Sigv Austv 3^I

Vasa fý*st, es rannk rastir
reiðr of skóg frá Eiðum
— menn of veit, at mœttum
meini — tolf ok eina.
Hykka fót án flekkum
— fell sár á il hvára —
— hvast gengum þó þingat
þann dag — konungsmǫnnum.

Vasa fý*st, es rannk reiðr tolf rastir ok eina of skóg frá Eiðum; menn of veit, at mœttum meini. Hykka fót konungsmǫnnum án flekkum; sár fell á hvára il; þó gengum hvast þingat þann dag.

It was not [my] desire when I ran, angry, twelve leagues and one through the forest from Eiðar; people know that we met with harm. I think not a foot of the king’s men was without sores; a wound landed on each sole; still, we travelled keenly there that day.

Mss: Holm2(25v), R686ˣ(49r), 972ˣ(177va), 325VI(16vb-17ra), 75a(14vb), 73aˣ(64v), 68(24v), 61(94ra), Holm4(17ra), 75c(14v), 325VII(12v), Flat(93ra), Tóm(113r) (ÓH); Kˣ(303v), Bb(152vb) (Hkr)

Readings: [1] Vasa (‘Vara’): Vara ek 68;    fý*st: fyrst all;    es (‘er’): so R686ˣ, 325VI, 75a, 73aˣ, 68, 61, Holm4, 75c, Flat, Tóm, Kˣ, Bb, en Holm2, 325VII;    rastir: rastar Tóm, Bb    [2] frá: at Flat    [3] menn: maðr Kˣ;    of: om. 325VI, 75a, 73aˣ, 61;    veit: veita 325VI, 75a, 73aˣ, ‘væí(ti)’(?) 325VII;    at mœttum: at mœtum R686ˣ, Flat, Tóm, fǫr mœtum 325VI, 75a, 73aˣ, ek at mœttum 68, at ek mœti 61, at ek mœtta Kˣ    [4] meini: meinum Kˣ;    ok: ‘ok’ corrected from ‘ath’ Bb;    eina: einum Flat    [5] Hykka (‘Hycc a‑’): hykk á Holm2, R686ˣ, 325VI, 75a, 73aˣ, 68, 61, Holm4, Flat, Kˣ, hygg á 75c, 325VII, Tóm, hykk at Bb;    fót: so all others, ‘fott’ Holm2;    án: en Holm2, R686ˣ, 972ˣ, 325VI, 75a, 61, 75c, 325VII, Flat, Bb, enn 73aˣ, 68, Holm4, Tóm, Kˣ;    flekkum: flettum 972ˣ, flestum 325VI, 75c, 325VII, Flat, Tóm    [6] il: til Bb;    hvára: hvat 61, vára 325VII, ‘nara’ or ‘vara’ Flat    [7] hvast: hvatt 325VI, Holm4, 75c, 325VII, Flat, ‘hatt’ Tóm;    gengum: gǫngum 75a, gegnir 61, gengu Flat, Tóm;    þó: þat 61;    þingat: þangat R686ˣ, 972ˣ, 61    [8] konungs‑: konung 68, 61, Bb;    ‑mǫnnum: so 325VI, Holm4, 75c, Tóm, Kˣ, Bb, manni Holm2, R686ˣ, 972ˣ, 75a, 73aˣ, margir 68, manna 61, Flat, ‘man[…]’ 325VII

Editions: Skj AI, 233-4, Skj BI, 221, Skald I, 115, NN §2471; Fms 4, 186, Fms 12, 83, ÓH 1853, 80, 272, ÓH 1941, I, 199 (ch. 75), Flat 1860-8, II, 113; Hkr 1777-1826, II, 124, VI, 84, Hkr 1868, 307 (ÓHHkr ch. 92), Hkr 1893-1901, II, 170, ÍF 27, 136, Hkr 1991, I, 346 (ÓHHkr ch. 91); Ternström 1871, 14-15, 43-4, Konráð Gíslason 1892, 36, 176-7, 231, Jón Skaptason 1983, 84, 238.

Context: After crossing the river, they travel through Eiðaskógr (Eidskogen), and Sigvatr speaks this stanza.

Notes: [1] fý*st ‘[my] desire’: (a) The mss all read fyrst ‘first’, but this spoils the skothending and makes for strained sense. Editors including Árni Magnússon (in 761bˣ), Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) and Jón Helgason (1968, 45) have therefore emended to fýst, which in pronunciation may not have been far distant from fyrst. (b) The eds of ÍF 27 and Hkr 1991, as well as Jón Skaptason (1983, 84) retain fyrst, hence, in Jón Skaptason’s translation, ‘It was not the first [time] … that we met with disaster …’. (c) Kock (NN §2471) proposes frest ‘delay’, producing the sense ‘there was no delay when I fled …’. — [1] rastir ‘leagues’: The length of a rǫst is not known for certain; it varied according to the terrain. — [2] Eiðum ‘Eiðar’: It is maintained by Noreen (1922a, 73) and Finnur Jónsson (1932, 13) against most others that sg. Eið (st. 2/1) and pl. Eið or Eiðar designate different places. Beckman (1923, 332) explains the pl. as referring collectively to Stora and Lilla Edet in Bohuslän. Note that Snorri understood the sg. and pl. forms to refer to the same place: see the Context to the preceding stanza, with its pl. form in comparison to the sg. one in the stanza itself. On the difficulties of establishing Sigvatr’s route, see Introduction. — [3] menn of veit ‘people know’: The expression, lit. ‘people knows’, with numerical disagreement of subject and verb and a sense such as ‘to be sure’, is idiomatic: see CVC: maðr B. 2. The expression is considered a late intrusion in the text by Noreen (1923, 36, citing Konráð Gíslason 1892, 177). But the decidedly unheroic context suggests the possibility that Sigvatr was here reaching for a comic effect. He seems, somewhat comparably, not to have been averse to using innovative anglicisms: see the Notes to sts 16/2, 16/8 and 19/3. — [5] án ‘without’: The mss all have en ‘but’ (or enn ‘again, still’), which the eds of ÍF 27 and Hkr 1991 (and so Ternström 1871 and Jón Skaptason 1983, 84) would preserve. They read Hykk á ‘I think ... on’ (retaining the word division of the mss), rather than normalised Hykka ‘I think not’, and take the meaning of the helmingr to be, ‘I think, however, that we went there keenly on foot that day, but sores appeared [in] blotches on both soles of the king’s men’, which gives inferior sense. — [8] þann : mǫnnum: The full rhyme (aðalhending) of a and ǫ or á and ô (cf. sts 7/8, 10/4 etc.) may be an archaism. For a conspectus of its occurrence in Sigvatr’s poems, see Höskuldur Þráinsson (1970, 18-19). — [8] þann dag ‘that day’: Jón Skaptason (1983) would have this phrase depend on fell ‘fell, landed’, i.e. ‘appeared’ in l. 6.

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. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
10. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
11. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
12. 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.
13. Noreen, Erik. 1922a. Studier i fornvästnordisk diktning: Andra samlingen. Uppsala Universitets årsskrift, filosofi, språkvetenskap och historiska vetenskaper 4. Uppsala: Akademiska bokhandeln.
14. Konráð Gíslason, ed. 1892a. Udvalg af oldnordiske skjaldekvad, med anmærkninger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
15. Jón Helgason, ed. 1968. Skjaldevers. 3rd edn. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
16. Beckman, Nat. 1923. ‘Til Sigvats Austrfararvísur’. ANF 39, 321-32.
17. Finnur Jónsson. 1932. Austrfararvísur. Avhandlinger utgitt av Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi i Oslo, II. Hist.-filos. kl.1931, 1. Oslo: Dybwad.
18. Ternström, Alfred. 1871. Om skalden Sighvat Thordsson och tolkning af hans Austrfararvísur, Vestrfararvísur och Knútsdrápa. Lund: Ohlsson.
19. Höskuldur Þráinsson. 1970. ‘Hendingar í dróttkvæðum hætti hjá Sighvati Þórðarsyni’. Mímir 9, 9-29.
20. Hkr 1777-1826 = Schöning, Gerhard et al., eds. 1777-1826. Heimskringla edr Noregs konunga-sögor. 6 vols. Copenhagen: Stein.
21. Hkr 1868 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1868. Heimskringla eller Norges kongesagaer af Snorre Sturlassøn. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger & Christie.
22. Noreen, Erik. 1923. Studier i fornvästnordisk diktning: tredje samlingen. Uppsala: Akademiska bokhandeln.
23. ÓH 1853 = Munch, P. A. and C. R. Unger, eds. 1853. Saga Olafs konungs ens helga. Christiania (Oslo): Det kongelige norske Fredriks Universitet.
24. Internal references
25. (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)