Sigv ErfÓl 15^I

Undr láta þat ýtar
eigi smátt, es máttit
skæ-Njǫrðungum skorðu
skýlauss rǫðull hlýja.
Drjúg varð á því dœgri
— dagr náðit lit fǫgrum —
— orrostu frák austan
atburð — konungs furða.

Ýtar láta þat eigi smátt undr, es skýlauss rǫðull máttit hlýja {{skorðu skæ-}Njǫrðungum}. Drjúg varð furða konungs á því dœgri; dagr náðit fǫgrum lit; frák atburð orrostu austan.

People declare that no small wonder, that the cloudless sun was not able to warm {the Njǫrðungar <gods> {of the steed of the prop}} [(lit. ‘steed-Njǫrðungar of the prop’) SHIP > MEN]. Great was the portent concerning the king during that daytime; the day did not achieve its beautiful colour; I heard of the event at the battle from the east.

Mss: Kˣ(470r-v) (Hkr); Holm2(68r), J2ˣ(226v), 321ˣ(255), 73aˣ(201r), Holm4(63va), 61(125va), 325V(80vb), 325VII(38r), Flat(124vb), Tóm(156r) (ÓH); W(168) (ll. 1-4) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Undr: auðr 321ˣ;    þat: því 61, þat corrected from þeir 325VII    [2] máttit: metit 321ˣ, máttuð 73aˣ, 325V, mátta 61, mátti Flat, ‘ma(ttud)’(?) W    [3] skæ‑Njǫrðungum: ‘ske mordungum’ 321ˣ, ‘skein j orðungum’ 73aˣ, ‘sk(yniorvngvm)’(?) 61, ‘skeiniordvngvm’ 325V, ský‑Njǫrðungum Flat, Tóm;    skorðu: skorðum 73aˣ, skatna 61    [4] ‑lauss: ‑laust 321ˣ, Flat;    hlýja: hylja Holm2, 321ˣ, 73aˣ, Holm4, 325V, Tóm, W    [5] Drjúg: drýg Holm2, ‘dvinor’ 321ˣ, draug 73aˣ, 325V, drjúgr 325VII;    dœgri: degi 73aˣ    [6] náðit: náði 73aˣ, 61, Flat;    lit: lítt Flat, Tóm    [7] frák (‘fra ec’): ‘[…]’ 61;    austan: ‘austa’ J2ˣ, ‘[…]st[…]’ 61    [8] furða: fyrða Holm2, furðu 73aˣ, Holm4, 325V, spurðan 61

Editions: Skj AI, 261, Skj BI, 242, Skald I, 125, NN §662; Hkr 1893-1901, II, 491, IV, 169, ÍF 27, 382-3, Hkr 1991, II, 532 (ÓHHkr ch. 227); ÓH 1941, I, 572 (ch. 225), Flat 1860-8, II, 356; SnE 1848-87, II, 497, W 1924, 105; Jón Skaptason 1983, 170, 305-6.

Context: In ÓH-Hkr, the narrative mentions the solar eclipse (see Note to [All]). In the W text of SnE, ll. 1-4 are adduced as an example of the fact that men can be called Njǫrðungar (see Note to l. 3 below).

Notes: [All]: There was a solar eclipse on 31 August 1030; for discussion of the dating of the battle, and whether it coincided with the eclipse see ÍF 27, xcii-xcviii. — [3] skorðu skæ-Njǫrðungum ‘the Njǫrðungar <gods> of the steed of the prop [(lit. ‘steed-Njǫrðungar of the prop’) SHIP > MEN]’: Njǫrðungar appears to be derived from the god-name Njǫrðr, and is used in kennings for ‘man’ or ‘warrior’, always in the pl., and normally in compounds (LP: njǫrðungar). Skorða ‘prop’, used occasionally in ship-kennings (Meissner 215), is a support for the ship on dry land (Jesch 2001a, 171). — [5] dœgri ‘daytime’: Dœgr normally refers to either the daytime or night-time half of the twenty-four-hour period (LP: dœgr; see also Introduction to Þul Dœgra^III). — [7] austan ‘from the east’: The force of this is uncertain, since Sigvatr was seemingly in Rome at the time of the battle (see Sigv Lv 18; ÍF 28, 14). (a) Finnur Jónsson (Hkr 1893-1901, IV; Skj B) suggests that austan is equivalent to austr ‘in the east, i.e. Norway’ (cf. Sigvatr’s apparent use of austan in Sigv Víkv 9/5 to mean ‘from the east, Norwegian’). See also Note to st. 17/2. In this case austan refers to the source of the news and characterises Norway as easterly, perhaps from the general viewpoint of an Icelander, though not from the specific viewpoint of an Icelander currently in Rome. (b) ÍF 27 suggests more specifically that Sigvatr was í Vesturlöndum ‘in the British Isles’ when he heard the news from Norway, presumably on his way back from Rome. This matches the usage in Sigv Knútdr 7/2, where Knútr in England frá austan ‘learned [news] from the east’, in this case Denmark. (c) Kock (NN §662B) translates austan as i öster ‘in the east’, noting that Sigvatr’s travels c. 1030 took him south and east. This seems to presuppose that austan locates the hearer of the news, rather than the source of the news. — [7] frák ‘I heard’: See Note to st. 7/1, above.

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. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
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. 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.
7. 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.
8. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
12. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
13. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
14. 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.
15. W 1924 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1924. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Codex Wormianus AM 242, fol. Copenhagen and Kristiania (Oslo): Gyldendal.
16. Internal references
17. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
18. (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 3 May 2024)
19. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Dœgra heiti’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 914. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3231> (accessed 3 May 2024)
20. Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Knútsdrápa 7’ 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. 658.
21. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Víkingarvísur 9’ 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. 547.
22. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Lausavísur 18’ 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. 722.