Anon Krm 9^VIII

Hjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Háðum rendr í dreyra,
þá er benstara bræddum
fyr Borgundarhólmi.
Hreggský slituz hringa;
hratt álmr af sér málmi;
Völnir fell at vígi;
varat einn konungr meiri.
Val rak vítt of strandir;
vargr fagnaði tafni.

Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Háðum rendr í dreyra, þá er bræddum {benstara} fyr Borgundarhólmi. {Hreggský hringa} slituz; álmr hratt af sér málmi; Völnir fell at vígi; varat einn konungr meiri. Val rak vítt of strandir; vargr fagnaði tafni.

We hewed with the sword. We steeped shields in blood when we fed {the wound-starling} [RAVEN/EAGLE] off Bornholm. {Storm-clouds of swords} [SHIELDS] were destroyed; the bow thrust forth metal; Vǫlnir fell in the battle; not a single king was greater. The slain were scattered far and wide over the beaches; the wolf rejoiced in its prey.

Mss: 1824b(79v), 147(108r), 6ˣ(87v) (Ragn); R702ˣ(29v-30r), LR(206), R693ˣ(8v)

Readings: [1] Hjuggu vér með hjörvi: abbrev. as ‘Hiug. v. m. h᷎.’ 1824b, ‘[…]’ 147, Hjuggum vér með hjörvi 6ˣ, LR, R693ˣ, abbrev. as ‘H. v. m. h.’ R702ˣ    [2] Háðum: ‘[…]dum’ 147, ‘ha̋dum’ with ‘hofdum’ in margin 6ˣ, ‘hófdum’ R702ˣ, ‘hofdum’ LR, ‘hafdum’ R693ˣ;    rendr í dreyra: ‘[…]nd(ur) i dre(yra)’(?) 147, rendr í dreyra with ‘blodi W.’ in margin 6ˣ, rendr í blóði R702ˣ, LR, R693ˣ    [3] þá er: ‘(þá er)’(?) 147;    benstara: so R702ˣ, ‘bein starra’ 1824b, ‘[…]’ 147, ‘bein stara’ with ‘benþvara W.’ in margin 6ˣ, ‘ben thver a’ LR, ‘benþuera’ R693ˣ;    bræddum: so R702ˣ, LR, R693ˣ, brendum 1824b, ‘[…]’ 147, bendum 6ˣ    [4] fyr Borgundarhólmi: ‘f(yrir) […]’(?) 147    [5] Hreggský slituz hringa (‘hreggský slítv hringa’): ‘[…]g sky slitu’ 147, ‘hregg sky slitu hringa’ with ‘Reggsky slitu rander Worm.’ in margin 6ˣ, ‘Regnský slitu Rander’ R702ˣ, ‘reggsky slitu rander’ LR, R693ˣ    [6] hratt: ‘[…]’ 147, ‘ratt’ R702ˣ, LR, R693ˣ;    álmr af sér málmi: ‘[...]’ 147    [7] Völnir (‘volnir’): so R702ˣ, ‘vvlnír’ 1824b, ‘[…]’ 147, ‘vulner’ with ‘følner W.’ in margin 6ˣ, ‘folnir’ LR, ‘Wolnir’ R693ˣ;    fell at vígi: ‘[…]’ 147    [8] varat einn konungr: ‘[…]’ 147, ‘varat eirn kongur’ 6ˣ, ‘var at aei kongur’ LR, R693ˣ;    meiri: ‘[…]’ 147    [9] Val rak: ‘[…]’ 147;    vítt of (‘vt of’): ‘[…]’ 147, ‘vt of’ with ‘vi̋tt W.’ in margin 6ˣ, vítt um R702ˣ, LR, R693ˣ;    strandir: ‘[…]’ 147    [10] vargr fagnaði tafni: ‘[…]’ 147

Editions: Skj AI, 643-4, Skj BI, 651,  Skald I, 317; Rafn 1826, 8-9, 112-14, Pfeiffer 1860, 125, CPB II, 342, Wisén 1886-9, I, 63, Krm 1891, 226, Finnur Jónsson 1893b, 87, Finnur Jónsson 1905, 154, Ragn 1906-8, 187.

Notes: [2] háðum ‘we steeped’: For this translation of háðum, 1st pers. pl. pret. of heyja in the sense of ‘render’ (‘we rendered the shields bloody’, cf. CPB: ‘we blooded the shields’), see LP: heyja.  — [3] bræddum benstara ‘we fed the wound-starling [RAVEN/EAGLE]’: This phrase is similar to RvHbreiðm Hl 17/1^III bræddi ǫrn ‘fed the eagle’ (cf. de Vries 1938, 722 n. 78). Rafn (1826), Pfeiffer (1860), Wisén (1886-9) and Valdimar Ásmundarson (Krm 1891) read here bendum benþvara (Valdimar: benþvarra) ‘we bent the wound-stick’, evidently taking this to refer either to the brandishing of a sword or to the drawing of a bow. All other eds have the reading adopted here. — [4] fyr Borgundarhólmi ‘off Bornholm’: Lit. ‘before the island of Borgund’. This is the Danish island of Bornholm, located in the Baltic Sea south-east of the south-eastern tip of Skåne, now the southernmost province of Sweden. — [5] hreggský hringa ‘storm-clouds of swords [SHIELDS]’: Hringa is here taken as gen. pl. of hringr ‘ring’ as pars pro toto for ‘sword’ (LP: hringr 2) and as the determinant in a kenning for ‘shields’, with hreggský ‘storm-clouds’ as its base-word (cf. Meissner 168-9). The emendation of slitu, 3rd pers. pl. pret. of slíta ‘rend, tear’, to slituz, imparting passive function to the verb, gives the sense ‘shields were destroyed’. The present ed. is here following Finnur Jónsson (1893b), Skj B and Skald. By contrast, Rafn (1826), Pfeiffer (1860), Wisén (1886-9) and Valdimar Ásmundarson (Krm 1891) read hreggský (nom. pl.) slitu (h)ringa, acc. pl. ‘storm-clouds tore rings’, with ‘storm-clouds’ thought of as referring to showers of arrows, and ‘rings’ as referring to the rings or links forming a coat of mail. This reading is unsatisfactory in relying too heavily on a metaphorical understanding of hreggský ‘storm-clouds’ without the support of a specifying determinant that might justify it. — [6]: This line, an example (rare in Krm) of aðalhending occurring in an even-numbered line, is comparable both in this respect and in wording with RvHbreiðm Hl 28/6^III almr sparn … malma hjalma ‘the elm-bow kicked … arrows of helmets’. Málmr ‘metal’ in the specific meaning of ‘arrow(s)’, which it seems to have here, is relatively rare in skaldic poetry, occurring elsewhere in RvHbreiðm Hl 77/8^III and in Þorm Lv 25/5^I. — [7] Völnir ‘Vǫlnir’: Of this Vǫlnir (so Finnur Jónsson 1893b and all subsequent eds; previous eds have the spelling Vulnir), a sagnperson ‘legendary figure’ according to LP: Vǫlnir, nothing is known — [8] varat einn ‘not a single … was’: This instance of varat ‘was not’, unlike the others in Krm (at 13/9, 14/5, 18/5, 20/5, 9), seems to have been correctly understood by early translators of the poem as having negative meaning; see the Introduction. — [9] vítt of ‘far and wide over’: The reading vítt ‘far and wide’ has been adopted here, as with all previous eds, over 1824b’s út ‘out’, in order to produce a metrical line, as út provides only one alliterating stave in an odd line.

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. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
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. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
7. Wisén, Theodor, ed. 1886-9. Carmina Norrœnæ: Ex reliquiis vetustioris norrœnæ poësis selecta, recognita, commentariis et glossario instructa. 2 vols. Lund: Ohlsson.
8. Finnur Jónsson. 1893b. Carmina Norrœna: Rettet Tekst. Copenhagen: Nielsen & Lydiche.
9. Pfeiffer, Friedrich. 1860. Altnordisches Lesebuch. Leipzig: T. O. Weigel.
10. Ragn 1906-8 = Olsen 1906-8, 111-222.
11. Vries, Jan de. 1938. Een skald onder de troubadours. Ledeburg, Gent: N. V. Drukkerij Erasmus.
12. Finnur Jónsson. 1905. ‘Krákumál’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1905, 151-83.
13. Krm 1891 = 2nd edn (pp. 225-8) of Krm as ed. in Valdimar Ásmundarson 1885-9, I.
14. Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1826. Krakas Maal eller Kvad om Kong Ragnar Lodbroks Krigsbedrifter og Heltedød efter en gammel Skindbog og flere hidtil ubenyttede Haandskrifter med dansk, latinsk og fransk oversættelse, forskjellige Læsemaader, samt kritiske og philologiske Anmærkninger. Copenhagen: Jens Hostrup Schultz; London: John and Arthur Arch.
15. Internal references
16. Rory McTurk 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Krákumál’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 706. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1020> (accessed 25 April 2024)
17. Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘ Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1001. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1347> (accessed 25 April 2024)