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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Ótt Knútdr 2I

Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Óttarr svarti, Knútsdrápa 2’ 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. 770.

Óttarr svartiKnútsdrápa
123

Út fylgðu þér Jótar,
auðmildr, flugar trauðir;
skauthreina bjó skreytir
Skônunga liðvánir.
Vôð blés of þér, vísi;
vestr settir þú flesta
— kunnt gørðir þú þannig
þitt nafn — í haf stafna.

Jótar, trauðir flugar, fylgðu þér út, auðmildr; {skreytir {skauthreina}} bjó liðvánir Skônunga. Vôð blés of þér, vísi; þú settir flesta stafna vestr í haf; þú gørðir nafn þitt kunnt þannig.

The Jótar, reluctant to flee, accompanied you abroad, wealth-generous one; {the adorner {of sail-reindeer}} [SHIPS > SEAFARER] prepared the expected troops of the Skánungar. The cloth billowed over you, prince; you directed a great many prows westwards across the sea; you made your name known in that way.

Mss: (10), 20dˣ(4v), 873ˣ(5v), 41ˣ(4v) (Knýtl)

Readings: [1] þér: þeir 20dˣ    [5] þér: þeir 41ˣ    [7] gørðir: gjǫrðu 873ˣ;    þannig: þenna all

Editions: Skj AI, 296, Skj BI, 273, Skald I, 140, NN §721A; Fms 11, 186-7, Fms 12, 247, SHI 11, 175, Knýtl 1919-25, 36, ÍF 35, 102-3 (ch. 8).

Context: This stanza is quoted directly after st. 1.

Notes: [2] auðmildr ‘wealth-generous one’: This is assumed here to be a substantival use of the adj., and a direct address to Knútr (as in Skald, and see NN §721A for Kock’s proposed parallels including Ótt Hfl 1/1). Skj B and ÍF 35 take auðmildr rather as an attributive adj. qualifying skreytir ‘adorner’. — [2] trauðir flugar ‘reluctant to flee’: Lit. ‘reluctant of flight’. — [3] skauthreina ‘of sail-reindeer [SHIPS]’: Skaut- is used by Óttarr here and in Ótt Hfl 5/2 as a pars pro toto term (‘corner’ for ‘sail’); see Jesch (2001a, 163-4). — [3] bjó ‘prepared’: An example of the use of the 3rd pers. in a stanza of otherwise 2nd pers. narration. The reading of the mss gives acceptable sense, and so is retained here, although one may speculate that the original reading was 2nd pers. bjótt (as in st. 1/5; cf. st. 8/1, where emendation to 2nd pers. is required). — [4] Skônunga ‘of the Skánungar’: The people of Skáney (Skåne), now south-west Sweden but then Danish territory, which Knútr may have been defending in the battle of Á in helga (Helgeå): see Note to st. 11/3. — [4] liðvánir ‘the expected troops’: The interpretation followed here is that proposed in ÍF 35 (and apparently given support in Jesch 2001a, 198), whereby liðvánir is a f. acc. pl. noun ‘troop-expectations’ (i.e. ‘expected troops’, or perhaps ‘troops of whom there are high expectations’). Although the proposed cpd seems somewhat strained and hard to parallel, it agrees with the reading of the mss. Skj B, Skald, and Knýtl 1919-25, on the other hand, all emend ‑ir to ‑ar, to produce a kenning skauthreinar Vánar ‘sail-reindeer of Ván (where Ván is a river-name: see LP: 2. Vôn). However, since skauthreinn is already a kenning for ‘ship’, this emendation is not necessary or convincing. — [5] vôð blés ‘the cloth billowed’: I.e. the sail. This is an impersonal construction, with vôð in acc. sg. — [7] þannig ‘in that way’: The mss have þenna, apparently a m. acc. sg. demonstrative, but there is no noun for þenna to agree with, as nafn is n. Emendation to þannig is therefore adopted here, as in Skj B, Skald and ÍF 35. The alternative emendation to þarna ‘there’ (e.g. Knýtl 1919-25) is closer to the ms. readings but does not supply skothending, and is doubtful since this and other applications of the suffix -na are more characteristic of later Icelandic.

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. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
  4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  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. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
  8. ÍF 35 = Danakonunga sǫgur. Ed. Bjarni Guðnason. 1982.
  9. SHI = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1828-46. Scripta historica islandorum de rebus gestis veterum borealium, latine reddita et apparatu critico instructa, curante Societate regia antiquariorum septentrionalium. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp etc. and London: John & Arthur Arch.
  10. Knýtl 1919-25 = Petersens, Carl af and Emil Olsen, eds. 1919-25. Sǫgur danakonunga. 1: Sǫgubrot af fornkonungum. 2: Knýtlinga saga. SUGNL 66. Copenhagen: SUGNL.
  11. Internal references
  12. Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Óttarr svarti, Hǫfuðlausn 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. 741.
  13. Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Óttarr svarti, Hǫfuðlausn 5’ 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. 747.
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