Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 54

Kari Ellen Gade

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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RvHbreiðm Hl 54^III

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 54’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1061.

Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson Háttalykill

53 54 55

Fleygði ‘he flung’

(not checked:)
fleygja (verb): fling

á ‘onto’

(not checked:)
3. á (prep.): on, at

[1] á folk‑: ‘as ole’ papp25ˣ, ‘as Ole’ R683ˣ

folk ‘the main’

(not checked:)
folk (noun n.): people < folkstígr (noun m.)

[1] á folk‑: ‘as ole’ papp25ˣ, ‘as Ole’ R683ˣ

kennings

folkstígu aurborða.
‘the main paths of ship-boards. ’
= SEA
the main paths of ship-boards. → SEA

notes

[1] folkstígu (m. acc. pl.) ‘the main paths’: Taken here as main roads where people (fólk) travel (synonymous with þjóðvegr ‘main road’, see Fritzner: þjóðvegr), but it could also mean ‘war-paths’ if folk is taken in the meaning ‘army’ or ‘battle’ (so Holtsmark, Hl 1941, 78).

stígu ‘paths’

(not checked:)
1. stígr (noun m.; °dat. -; -ar/-ir, acc. -a/-u): path < folkstígr (noun m.)

kennings

folkstígu aurborða.
‘the main paths of ship-boards. ’
= SEA
the main paths of ship-boards. → SEA

notes

forðum ‘Of old’

(not checked:)
forðum (adv.): formerly, once

aurborða ‘of ship-boards’

(not checked:)
aurborð (noun n.): ship-board

kennings

folkstígu aurborða.
‘the main paths of ship-boards. ’
= SEA
the main paths of ship-boards. → SEA

notes

[2] aurborða ‘of ship-boards’: Aurborð lit. ‘sand-strake’ is the second strake from the keel (see Falk 1912, 28, 52 and Note to Þul Skipa 10/5).

mætum ‘the precious’

(not checked:)
mætr (adj.; °compar. -ri/-ari, superl. -astr): honoured, respected

[3] mætum: ‘mæiom’ papp25ˣ, ‘meiom’ R683ˣ

margnýtum ‘highly beneficial’

(not checked:)
margnýtr (adj.): [much-bountiful]

malmi ‘metal’

(not checked:)
malmr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i; -ar): metal

notes

[4] malmi ‘metal’: Málmr ‘ore, metal, iron’ can mean ‘sword’ and ‘arrow’ (see LP: malmr), and the general meaning ‘metal’ has been adopted here (referring to the gold helmet).

[5] svanvengis: ‘suanveng …’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ

kennings

Raustljótar snótir svanvengis
‘The ugly-voiced women of the swan-meadow ’
= WAVES
the swan-meadow → SEA
The ugly-voiced women of the SEA → WAVES

notes

[5] svanvengis (n. gen. sg.) ‘of the swan-meadow [SEA]’: The gen. sg. ending has been added in accordance with earlier eds. See also st. 53/3.

svan ‘of the swan’

(not checked:)
svanr (noun m.; °-s; -ir): swan < svanvengi (noun n.): [swan-meadow]

[5] svanvengis: ‘suanveng …’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ

kennings

Raustljótar snótir svanvengis
‘The ugly-voiced women of the swan-meadow ’
= WAVES
the swan-meadow → SEA
The ugly-voiced women of the SEA → WAVES

notes

[5] svanvengis (n. gen. sg.) ‘of the swan-meadow [SEA]’: The gen. sg. ending has been added in accordance with earlier eds. See also st. 53/3.

vengis ‘meadow’

(not checked:)
vengi (noun n.): land, field < svanvengi (noun n.): [swan-meadow]

[5] svanvengis: ‘suanveng …’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ

kennings

Raustljótar snótir svanvengis
‘The ugly-voiced women of the swan-meadow ’
= WAVES
the swan-meadow → SEA
The ugly-voiced women of the SEA → WAVES

notes

[5] svanvengis (n. gen. sg.) ‘of the swan-meadow [SEA]’: The gen. sg. ending has been added in accordance with earlier eds. See also st. 53/3.

vengis ‘meadow’

(not checked:)
vengi (noun n.): land, field < svanvengi (noun n.): [swan-meadow]

[5] svanvengis: ‘suanveng …’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ

kennings

Raustljótar snótir svanvengis
‘The ugly-voiced women of the swan-meadow ’
= WAVES
the swan-meadow → SEA
The ugly-voiced women of the SEA → WAVES

notes

[5] svanvengis (n. gen. sg.) ‘of the swan-meadow [SEA]’: The gen. sg. ending has been added in accordance with earlier eds. See also st. 53/3.

snótir ‘women’

(not checked:)
snót (noun f.; °; -ir): woman

kennings

Raustljótar snótir svanvengis
‘The ugly-voiced women of the swan-meadow ’
= WAVES
the swan-meadow → SEA
The ugly-voiced women of the SEA → WAVES

raustljótar ‘The ugly-voiced’

(not checked:)
raustljótr (adj.): [ugly-voiced]

[6] raustljótar: so R683ˣ, austljótar papp25ˣ

kennings

Raustljótar snótir svanvengis
‘The ugly-voiced women of the swan-meadow ’
= WAVES
the swan-meadow → SEA
The ugly-voiced women of the SEA → WAVES

notes

[6] raustljótar ‘ugly-voiced’: For a similar imagery, see SnSt Ht 19/6.

hátt ‘’

(not checked:)
3. hár (adj.; °-van; compar. hǽrri, superl. hǽstr): high

of ‘above’

(not checked:)
3. of (prep.): around, from; too

hafbeittum ‘the sea-bitten’

(not checked:)
hafbeittr (adj.)

notes

[7] hafbeittum ‘sea-bitten’: ‘Sea-bitten’ means that the helmet was subject to corrosion from the sea (so Jón Helgason, Hl 1941). For alternative and less convincing interpretations, see Holtsmark (ibid.).

hjalmi ‘helmet’

(not checked:)
1. hjalmr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i; -ar): helmet

Serksalma ‘Saracen-psalms’

(not checked:)
serksalmr (noun m.)

notes

[8] Serksalma ‘Saracen-psalms’: (a) The interpretation of Serksalma ‘psalms of the Saracens,’ i.e. ‘pagan incantations’ (so Holtsmark in Hl 1941), is not unproblematic, but it avoids emendation. Holtsmark points out that, at the time of the composition of Hl, Serkir ‘Saracens’ were synonymous with ‘heathens’, and the crusader Rǫgnvaldr would certainly have been familiar with people of that ethnicity. Rugman’s transcriptions (‘serk salma’, both mss) show that he was uncertain of the spelling of both words. (b) Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848, 244) emends to skersálma ‘skerry-psalms’, which is preferred by Jón Helgason (Hl 1941). According to Jón, this emendation avoids the awkward double alliteration on s- in an even line, and he also points to similar imagery in Þjóð Yt 18/9-12^I: Ok Austmarr | jǫfri sœnskum | Gymis ljóð | at gamni kveðr ‘And the Baltic sea sings the songs of Gymir <= Ægir> to the delight of the Swedish prince’. (c) Skj B emends serk- to skæ and hjalmi to hjalmar and construes the line as hjalmar skæ salma in which skæ ‘horse’ is the base-word in a ship-kenning (skæ hjalmar ‘the horse of the rudder’) qualified by of haf beittum, which Finnur Jónsson construes as ‘steered across the sea’ (from beita ‘tack’: so also Kock in Skald). Salma is then taken with raustljótar snótir svanvengis sungu ‘the ugly-voiced women of the swan-meadow [SEA > WAVES] sang (psalms)’ (ll. 5-6). For salmr ‘psalm’, see also sts 25/6 and 74/4.

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

As st. 56 above.

[1-4]: Rugman misread and misconstrued the first two lines of the stanza, which has led to different interpretations of the first helmingr. Finnur Jónsson’s version (Skj B) is based on Rugman’s transcription in R683ˣ and contains a great number of conjectural emendations; it will not be discussed here. (a) The present edn follows the interpretation of Jón Helgason (Hl 1941). Rugman transcribed the end of the first line and the beginning of the second line as ‘as ole | stigo’ (papp25ˣ), which is clearly a misreading of á folkstígu (first suggested by Kock, NN §2078, and adopted by subsequent eds). Fleygði á folkstígu ‘he flung onto the main paths (of ship-boards)’ parallels sløngði á svanvengi ‘he flung onto the swan-path’ in st. 53/3. In l. 3, ‘mæiom’ (so papp25ˣ; ‘meiom’ R683ˣ) has been emended to mætum ‘precious’ (adj.), which restores the internal rhyme (-æt- : ‑ýt-). That word could also be construed as dat. pl. of mæti ‘precious thing’: ‘he flung … precious things, highly beneficial metal, a gold helmet’. Jón Helgason (Hl 1941) calls attention to the fact that the sea-king Óláfr in Gautreks saga (Gautr ch. 11) was presented with a gold helmet and a gold byrnie, both of which were thrown into the ocean by Óláfr’s counsellor, the wicked Refnefr. The byrnie was retrieved, but not the helmet. See Anon (Gautr) 1/5-8^VIII (Gautr 8) Varpat sínu | á sæ féi | Gautrekr, er gaf | gullhring Refi ‘Gautrekr did not cast his wealth into the sea when he gave Refr a gold ring’. If Óláfr in sts 57-8 is identical with the sea-king in that saga, our interpretation of this and the following helmingr (ll. 5-8) fits that context (except that it was Refnefr and not Óláfr who threw the treasure into the sea). The connection with Gautreks saga is strengthened by the fact that sts 55-6 below commemorate Gautrekr. Saxo, who was aware of a connection between Gautrekr and Refr (Saxo 2005, I, 8, 16, 1-4, pp. 578-81), does not mention a sea-king named Óláfr in connection with Gautrekr, but according to him, ‘Olauus’ (Óláfr) was Gautrekr’s son and heir (Saxo 2005, I, 9, 1, 1, pp. 584-5). (b) Kock, who was the first to realise Rugman’s mistake, emends ‑stígu (m. acc. pl.) ‘paths’ (l. 1) to stígum (dat. pl.) as a locative dat. (‘while sailing on the ocean’). He also takes gollhjalmi ‘gold helmet’ as a locative dat. and reads (NN §2078) Seglande på havet delade han fordum ut ur jyllne jälmen ädel fin metall ‘Sailing on the ocean, of old he distributed from the gold helmet precious, fine metal’. (c) Holtsmark (Hl 1941) emends aurborða (gen. pl.) ‘of the ship-boards’ (l. 2) to aurborðum (dat. pl.) ‘ships’, ‘mæiom’ or ‘meiom’ (dat. pl. (l. 3)) to meitti ‘shattered, cut’ (inf. meita), and gollhjalmi (dat. sg.) ‘gold helmet’ (l. 4) to gollhjalma acc. pl. She offers the following reading: han sendte ut på herstier fordum skibene, splintret med nyttig våpen gullhjelmer ‘of old he launched the ships onto the war-paths, shattered gold helmets with useful weapons’. That reading presupposes the following prose order (not given in Hl 1941): fleygði forðum aurborðum á folkstígu, meitti gollhjalma margnýtum malmi.

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RvHbreiðm Hl 54III

Fleygði ‘he flung’

á ‘onto’

folk ‘the main’

kennings

notes

stígu ‘paths’

kennings

notes

forðum ‘Of old’

aurborða ‘of ship-boards’

kennings

notes

mætum ‘the precious’

margnýtum ‘highly beneficial’

malmi ‘metal’

notes

gollhjalmi ‘the gold helmet’

Sungu ‘sang’

svan ‘of the swan’

kennings

notes

svan ‘of the swan’

kennings

notes

vengis ‘meadow’

kennings

notes

vengis ‘meadow’

kennings

notes

snótir ‘women’

kennings

raustljótar ‘The ugly-voiced’

kennings

notes

hátt ‘’

of ‘above’

hafbeittum ‘the sea-bitten’

notes

hjalmi ‘helmet’

Serksalma ‘Saracen-psalms’

notes

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RvHbreiðm Hl 54^III