Sigv Erlfl 4^I

Réð eigi grið, gýgjar,
geðstirðr konungs firða,
skers þótt skúrir þyrrit,
Skjalgs hefnir sér nefna.
En varðkeri virðir
víðbotn né kømr síðan
glyggs á gjalfri leygðan
geirs ofrhugi meiri.

{Geðstirðr hefnir Skjalgs} réð eigi nefna sér grið firða konungs, þótt {skúrir {skers gýgjar}} þyrrit. En meiri {virðir geirs}, ofrhugi, né kømr síðan á {víðbotn {varðkeri glyggs}}, leygðan gjalfri.

{The tough-minded avenger of Skjálgr} [= Erlingr] did not ask for quarter from the king’s men, even though {the showers {of the skerry of the axe}} [SHIELD > BATTLE] did not let up. And a greater {appreciator of the spear} [WARRIOR], over-bold one, will not come afterwards onto {the wide base {of the guarding-vessel of the storm}} [SKY > EARTH], washed by the sea.

Mss: Kˣ(431v) (Hkr); Holm2(57v), J2ˣ(208r) (ll. 1-4), 321ˣ(217), 73aˣ(178v), 68(57r-v), Holm4(55va), 61(116va), 325V(68vb), 325VII(31v), Bb(189ra), Flat(119ra), Tóm(146v) (ÓH)

Readings: [1] eigi: added in the margin Holm2    [2] ‑stirðr: stríðs 61, ‑stríðr 325V;    konungs firða: firða konungs 321ˣ;    konungs: konung 73aˣ, konungr 325V, Bb, Flat;    firða: virða 73aˣ, fyrða Holm4, 325VII, friða 325V    [3] skers: so Holm2, J2ˣ, 321ˣ, 73aˣ, 68, skærs Kˣ, ‘skotts’ Holm4, skógs 61, Flat, Tóm, ‘skocs’ 325V, Bb, skots 325VII;    skúrir: skýrir Holm2, J2ˣ, 73aˣ, 68, 325VII, ‘skyr’ 321ˣ;    þyrrit: berðisk Holm2, J2ˣ, 321ˣ, 73aˣ, ‘þyrþit’ 68, vaxi Holm4, 325V, 325VII, Bb, Flat, Tóm, væri 61    [4] sér: svá 68    [5] ‑keri: ‑kæri 68, Flat;    virðir: virða 321ˣ, 73aˣ, virðan Holm4, verðar 61, Flat, víðan 325V, 325VII, ‘vnðan’ Bb, varðat Tóm    [6] víðbotn: við Bókn Holm2, 68, 325V, 325VII, Bb, Flat, Tóm, við Bukn 321ˣ, 73aˣ, ‘vijbokn’ 61;    né: om. 61;    kømr: temr 321ˣ;    síðan: síðar Tóm    [7] glyggs: ‘gliygs’ Holm2, gauks 321ˣ, 73aˣ, gluggs 61, Flat;    á: í 321ˣ, 73aˣ, af Flat;    leygðan: ‘legþan’ Holm2, lokna 321ˣ, loknu 73aˣ, ‘luktan’ 61, Flat, byggðu 325V, ‘lygðan’ with ‘a’ written above ‘y’ 325VII, ‘ygðar’ Bb, ‘lugtan’ Tóm    [8] geirs: geir 321ˣ;    ofr‑: of Bb, hofr Tóm;    ‑hugi: huginn 73aˣ, 325VII

Editions: Skj AI, 244-5, Skj BI, 229, Skald I, 119, NN §§640, 2196B, 2480C; Hkr 1893-1901, II, 405, IV, 155-6, ÍF 27, 316, Hkr 1991, II, 483-4 (ÓHHkr ch. 176); ÓH 1941, I, 483 (ch. 172), Flat 1860-8, II, 309-10; Jón Skaptason 1983, 116, 262-4.

Context: Erlingr defends himself valiantly without asking for quarter.

Notes: [1, 2, 4] nefna sér grið firða konungs ‘ask for quarter from the king’s men’: Lit. ‘name for himself quarter of the king’s men’. The construction nefna sér grið + acc./gen. appears to be unparalleled and the interpretation adopted here (and similarly ÍF 27 and Jón Skaptason 1983) is contextual. The proposed construction resembles beiða griða (gen. pl.) ‘ask for quarter’, found in legal contexts, with the person being asked in the acc. (see CVC: beiða I). Skj B instead construes firða konungs with the battle-kenning, giving kongens mænds angreb ‘the attack of the king’s men’. — [3] skers ‘of the skerry’: Both Skj and Skald select the variant skógs from three inferior mss, giving an axe-kenning gýgr skógs ‘giantess of the forest’, but this is not necessary as gýgr is a possible heiti for ‘axe’ (see Þul Øxar 1/6^III), and ‘the ground of the axe’ is a common pattern of kenning for ‘shield’, including some examples with sker (Meissner 169). — [4] hefnir Skjalgs ‘avenger of Skjálgr [= Erlingr]’: It is stated in Rǫgnvalds þáttr ok Rauðs that Erlingr’s father Þórólfr skjálgr was killed in an arson attack, but there is no record of any vengeance by Erlingr, who is said to have been a child at the time (ÓT 1958-2000, I, 316-18). — [5-8]: This helmingr has caused previous eds much difficulty, though the general sentiment, that Erlingr was unsurpassed in valour, is clear enough. (a) Skj B understands varð as the pret. of verða ‘become’ and emends virðir ‘appreciator, one who values’ to virði, a dat. sg. of comparison, and leygðan to lǫggðan ‘lapped, encircled’. The result is a rather convoluted sentence en varð meiri ofrhugi geirs virði né kømr síðan á gjalfri lǫggðan víðbotn glyggs keri, which he renders men der har ikke været og der vil aldrig herefter komme nogen modigere mand end krigeren på den havombruste jord ‘but there has not been and there will never hereafter come any braver man than the warrior onto the sea-lapped earth’.  However, the metrical stress on varð (l. 5) points to varðkeri being a cpd, and varð is not negated as the translation ikke ‘not’ would suggest. (b) Kock (NN §2196B) retains the cpd and provides a negative, but his solution depends on selecting the least convincing variant for virðir, varðat from Tóm, giving the translation he had previously arrived at in NN §640 by quite different means: På den havomslutna jorden | har ej kommit och ej kommer | hädanefter någon furste, | någon jälte, mera käck! ‘To the sea-encircled earth | has never come and will not come | henceforth any prince, | any hero, more valiant!’. (c) The present translation (largely following ÍF 27) avoids the convoluted syntax required to read both a past and a future perspective into the helmingr and assumes the priority of the future-oriented impossibility topos (impossibilia or adynaton) common in skaldic praise poetry; see Note to Hfr ErfÓl 24/1, 4. — [5, 6, 7] víðbotn varðkeri glyggs ‘the wide base of the guarding-vessel of the storm [SKY > EARTH]’: Varðkeri glyggs ‘guarding-vessel of the storm’ is a sky-kenning which acts as the determinant for víðbotn ‘wide base’, producing a circumlocution for ‘earth’ (cf. Egill Arkv 18/7-8^V(Eg 114) á víðum botni vindkers ‘on the wide base of the wind-vessel [SKY > EARTH]’, and a further example in Meissner 87, where the present instance is regarded as uncertain). However, since -keri is in the dat. case, rather than gen., the construction should perhaps be regarded as kenning-like rather than a kenning. The dat. could be regarded (exceptionally) as poss., or else locative. An additional consideration is that víðbotn is very much a minority reading, though acceptable as the lectio difficilior in a context in which some scribes failed to understand the kenning and associated the word rather with the p. n. Bókn which has just been mentioned in the previous stanza.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. 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.
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. ÓT 1958-2000 = Ólafur Halldórsson, ed. 1958-2000. Saga Óláfs Tryggvasonar en mesta. 3 vols. EA A 1-3. Copenhagen: Munksgaard (Reitzel).
14. Internal references
15. (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)
16. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Øxar heiti 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 813.
17. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 114 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Arinbjarnarkviða 18)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 356.
18. Kate Heslop (ed.) 2012, ‘Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Erfidrápa Óláfs Tryggvasonar 24’ 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. 434.