrs, hence hríð hjǫrs ‘storm of the sword [BATTLE]’. (b) Kock in Skald and NN §2772 emends to Hǫðs (the battle-god Hǫðr). (c) However, hríð can stand alone in the sense ‘battle’ or ‘onslaught, phase in a battle’ as in st. 5/8 (and cf. Note to Edáð Banddr 6/2), and if it does so here, the readings ‘haudr’ and ‘haurd’ might instead represent the first element in a cpd p. n. *hau(r)ð(r)-heiði, separated by tmesis in order to accommodate the name within regular dróttkvætt metre (cf., e.g., Hfr Óldr 2/7, 8 Heiðabý(r) and Gade 1995a, 214). But whether a p. n. is intended and what name it might represent remains unclear (CPB II, 107; Poole 1987, 287; Townend 1998, 33). (d) The Flat readings ‘er’ (normalised es) and ‘haurd’ (hǫrð) give Áðr es harða hǫrð hríð á heiði; víkingar kníðu ‘Earlier, there is a very hard battle on the heath; vikings pressed on’. Knýja ‘strike, press on’ can be intransitive, and the collocation hǫrð hríð ‘hard battle’ also occurs in sts 5/7, 8 and 6/3, 4; the adv. harða ‘very’ could be normalised to the older form harðla. However, the pres. tense es ‘is’ would be anomalous in this stanza and would sit awkwardly with áðr ‘before’.
heiði ‘heath’
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3. heiðr (noun f.; °heiðar, dat./acc heiði; heiðar): heath
notes
[5] á †hauðr† heiði ‘on … heath’: Both the Flat reading ‘haurd’ (normalised hǫrð f. nom. sg. ‘hard’) and the DG8 reading ‘haudr’ (normalised hauðr n. ‘land’) are difficult to accommodate in the helmingr. (a) Finnur Jónsson in Skj B emends to hjǫrs, hence hríð hjǫrs ‘storm of the sword [BATTLE]’. (b) Kock in Skald and NN §2772 emends to Hǫðs (the battle-god Hǫðr). (c) However, hríð can stand alone in the sense ‘battle’ or ‘onslaught, phase in a battle’ as in st. 5/8 (and cf. Note to Edáð Banddr 6/2), and if it does so here, the readings ‘haudr’ and ‘haurd’ might instead represent the first element in a cpd p. n. *hau(r)ð(r)-heiði, separated by tmesis in order to accommodate the name within regular dróttkvætt metre (cf., e.g., Hfr Óldr 2/7, 8 Heiðabý(r) and Gade 1995a, 214). But whether a p. n. is intended and what name it might represent remains unclear (CPB II, 107; Poole 1987, 287; Townend 1998, 33). (d) The Flat readings ‘er’ (normalised es) and ‘haurd’ (hǫrð) give Áðr es harða hǫrð hríð á heiði; víkingar kníðu ‘Earlier, there is a very hard battle on the heath; vikings pressed on’. Knýja ‘strike, press on’ can be intransitive, and the collocation hǫrð hríð ‘hard battle’ also occurs in sts 5/7, 8 and 6/3, 4; the adv. harða ‘very’ could be normalised to the older form harðla. However, the pres. tense es ‘is’ would be anomalous in this stanza and would sit awkwardly with áðr ‘before’.
hríð ‘onslaught’
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hríð (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): time, storm
víkingar ‘vikings’
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víking (noun f.; °dat./acc. -/-u): viking journey
vér ‘we’
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vér (pron.; °gen. vár, dat./acc. oss): we, us, our
hlutum ‘came in for’
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hljóta (verb): alot, gain
vápna ‘of weapons’
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vápn (noun n.; °-s; -): weapon
varð ‘was’
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1. verða (verb): become, be
fylkt ‘formed into battle order’
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fylkja (verb): marshal
[8] fylkt: so DG8, ‘fylgr’ Flat
liði ‘the company’
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lið (noun n.; °-s; -): retinue, troop
harða ‘a hard’
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harðr (adj.; °comp. -ari; superl. -astr): hard, harsh
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
As for st. 1.
This stanza appears to contain a description of a battle which, to judge from the later stanzas, must be in the vicinity of London. The battle fought at Brentford, Essex in 1016 and reported in the ASC (s. a.) is a possible candidate, since in that case the heiði ‘heath’ (l. 5) could be identified as the large heath at Hounslow near Brentford. But the actions of 1015 and 1016 appear from the ASC (s. a.) to have been so numerous that firm identification is precluded.
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