Sigv Berv 2^II

Vask með gram, þeims gumnum
goll bauð dróttinhollum
— nafn fekk hann — en hrǫfnum
hræ, þess konungs ævi.
Fullkerska sák falla
(fráneygjum sonr grônum
gaf margan val vargi)
verðung (konungs sverðum).

Vask með gram, þeims bauð dróttinhollum gumnum goll en hrǫfnum hræ, ævi þess konungs; hann fekk nafn. Sák fullkerska verðung falla; sonr konungs gaf grônum fráneygjum vargi margan val sverðum.

I was with the lord, who gave gold to his loyal men and carrion to the ravens, throughout the lifetime of that king; he gained fame. I saw the most valiant troop fall; the son of the king gave many a slain warrior to the grey, keen-eyed wolf by means of swords.

Mss: H(4r), Hr(5vb) (H-Hr); Flat(190ra) (Flat)

Readings: [3] nafn: so Flat, vápn H, Hr    [4] hræ þess: ‘hræþus’ Flat    [5] ‑kerska: kerskum H, ‘keskum’ Hr, ‘‑koskum’ Flat    [6] ‑eygjum: ‑eggjum Flat;    sonr: son all    [8] ‑ung: ‘‑und’ Flat;    konungs: konungr Flat

Editions: Skj AI, 251, Skj BI, 234-5, Skald I, 121-2, NN §§1113A, 2259, 2338B, 2463E; Fms 6, 38-9 (Mgóð ch. 22); Flat 1860-8, III, 267, Mork 1928-32, 26, Andersson and Gade 2000, 104, 466 (MH); Jón Skaptason 1983, 138, 286-7.

Notes: [All]: The king referred to in the st. is Óláfr Haraldsson (S. Óláfr), Magnús’s father. Sigvatr had been his court poet, marshal and emissary. — [4] ævi þess konungs ‘throughout the lifetime of that king’: Skj B takes this nominal phrase with the preceding cl. and reads: en ævi þess konungs fekk hrǫfnum hræ ‘and the lifetime of that king gave carrion to the ravens’. That interpretation is very awkward syntactically (see NN §2259). — [5] fullkerska (f. acc. sg.) ‘most valiant’: Fullkerskum (m. or n. dat. sg. or dat. pl.) has been emended to f. acc. sg. to agree with verðung ‘troop’. Kock (NN §§1113A, 2463) retains the dat. and posits a meaning of the verb falla + dat. ‘be killed by sby’ (lit. ‘fall for sby’; so also Jón Skaptason 1983). Kock’s argument, based on a controversial passage in Beowulf (ll. 168-70), is not persuasive (see Beowulf 2008, 126-7 n. 168f). — [6] fráneygjum ‘keen-eyed’: Cf. Fáfn 5/4 (NK 181). Most earlier eds adopt the Flat variant fráneggjum ‘keen-edged’ (hap. leg.) which is taken with sverðum ‘swords’ (l. 8). This is also possible but would appear to be a lectio facilior. — [6] sonr (m. nom. sg.) ‘son’: The later form son (m. nom. sg.) ‘son’ has been replaced here by the more archaic form.

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. Andersson, Theodore M. and Kari Ellen Gade, trans. 2000. Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157). Islandica 51. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
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. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
9. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
10. Beowulf 2008 = Fulk, Robert D., Robert E. Bjork and John D. Niles, eds. 2008. Klaeber’s Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg. 4th rev. edn of Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed. Fr. Klaeber. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.
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. Internal references
13. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Magnúss saga góða ok Haralds harðráða’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=147> (accessed 16 April 2024)
14. Not published: do not cite ()
15. Not published: do not cite ()