Anon Krm 3^VIII

Hjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Hátt bárum þá geira,
er tvítugir tölðumz
ok tjör ruðum víða.
Unnum átta jarla
austr fyr Dínu mynni;
gera fengum þá gnóga
gisting at því vígi.
Sveiti fell í sollinn
sæ; týndi lið ævi.

Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Bárum geira hátt, þá er tölðumz tvítugir ok ruðum tjör víða. Unnum átta jarla austr fyr mynni Dínu; þá fengum gera gnóga gisting at því vígi. Sveiti fell í sollinn sæ; lið týndi ævi.

We hewed with the sword. We bore spears aloft when we reached twenty years of age, and we reddened the sword far and wide. We vanquished eight jarls out east off the mouth of the Dvina; then we gave the greedy one <wolf> ample sustenance in that battle. Blood fell into a troubled sea; troops lost their lives.

Mss: 1824b(79r), 6ˣ(86r-v) (Ragn); R702ˣ(29r), LR(199-200), R693ˣ(5v)

Readings: [1] Hjuggu vér með hjörvi: abbrev. as ‘H. ver ḿ. h’ 1824b, Hjuggum vér með hjörvi 6ˣ, LR, R693ˣ, abbrev. as ‘H. vier med hiórvi’ R702ˣ    [2] bárum: so all others, ‘bar[…]’ 1824b    [3] tölðumz: ‘tauldunst’ 6ˣ, ‘toldunst’ LR, R693ˣ    [4] tjör: tír 1824b, 6ˣ, R702ˣ, ‘tyr’ LR, ‘tÿr’ R693ˣ    [5] Unnum: ‘vunnum’ LR, R693ˣ    [6] fyr: í 6ˣ;    Dínu (‘dino’): ‘Dynu’ R702ˣ    [7] gera: ‘(G)era’(?) with caret indicating ‘G’ written above the line, and with Gera in margin R693ˣ;    fengum: ‘feigum’ LR    [8] gisting: ‘Gisting’ with ‘Gisting’ also in margin R693ˣ    [9] sollinn: ‘sollin’ R702ˣ, ‘sollium’ LR, R693ˣ    [10] sæ týndi lið ævi: ‘sæ tynde lid æfe’ corrected from ‘sa̋ir, rænde lid arfi’ R702ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 642, Skj BI, 649, Skald I, 316; Rafn 1826, 4-5, 98-9, Pfeiffer 1860, 124, CPB II, 341, Wisén 1886-9, I, 62, Krm 1891, I, 225, Finnur Jónsson 1893b, 86, Finnur Jónsson 1905, 153.

Notes: [4] ruðum tjör ‘we reddened the sword’: The present ed. emends the mss’ ‘tír’ (variants ‘tyr’, ‘tÿr’) to tjör, taking this as acc. sg. of tjörr m. ‘sword’ (so Falk 1925c, 126; Heggstad et al. 2008: tjǫrr m.; and most eds) rather than as tjör f. ‘spear’ (as suggested in LP: 2. tjǫr). Whether m. acc. sg. tjör ‘the sword’ is here to be understood as having pl. (collective) or sg. reference depends on whether ruðum ‘we reddened’ is taken as referring to the speaker and his companions, or solely to the speaker. Rafn (1826) avoided emendation by assuming an acc. sg. form Týr of the god-name Týr, thought of as spelt Týrr m. nom., but this does not make sense in context. There is little evidence for Rafn’s further suggestion that the name is here a poetic word for ‘sword’. — [5]: Nothing is known of the eight jarls mentioned here. — [6] Dínu ‘of the Dvina’: Since the reference here is to one of the Russian rivers known as Dvina, it is no surprise to find it located in the east. The mynni Dínu (spelt Dýnu by Pfeiffer 1860 and Wisén 1886-9) ‘mouth of the Dvina’ could be either the Gulf of Riga, into which the Western Dvina flows in Latvia, or the White Sea, on the north-west coast of Russia, where the Northern Dvina finds its outlet. The latter possibility is perhaps marginally more likely than the former, since according to Saxo (Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 22-3, pp. 648-51) Regnerus Lothbrog (i.e. Ragnarr loðbrók) fought against the Biarmians, who, albeit having a name related to that of modern Perm (cf. CVC: Bjarmi, m.; ÍO: Bjarmar) in central Russia, evidently lived in Northern Russia, east of the White Sea, according to Saxo’s geography (Saxo 2015, II, 1707). — [7-8]: Fengum, 1st pers. pl. pret. of fá in the sense of ‘provide, supply’, here takes m. dat. sg. gera ‘the greedy one <wolf>’ as its indirect object, and gisting ‘sustenance’ in the acc. as its direct object; whereas two similar constructions in Krm have the direct object in the gen. (st. 2/8 mikils verðar ‘a massive meal’ and st. 26/9  móðernis ‘mother, maternal origin, motherhood’ (see also LP: 2. fáa 2). — [7] gera ‘the greedy one <wolf>’: Although Geri is listed in one of the þulur (Þul Hrafns 1/8^III) as a name for ‘raven’, and in Fj 14/2 (Bugge 1867, 345) appears as the name of a watchdog, it is listed in another þula (Þul Vargs 1/1^III) as a name for ‘wolf’, and there can be little doubt that it is the wolf as a beast of battle that is meant here. The word occurs frequently in poetry as a common noun meaning ‘wolf’ (see LP: geri), and Geri and Freki, whom Herjafǫðr (‘Father of Armies’, i.e. Óðinn) is said to feed in Grí 19/1 are identified as wolves in Gylf (SnE 2005, 32). The phrase fengum gera gnóga gisting ‘we gave the greedy one <wolf> ample sustenance’ finds a close parallel in ÞjóðA Sex 31/1-2^II Gera vas gisting byrjuð | gnóg ‘Plentiful hospitality was initiated for Geri <wolf>’. — [9-10]: Line 10 exemplifies the consonantless internal rhyme (aðalhending, here on <æ>) that may occur in lines in which the vowel or diphthong in the cadence is followed by a glide, <j> or <v>, see Kuhn (1983, 78) and cf. Notes to sts 5/9, 21/5 (first Note), 23/7 (first Note), and 29/8 (first Note).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. 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.
4. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
5. Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1867. Norrœn fornkvæði. Islandsk samling af folkelige oldtidsdigte om nordens guder og heroer. Almindelig kaldet Sæmundar Edda hins frøda. Christiania (Oslo): Malling. Rpt. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget 1965.
6. 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.
7. Wisén, Theodor, ed. 1886-9. Carmina Norrœnæ: Ex reliquiis vetustioris norrœnæ poësis selecta, recognita, commentariis et glossario instructa. 2 vols. Lund: Ohlsson.
8. Finnur Jónsson. 1893b. Carmina Norrœna: Rettet Tekst. Copenhagen: Nielsen & Lydiche.
9. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
10. Kuhn, Hans (1899). 1983. Das Dróttkvætt. Heidelberg: Winter.
11. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
12. Pfeiffer, Friedrich. 1860. Altnordisches Lesebuch. Leipzig: T. O. Weigel.
13. Falk, Hjalmar. 1925c. ‘Svensk ordforskning (Elof Hellquist: Svensk etymologisk ordbok)’. ANF 41, 113-39.
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. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=113> (accessed 19 April 2024)
20. Not published: do not cite (Rloð^VIII)
21. 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 19 April 2024)
22. Diana Whaley 2009, ‘ Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Sexstefja’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 108-47. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1444> (accessed 19 April 2024)
23. Not published: do not cite ()
24. Not published: do not cite ()
25. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Vargs heiti’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 902. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3216> (accessed 19 April 2024)
26. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hrafns heiti’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 944. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3238> (accessed 19 April 2024)