Sigv Austv 20^I

Spakr lét Ulfr meðal ykkar,
Ôleifr, tekit môlum
— þétt fengum svǫr — sátta
— sakar leggið it — beggja.
Þér lét, þjófa rýrir,
þær, sem engar væri
riptar reknar heiptir,
Rǫgnvaldr gefit, aldar.

Spakr Ulfr lét tekit sátta môlum meðal ykkar beggja, Ôleifr; fengum þétt svǫr; it leggið sakar. Rǫgnvaldr lét þær gefit þér, {rýrir aldar þjófa}, sem engar heiptir riptar væri reknar.

Wise Úlfr caused to be adopted the peace proposals between you both, Óláfr; we [I] received watertight replies; you two are putting aside conflict. Rǫgnvaldr caused those [conflicts] to be conceded to you, {destroyer of the race of thieves} [JUST RULER = Óláfr], as if no enmity on account of treaty-breaking had been perpetrated.

Mss: Holm2(26r), 325V(32bis rb-va) (ll. 1-5), R686ˣ(50v), 972ˣ(180va), 325VI(17va), 75a(15vb-16ra), 73aˣ(66v), 61(94rb), 68(25r), Holm4(17va), 325VII(12v), Flat(93rb), Tóm(113v) (ÓH); Kˣ(306r), Bb(153rb) (Hkr)

Readings: [1] Spakr: spakt 972ˣ, ‘Spackr’ 61;    lét: lézk 61;    Ulfr: ‘ylfr’ R686ˣ, ulfs 75a, 73aˣ, ulf 325VII, ‘vvllr’ Bb;    meðal: meðan 75a;    ykkar: okkar Kˣ, Bb    [2] Ôleifr: Áleif 325V;    tekit: rekit 325VI, 61    [3] þétt: so Kˣ, þau Holm2, 325V, R686ˣ, 972ˣ, 325VI, 75a, 73aˣ, 61, 68, Holm4, 325VII, Flat, Tóm, Bb;    fengum: fundum 325V, fengu 61, Flat, Tóm, Bb;    svǫr: vér 61, Bb;    sátta: so Kˣ, setta Holm2, 325V, sætta R686ˣ, 972ˣ, 75a, 73aˣ, 68, Flat, Tóm, Bb, sættar 325VI, Holm4, 325VII, þangat 61    [4] sakar: sátt R686ˣ, sakir 75a, 73aˣ, þat eru svǫr 61, ‘sackar’ Tóm;    leggið: leggi 325V, R686ˣ, 325VI, 73aˣ, Holm4, 325VII, Flat, Tóm, konungr 61;    it beggja: gørva 61    [5] Þér: ber 325V, þar 972ˣ, Flat, Tóm, þá er 61;    lét: lét ek 325V;    þjófa: jǫfra corrected from ‘þíofa’ (?) 61, jǫfra 68    [6] þær: þér 61;    engar: om. Tóm    [7] riptar: riptr R686ˣ, ‘ripptar sok’ Bb;    reknar: ‘ræknar’ R686ˣ;    heiptir: ‘heiptr’ R686ˣ, heptir Bb    [8] Rǫgn‑: ‘regn‑’ 325VII;    ‑valdr: ‑valds Kˣ;    gefit: ‘gefan’ R686ˣ, kveðit 325VI, Holm4, 325VII, Flat, Tóm, ‘gefir’ 68

Editions: Skj AI, 239-40, Skj BI, 225, Skald I, 117, NN §§8B, 171, 3032; Fms 4, 191, Fms 12, 86, ÓH 1941, I, 205 (ch. 75), Flat 1860-8, II, 115; Hkr 1777-1826, II, 128, VI, 89, Hkr 1868, 310 (ÓHHkr ch. 92), Hkr 1893-1901, II, 175-6, ÍF 27, 143, Hkr 1991, I, 351 (ÓHHkr ch. 91); Ternström 1871, 24-5, 52, Jón Skaptason 1983, 101, 245.

Context: As for st. 17.

Notes: [1] spakr Ulfr lét ‘wise Úlfr caused’: This Úlfr cannot be identified with certainty, and some scholars have emended. (a) The most obvious identification, in the light of bróður Ulfs ‘Úlfr’s brother’ in st. 19/8, is with Rǫgnvaldr’s son, though Finnur Jónsson (1932, 19; 1934a, 38) objects that he would have been too young, sixteen at most, at this time, and therefore hardly likely to be called spakr. (b) A further possibility is Rǫgnvaldr’s father (though see Toll 1930-3, 541-2). (c) Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) reads sunr ... Ulfs ‘the son of Úlfr’, in reference to Rǫgnvaldr, but Ulfs is the reading only of 75a and 73a, while sunr does not appear in any ms. (d) Gering (1912, 135-6) suggests jarl for Ulfr, a reading also entertained by Finnur Jónsson (see Skj BI, 682), though cf. Kock (NN §3032). — [3] þétt ‘watertight’: Or ‘dense’. The variant þau ‘those’ makes reasonable sense, but it does not supply the necessary hending. — [4] it leggið sakar ‘you two are putting aside conflict’: Ternström (1871, 52) regards the verb as imp. — [5-8]: The general sense seems to be that all past differences will be forgotten, but the syntax and especially the status of þær (f. nom./acc. pl.) ‘those’ in l. 6 are somewhat elusive. In the present interpretation (which is close to those of Kock (NN §171), ÍF 27 and Hkr 1991), þær ‘those’ is assumed to refer back to f. pl. sakar ‘conflicts’. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) instead takes þær to modify heiptir in l. 7, and he interprets the helmingr to mean ‘Just ruler, Rǫgnvaldr declared that it was an easy matter for you to forgo pursuing further the indignation over the breach of the peace’. Ternström’s interpretation is similar, but he would have þjófa rýrir … aldar ‘destroyer of the race of thieves’ in ll. 5, 8 describe Rǫgnvaldr.

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. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
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. Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
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. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
10. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
11. Jón Skaptason. 1983. ‘Material for an Edition and Translation of the Poems of Sigvat Þórðarson, skáld’. Ph.D. thesis. State University of New York at Stony Brook. DAI 44: 3681A.
12. Finnur Jónsson. 1932. Austrfararvísur. Avhandlinger utgitt av Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi i Oslo, II. Hist.-filos. kl.1931, 1. Oslo: Dybwad.
13. Gering, Hugo. 1912. ‘Beiträge zu der Metrik und Erklärung skaldischer Dichtungen’. ZDP 44, 133-69.
14. Ternström, Alfred. 1871. Om skalden Sighvat Thordsson och tolkning af hans Austrfararvísur, Vestrfararvísur och Knútsdrápa. Lund: Ohlsson.
15. Hkr 1777-1826 = Schöning, Gerhard et al., eds. 1777-1826. Heimskringla edr Noregs konunga-sögor. 6 vols. Copenhagen: Stein.
16. Hkr 1868 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1868. Heimskringla eller Norges kongesagaer af Snorre Sturlassøn. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger & Christie.
17. Toll, Hans. 1930-3. ‘Ulvs frändes broderhjelp’. HT(N) 29, 541-4.
18. Internal references
19. (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 26 April 2024)