Judith Jesch (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Erfidrápa Óláfs helga 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. 665.
Tolf frák tekna elfar
tálaust viðu bála;
olli Ôleifr falli
eirsamr konungr þeira.
Svía tyggja leitk seggi
sóknstríðs (firum) ríða
(bǫl vas brátt) til Heljar
(búit mest) Sigars hesti.
Frák tálaust {tolf viðu {bála elfar}} tekna; Ôleifr, eirsamr konungr, olli falli þeira. Leitk seggi {sóknstríðs tyggja Svía} ríða {hesti Sigars} til Heljar; mest bǫl vas brátt búit firum.
I heard without equivocation that {twelve trees {of the pyres of the river}} [GOLD > MEN] were captured; Óláfr, the merciful king, caused their death. I saw the men {of the battle-hard king of the Swedes} [= Óláfr sœnski] ride {the horse of Sigarr <legendary king>} [GALLOWS] to Hel; the greatest harm was quickly prepared for the men.
Mss: R686ˣ(29v), 972ˣ(100va), Peringskiöld 1697 I(439) (ÓH)
Readings: [2] tálaust: ‘tallaust’ 972ˣ, Peringskiöld 1697 I [4] eirsamr: ‘eiarsamr’ R686ˣ, eirlaust 972ˣ, Peringskiöld 1697 I [5] tyggja: so 972ˣ, Peringskiöld 1697 I, ‘tiggi’ R686ˣ; leitk (‘leit ek’): so Peringskiöld 1697 I, ‘lett ek’ R686ˣ, lét ek 972ˣ [6] firum: fyr um Peringskiöld 1697 I
Editions: Skj AI, 257, Skj BI, 239, Skald I, 124, NN §§656, 1870; ÓH 1941, II, 1086; Jón Skaptason 1983, 156, 299-301.
Context: ÓH 1941, I, 110 (ch. 45) and Hkr (ÍF 27, 74-7) recount that, early in his reign, King Óláfr’s men capture and hang Ásgautr, one of the two messengers sent by King Óláfr of Sweden to collect taxes from the farmers of Norway, along with his eleven followers. The stanza is cited only in the transcriptions of the lost Uppsala ms.
Notes: [All]: The surviving texts of this stanza seem to derive from the lost Uppsala ms. (*U) of ÓH (see ÓH 1941, II, 1086). — [1, 5] frák; leitk ‘I heard; I saw’: If these are taken literally, Sigvatr was not present at the capture of the Swedish party, but did witness their subsequent hanging. — [1, 2] bála elfar ‘of the pyres of the river [GOLD]’: Bál ‘pyre’ as the base-word in gold-kennings is not normally pl. (Meissner 229-30, though cf. Kálf Kátr 11/6VII), but Meissner notes (Meissner 226) that the pl. can be used in gold-kennings, not only for poetic emphasis but also to suggest individual items of gold. Bála may, alternatively or additionally, have been preferred for its disyllabic form. — [2] tálaust ‘without equivocation’: The first element is either tá f. ‘pair’ (cf. SnE 1998, I, 106; LP: tálauss) or tál-, i.e. tôl ‘deceit’ (cf. Sigv Erlfl 8/3). The former is assumed here, on the basis of the spelling of the main ms. and because the concept of ‘deceit’ does not seem relevant. — [4] eirsamr ‘merciful’: No text has precisely this spelling, but it seems to be indicated by the readings and by the context. Eirsamr is preferable as the lectio difficilior, while the variant eirlaust ‘mercilessly’ is doubtless influenced by ‑laust in l. 2. Kock (NN §1870) points out that Sigvatr uses the paradox of the gentle, merciful king dealing ruthlessly with miscreants again in st. 5. — [6] firum ‘for the men’: Kock (NN §656) suggests reading this with sóknstríðs, giving ‘hard in battle against men’, but this construction seems awkward, and what Kock calls Finnur Jónsson’s paranteskonglomerat ‘conglomeration of parentheses’ is preferable in a helmingr where there is interlacing of clauses under any interpretation. — [7] Heljar ‘Hel’: The realm of the dead, and the monstrous goddess presiding over it (see Note to HSt Rst 34/1, 4). — [8] hesti Sigars ‘the horse of Sigarr <legendary king> [GALLOWS]’: See Note to Eyv Hál 4/5.
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