RvHbreiðm Hl 74^III

Slíðrar tungur snarpar gengu;
sullu benjar; hlífðir gullu;
hilmir vakði — hneitir rakði
hjǫrva salma — skúrir malma.
Hyggju knarrar harða veggi
hjoggu sverðum vísa ferðir
vægðar trauð*ar valskrar þjóðar
varg at tafni knífum grafna.

{Snarpar tungur slíðrar} gengu; benjar sullu; hlífðir gullu; hilmir vakði {skúrir malma}; hneitir rakði {salma hjǫrva}. Ferðir vísa, trauð*ar vægðar, hjoggu sverðum {harða veggi {knarrar hyggju}}, grafna knífum, valskrar þjóðar varg at tafni.

{Sharp tongues of the scabbard} [SWORDS] wagged; wounds swelled; shields resounded; the ruler stirred up {showers of weapons} [BATTLES]; the sword spread {psalms of swords} [BATTLES]. The leader’s companies, reluctant to grant mercy, cut with swords {the hard walls {of the ship of thought}} [HEART > CHESTS], incised by knives, of French people as food for the wolf.

Mss: papp25ˣ(38v), R683ˣ(133v)

Readings: [2] benjar: ‘bæiniar’ corrected from ‘bæniar’ papp25ˣ, ‘bæiniar’ R683ˣ    [4] skúrir: skúri papp25ˣ, R683ˣ    [5] knarrar: ‘karrar’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ    [7] trauð*ar: ‘traudiar’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ;    valskrar: valskar papp25ˣ, R683ˣ;    þjóðar: ‘þioder’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ    [8] varg at: veigar papp25ˣ, R683ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 526, Skj BI, 506, Skald I, 248; Hl 1941, 30, 92-3.

Context: As st. 73 above.

Notes: [All]: The stanza commemorates Óláfr’s early campaigns in France and further south (see ÓH 1941, I, 48-50; ÓHHkr, chs 16-20, ÍF 27, 22-7; Sigv Víkv 10-14^I; Ótt Hfl 12^I). — [1] slíðrar (f. gen. sg.) ‘of the scabbard’: Following a suggestion by Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848, 247), Skj B and Skald read slíðra (gen. pl.) ‘of the scabbard(s)’. The reason for that emendation is that this word usually occurs in the pl. (slíðr n. pl.; slíðrar or slíðrir f. pl.). However, slíðrar (f. gen. sg., ō-stem) is also possible (see ANG §375), but the final ‑r may be inorganic here (see Note to st. 8/4). See also Note to st. 18/5 for the sword-kenning ‘tongue of the scabbards’. — [2, 5]: These two lines have internal rhyme in positions 1 and 5 (rather than in positions 3 and 5).  — [2] benjar sullu ‘wounds swelled’: See Note to st. 41/6. For the ms. spelling of benjar (‘bæiniar’), see Note to st. 49/5. — [2] hlífðir ‘shields’: See Note to st. 39/6. — [3] hneitir ‘the sword’: See Note to st. 17/2. — [4] salma ‘psalms’: See sts 25/6 and 54/8 above. — [4] skúrir (f. acc. pl.) ‘showers’: Skúri has been emended to skúrir (f. acc. pl.) ‘showers’ with earlier eds. In North Icelandic, this noun can be declined as a m. a-stem (m. acc. pl. skúra), but not as a m. i-stem (see Hl 1941). It is possible that the ms. spelling of the word reflects loss of final ‑r (see Note to st. 5/2). — [5-8]: The second helmingr is problematic and the present interpretation is conjectural. (a) The ms. reading ‘karrar’ (l. 5) cannot be construed as an Old Norse word and appears to be a misreading of knarrar (f. gen. sg.) ‘of the ship’ (emendation in keeping with earlier eds). The kenning veggi knarrar hyggju ‘the walls of the ship of thought [HEART > CHESTS]’ (l. 5) follows the interpretation of Finnur Jónsson (Skj B; LP: knǫrr; veggr). Finnur also emends valskar þjóðir (f. nom. or acc. pl.) ‘French people’ (l. 7) to valskrar þjóðar (f. gen. sg.) as a genitival phrase qualifying ‘chests’, which has been adopted in the present edn (so also Skald). It could well be that the rendering of this phrase in the mss reflects Norwegian forms (vowel reduction in unstressed syllables þjóðar > þjóðer and reduction of the gen. inflectional ending ‑rar > ‑ar, which is found in the oldest Norwegian mss). See Holtsmark in Hl 1941, 110. (b) Jón Helgason (Hl 1941) believed that veggi knarrar hyggju was a kenning for ‘shields’ (‘the walls of the ship of thought [CHESTS > SHIELDS]’) which had been engraved with knives (grafna knífum). He also retains the acc. pl. valskar þjóðar ‘French people’ (l. 7), qualified by trauðar vægðar ‘reluctant to grant mercy’ (l. 7) and takes this as a second object of hjoggu ‘cut, hew’ (l. 6): ‘the leader’s troops cut the decorated shields, [and] French people, reluctant to grant mercy’. This is less preferable from a syntactic point of view and, furthermore, the company performing the slaughter is more likely than the victims to be reluctant to grant mercy. — [8] varg at tafni ‘as food for the wolf’: This interpretation follows Hl 1941. Skj B emends ‘væigar tafne’ (l. 7) to veigar hrafna ‘of the ravens’ intoxicant [BLOOD]’ as a qualifier to knífum (‘knives of blood’ i.e. ‘swords’; so also Skald). As Jón Helgason points out (Hl 1941), the reading tafni ‘carrion’ is supported by both mss, and Rugman may have misread varg at as ‘væigar’. For varg (m. dat. sg.) ‘wolf’, see ANG §358.3.

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. 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.
6. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
7. ÓH 1941 = Johnsen, Oscar Albert and Jón Helgason, eds. 1941. Saga Óláfs konungs hins helga: Den store saga om Olav den hellige efter pergamenthåndskrift i Kungliga biblioteket i Stockholm nr. 2 4^to med varianter fra andre håndskrifter. 2 vols. Det norske historiske kildeskriftfond skrifter 53. Oslo: Dybwad.
8. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
9. Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
10. Internal references
11. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Óláfs saga helga (in Heimskringla)’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=152> (accessed 23 April 2024)
12. Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Óttarr svarti, Hǫfuðlausn 12’ 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. 756.
13. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Víkingarvísur 10’ 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. 548.