RvHbreiðm Hl 54^III

Fleygði á folkstígu
forðum aurborða
mætum margnýtum
malmi gollhjalmi.
Sungu svanvengis
snótir raustljótar
hátt of hafbeittum
hjalmi Serksalma.

Forðum fleygði mætum, margnýtum malmi, gollhjalmi, á {folkstígu aurborða}. {Raustljótar snótir {svanvengis}} sungu Serksalma hátt of hafbeittum hjalmi.

Of old, he flung the precious, highly beneficial metal, the gold helmet, onto {the main paths of ship-boards} [SEA]. {The ugly-voiced women {of the swan-meadow}} [SEA > WAVES] sang Saracen-psalms above the sea-bitten helmet.

Mss: papp25ˣ(36v), R683ˣ(131r)

Readings: [1] á folk‑: ‘as ole’ papp25ˣ, ‘as Ole’ R683ˣ    [3] mætum: ‘mæiom’ papp25ˣ, ‘meiom’ R683ˣ    [5] svanvengis: ‘suanveng …’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ    [6] raustljótar: so R683ˣ, austljótar papp25ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 523, Skj BI, 500, Skald I, 246, NN §§983, 2078, 2264, 2836; Hl 1941, 28, 77-9.

Context: As st. 56 above.

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

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. SnE 1848 = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1848. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, eða Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál og Háttatal. Reykjavík: Prentsmiðja landsins.
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. Falk, Hjalmar. 1912. Altnordisches Seewesen. Wörter und Sachen 4. Heidelberg: Winter.
8. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
9. Saxo 2005 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2005. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum / Danmarkshistorien. Trans. Peter Zeeberg. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Det danske sprog- og litteraturselskab & Gads forlag.
10. Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
11. Internal references
12. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Gautreks saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 241. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=9> (accessed 24 April 2024)
13. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Skipa heiti 10’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 876.
14. 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)
15. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 19’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1124.
16. Edith Marold (ed.) 2012, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Ynglingatal 18’ 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. 40.
17. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Gautreks saga 8 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísa from Gautreks saga 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 252.