Anon Krm 17^VIII

Hjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Hundmargan sá ek falla
morginstund fyrir mæki
mann í odda sennu.
Syni mínum hneit snimma
slíðra þorn við hjarta;
Egill lét Agnar ræntan
óblauðan hal lífi.
Glumði geirr við Hamðis
gránserk; bliku merki.

Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Ek sá hundmargan mann falla fyrir mæki morginstund í {sennu odda}. {Þorn slíðra} hneit snimma við hjarta syni mínum; Egill lét ræntan Agnar, óblauðan hal, lífi. Geirr glumði við {gránserk Hamðis}; merki bliku.

We hewed with the sword. I saw very many a man fall before the sword at morning-time in {the quarrel of weapon-points} [BATTLE]. {The thorn of scabbards} [SWORD] struck early at the heart of my son; Egill caused Agnarr, an uncowardly man, to be deprived of life. The spear resounded against {the grey shirt of Hamðir <legendary hero>} [MAIL-COAT]; banners gleamed.

Mss: 1824b(80v), 147(108v), 6ˣ(89r-v) (Ragn); R702ˣ(30v), LR(214-215), R693ˣ(12v)

Readings: [1] Hjuggu vér með hjörvi: ‘Hiuggu ver m(ed) hiorfi’(?) 1824b, abbrev. as ‘[…] v(’) m(’) h(iaurfi)’(?) 147, Hjuggum vér með hjǫrvi 6ˣ, LR, R693ˣ, abbrev. as ‘H.v. m h:’ R702ˣ    [2] Hund‑: ‘hun‑’ 1824b, ‘[…]’ 147, ‘Hrun’ with ‘her W.’ in margin 6ˣ, her R702ˣ, LR, R693ˣ;    ‑margan: ‘[…]’ 147;    sá ek falla: ‘(sꜳ eg falla)’(?) 147    [3] morginstund: ‘morg[…]stu’ 147;    mæki: so R702ˣ, ‘meidi’ 1824b, 6ˣ, ‘(m)eidi’(?) 147, ‘maeker’ LR, R693ˣ    [4] mann í odda sennu: so R702ˣ, R693ˣ, menn at odda sennu 1824b, 6ˣ, ‘menn […]d[…] se(n)[…]’(?) 147, ‘mann i odda senniu’ LR    [5] Syni mínum: so 6ˣ, LR, R693ˣ, ‘syni mínu’ 1824b, R702ˣ, ‘[…]’ 147;    hneit snimma: ‘(hne[…]t snema)’(?) 147    [6] slíðra þorn við hjarta: ‘([…]rn) vid hiarta’(?) 147    [7] Egill lét Agnar ræntan: so 6ˣ, LR, R693ˣ, ‘eigill [...]ęntan.’ 1824b, ‘eg[…]ll let agnar (r[...]ntan)’(?) 147, ‘Eigil agnar ræntan’ with ‘liet’ between ‘Eigil’ and ‘agnar’ above the line R702ˣ    [8] óblauðan hal lífi: ‘(obl)audan (hal) lif(i)’(?) 147    [9] Glumði geirr við Hamðis: so 6ˣ, R702ˣ, LR, R693ˣ, ‘glumdí g[…]í[…] vid [...]’ 1824b, ‘[…]di geir vid hamdis’ 147    [10] gránserk bliku merki: so 6ˣ, R702ˣ, LR, R693ˣ, ‘[...] serk [...]kn merki’ 1824b, ‘gran serk (bliku merki)’(?) 147

Editions: Skj AI, 646, Skj BI, 653, Skald I, 319, NN §2309A; Rafn 1826, 14-15, 130-1, Pfeiffer 1860, 126, CPB II, 343, Wisén 1886-9, I, 64, Krm 1891, 227, Finnur Jónsson 1893b, 88-9, Finnur Jónsson 1905, 155; Ragn 1906-8, 188.

Notes: [2, 4] hundmargan mann ‘very many a man’: All available mss read m. acc. sg. -margan ‘many’ in l. 2 but they are divided between sg. mann and pl. menn in l. 4. The present ed. follows Finnur Jónsson (1893b; 1905; Skj B) and Kock (Skald) in adopting the sg. forms. Previous eds up to and including Wisén (1886-9) read hundmarga menn ‘very many men’. — [3] morginstund ‘at morning-time’: This word is presumably acc. here (cf. NS §98) rather than dat. (see however NS §118(b)), since some length of time is presumably required for witnessing the falling of many men in battle! — [3] mæki ‘the sword’: This must be assumed to be the dat. sg. of mækir m. ‘sword’, governed by the prep. fyrir in the phrase falla fyrir ‘to fall (in battle) before’ in ll. 2, 3; see LP: falla 4 and fyrir B2. The present ed. follows previous eds from Wisén (1886-9) onwards in adopting this reading rather than meiði, dat. sg. of meiðir ‘destroyer, harmer’, which was adopted by earlier eds. To judge from LP: meiðir, this word occurs exclusively as a base-word in kennings, and it would lack a determinant here. — [5, 7] syni mínum; Agnar ‘of my son; Agnarr’: Agnarr, referred to in l. 7, is likely to be the speaker’s son, referred to in l. 5, since according to RagnSon and Ragn Ragnarr has the sons Eiríkr and Agnarr by his first wife Þóra, and according to Saxo (Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 8, pp. 636-7) has Agnerus by Thora, his second wife in Saxo’s account (and Ericus by his third wife Suanlogha; Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 17, pp. 644-5). Agnarr/Agnerus meets his death in these accounts at the hands of the Swedish king Eysteinn (named Ostenus by Saxo), however, whereas here it is one Egill, not otherwise known, who is said to be the cause of his death. It would seem that Krm is here dependent on a tradition of Agnarr somewhat different from those known to Saxo and the authors of RagnSon and Ragn, cf. the case of Rǫgnvaldr, discussed in the Note to st. 15/6 above; see however Note to l. 7 below. This is the only instance in Krm of the death being reported of someone explicitly stated to be the speaker’s son; as noted above, Rǫgnvaldr, whose death is reported in st. 15 and is identifiable with the Rǫgnvaldr who appears elsewhere as a son of Ragnarr loðbrók, is not stated in Krm to be a son of the poem’s speaker. — [6] þorn slíðra ‘the thorn of scabbards [SWORD]’: De Vries (1938, 722 n. 78) lists this kenning as an instance of the influence on Krm of RvHbreiðm Hl 18/5^III, where the kenning tunga slíðra ‘tongue of scabbards’ occurs, but the comparability is confined to the use of the determinant slíðr ‘scabbard’ in both cases. — [7]: Rafn (1826, 131) attempts to get round the difficulty that Egill rather than Eysteinn is here stated to be the agent of Agnarr’s death by suggesting that Egill may have been one of Eysteinn’s followers. — [9] Hamðis ‘of Hamðir <legendary hero>’: The allusion here is to the legendary hero Hamðir, son of Guðrún Gjúkadóttir (sister of Gunnarr and Hǫgni, see Notes to st. 22, ll. 2-4, and second Note to st. 29/8 below) by her third husband King Jónakr. Hamðir’s name is common as a determinant in kennings for weapons and armour, especially mail-coats (Meissner 164-5). — [10] gránserk ‘the grey shirt’: The present ed. here follows Rafn (1826), Pfeiffer (1860), Wisén (1886-9), Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) and Kock (Skald) in treating gránserk m. acc. sg. as a cpd word rather than, as in other previous eds (including those of Finnur Jónsson 1893b and 1905), two words of which the first, grán, is a contracted form of gráan, m. acc. sg. of grár ‘grey’. The preferability of the reading adopted here is indicated by Kock (NN §2309A) and is supported by the presence of the cpd gránserkr in Skúli Lv 1/4^III (see Note there).

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. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
6. 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.
7. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
8. Wisén, Theodor, ed. 1886-9. Carmina Norrœnæ: Ex reliquiis vetustioris norrœnæ poësis selecta, recognita, commentariis et glossario instructa. 2 vols. Lund: Ohlsson.
9. Finnur Jónsson. 1893b. Carmina Norrœna: Rettet Tekst. Copenhagen: Nielsen & Lydiche.
10. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
11. Pfeiffer, Friedrich. 1860. Altnordisches Lesebuch. Leipzig: T. O. Weigel.
12. Ragn 1906-8 = Olsen 1906-8, 111-222.
13. Vries, Jan de. 1938. Een skald onder de troubadours. Ledeburg, Gent: N. V. Drukkerij Erasmus.
14. Finnur Jónsson. 1905. ‘Krákumál’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1905, 151-83.
15. Krm 1891 = 2nd edn (pp. 225-8) of Krm as ed. in Valdimar Ásmundarson 1885-9, I.
16. Saxo 2015 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2015. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes. Trans. Peter Fisher. Oxford Medieval Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
17. Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1826. Krakas Maal eller Kvad om Kong Ragnar Lodbroks Krigsbedrifter og Heltedød efter en gammel Skindbog og flere hidtil ubenyttede Haandskrifter med dansk, latinsk og fransk oversættelse, forskjellige Læsemaader, samt kritiske og philologiske Anmærkninger. Copenhagen: Jens Hostrup Schultz; London: John and Arthur Arch.
18. Internal references
19. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ragnars saga loðbrókar’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 616. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=81> (accessed 24 April 2024)
20. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ragnars sona þáttr’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 777. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=85> (accessed 24 April 2024)
21. Not published: do not cite (Rloð^VIII)
22. Rory McTurk 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Krákumál’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 706. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1020> (accessed 24 April 2024)
23. Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘ Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1001. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1347> (accessed 24 April 2024)
24. Kate Heslop (ed.) 2017, ‘Skúli Þorsteinsson, Lausavísa 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 367.