RvHbreiðm Hl 13^III

Ella var
†a … ss† þar
Ragnars bani
rómu trani.
… †erð†
sœfðisk ferð;
gekk at frið
fylkis lið.

Ella var bani Ragnars; {trani rómu} †a … ss† þar. … †erð† ferð sœfðisk; lið fylkis gekk at frið.

Ælla was Ragnarr’s slayer; {the crane of battle} [EAGLE] … … there. … … the company was killed; the ruler’s troop destroyed the peace.

Mss: papp25ˣ(42v), R683ˣ(126r-v)

Readings: [3] Ragnars: so R683ˣ, ‘Ragnas’ papp25ˣ    [6] sœfðisk: ‘sæsdest’ R683ˣ    [8] fylkis: ‘fylgis’ papp25ˣ, ‘filgis’ R683ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 515, Skj BI, 490, Skald I, 240; Hl 1941, 35, 49-51.

Context: The metre is called belgdrǫgur (‘Belg drogur’) ‘bellows-drawings’ (hap. leg.), possibly because the rhythm could be perceived as imitating the blasts of bellows in a smithy (Hl 1941). Each line consists of three syllables (corresponding to the odd lines in catalectic kviðuháttr) or four with resolution on the second lift (ll. 3-4), which is highly unusual (note the suspension of resolution on the first lift in st. 14/4 below). Each couplet has end-rhyme, and in that respect the metre resembles that of SnSt Ht 82 (in minnsta runhenda ‘the least end-rhyme’, not otherwise attested in Old Norse poetry).

Notes: [All]: The text in R683ˣ indicates missing words after ferð ‘company’ in l. 6 (not so papp25ˣ). Skj and Skald accordingly have faulty line-divisions and also incorporate lines from st. 14 in st. 13, because neither Finnur Jónsson nor Kock realised that the metre was trisyllabic runhent. — [All]: The king commemorated is Ælla of Northumbria (d. 867), the slayer of Ragnarr loðbrók (see sts 11-12 above). He was killed by the sons of Ragnarr. For Ælla, see Ragn, RagnSon, ÍF 35, 79-90, Saxo 2005, I, 9, 4, 34-5, 5, pp. 606-11 as well as Sigv Knútdr 1/1^I and Note there. — [1] var ‘was’: Earlier vas ‘was’. The rhyme shows that -s has been rhotacised in this word (so also in sts 33/7, 48/1, 77/1, 78/3), whereas the rhyme in st. 8/2 requires a non-rhotacised consonant. The quality of [z] must have been highly unstable at this point, but it could also be that Rǫgnvaldr, who spent his early life in Norway, used rhotacised forms in his poetry. — [2]: The missing word must be the verb going with the subject trani rómu ‘the crane of battle’ (l. 4). In Hl 1941, Jón Helgason suggests at gall þar | rómu trani ‘there the crane of battle shrieked at that,’ whereas Holtsmark gives the reading át gat þar ‘food got there’. — [5]: The line cannot be reconstructed, but Jón Helgason (Hl 1941) conjectures sungu sverð ‘swords sang’. — [7] gekk at frið ‘destroyed the peace’: Finding this reading awkward, Jón Helgason (Hl 1941) suggests that Rugman misread fekkat frið ‘did not get peace’ as gekk at frið. However, gekk á frið ‘destroyed the peace’, a closely similar wording, is found in Ill Har 3/1^II. — [8] fylkis ‘the ruler’s’: The ms. spellings, ‘fylgis’ (papp25ˣ) and ‘filgis’ (R683ˣ), may indicate a scribal uncertainty in the use of <g> and <k> (perhaps dialectal?). See Hl 1941, 113.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. ÍF 35 = Danakonunga sǫgur. Ed. Bjarni Guðnason. 1982.
4. 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.
5. Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
6. Internal references
7. Not published: do not cite (Rloð^VIII)
8. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Illugi bryndœlaskáld, Poem about Haraldr harðráði 3’ 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, p. 284.
9. Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Knútsdrápa 1’ 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. 651.
10. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 82’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1193.