RvHbreiðm Hl 77^III

Haraldr var (herr skar)
harðráðr sigrs bráðr;
— snart lið sleit frið —
(sverðs egg manns legg).
Bargsk ǫld; beit skjǫld
brandr þuðr; óx guðr;
skaut gramr geðframr;
gnast almr; flaug malmr.

Harðráðr Haraldr var bráðr sigrs; herr skar legg manns egg sverðs; snart lið sleit frið. Ǫld bargsk; þuðr brandr beit skjǫld; guðr óx; geðframr gramr skaut; almr gnast; malmr flaug.

Hard-ruling Haraldr was quick [to gain] victory; the army cut a man’s leg with the sword’s edge; the keen company sundered the peace. People saved themselves; a slender blade bit a shield; battle increased; the outstanding-minded lord shot; an elm-bow cracked; an arrow flew.

Mss: papp25ˣ(39r), R683ˣ(134r)

Readings: [1] herr: ‘hęr’ papp25ˣ, ‘hær’ R683ˣ    [2] sigrs: sigr R683ˣ    [3] sleit: so R683ˣ, ‘slæt’ papp25ˣ    [5] Bargsk: ‘bargs’ papp25ˣ, R683ˣ    [8] flaug: ‘flæg’ papp25ˣ, ‘slæg‑’ R683ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 527, Skj BI, 507, Skald I, 249, NN §§2083, 2540B, 2990F; Hl 1941, 31, 94.

Context: The heading is hálfhnept (‘Halnæfst’ papp25ˣ; ‘Half-næfst’ R683ˣ) ‘half-curtailed’ (cf. SnSt Ht 77 and sts 49-50 above), but the stanza is metrically similar to alhnept ‘completely curtailed’ (SnSt Ht 78), except that the odd lines have aðalhending rather than skothending. Konráð Gíslason (1895-7, II, 88) suggested that Rugman misread alhnept as hálfhnept.

Notes: [All]: Other than in the claves metricae, this metre is attested in Ótt Óldr 1/4, 2/2, 5/2, 4 and 6/4. — [All]: The king is Haraldr harðráði ‘Hard-rule’ Sigurðarson, half-brother of Óláfr Haraldsson (S. Óláfr; see sts 73-4 above) and king of Norway 1046-66. He died at the battle of Stamford Bridge, England (25 September 1066). See Anon Nkt 38-9^II and his Biography in SkP II. — [1] var ‘was’: The first rhyme in this line could technically fall in metrical positions 1 (on the resolved Haraldr) or 2 (on var). The latter is more likely since the first rhyme in all other lines falls in metrical position 2. For the rhotacised form var (earlier vas), see Note to st. 13/1. For a line of a similar structure, see st. 78/3 below. — [1] herr ‘the army’: The mss have ‘hęr’ (papp25ˣ) or ‘hær’ (R683ˣ), which could be m. acc. or dat. sg. and has been emended to herr (nom. sg.) with Skj B and Holtsmark (Hl 1941). For the possible loss of final -r, see Note to st. 5/2. Kock (NN §§2083, 2990F) emends to hers (gen. sg.) ‘of the army’ as a genitival attributive to egg sverðs ‘the sword’s edge’ (l. 4), taking egg ‘edge’ as a nom. sg. to avoid the instrumental dat. (a possibility also entertained by Jón Helgason in Hl 1941). — [2] harðráðr ‘hard-ruling’: Haraldr’s nickname was harðráði ‘Hard-rule’, i.e. ‘one who makes decisive judgements and follows them through’ (see Finnur Jónsson 1907, 252; LP: harðráðr). The nickname does not appear in early prose, but it is found in the heading of ch. 25 of Theodoricus’s history of the Norwegian kings (MHN 50, ‘Hardrad’r’, ‘Hardradr’). It is not clear whether we are dealing with the nickname or an adjectival epithet in the present stanza. — [2] bráðr sigrs ‘quick [to gain] victory’: Lit. ‘quick of victory’. Both Skj B and Skald read sigbráðr ‘battle-swift’ rather than sigrs bráðr (so papp25ˣ). That emendation is unnecessary (see Hl 1941). — [5]: This line is identical to st. 69/5. In the mss, the final -k in m. v. bargsk (‘bargs’) has been lost (cf. ‘rauds’ for hrauzk ‘discharged itself’ (so papp25ˣ) in st. 78/7; see Hl 1941, 114). In st. 69/5 the verb is rendered as ‘barsc’ in both mss.

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. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 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. MHN = Storm, Gustav, ed. 1880. Monumenta historica Norvegiæ: Latinske kildeskrifter til Norges historie i middelalderen. Kristiania (Oslo): Brøgger. Rpt. 1973. Oslo: Aas & Wahl.
7. Finnur Jónsson. 1907. ‘Tilnavne i den islandske oldlitteratur’. ÅNOH, 161-381.
8. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
9. Theodoricus = Theodrici monachi historia de antiquitate regum Norwagiensium. In MHN 1-68.
10. Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
11. SkP II = Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Ed. Kari Ellen Gade. 2009.
12. Internal references
13. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Anonymous Poems, Nóregs konungatal 38’ 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. 785-6.
14. Matthew Townend (ed.) 2017, ‘Óttarr svarti, Óláfsdrápa sœnska 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 336.
15. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 77’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1188.
16. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 78’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1189.