Sigv Lv 10^I

Þrøngvisk ér of ungan,
ítrmenni, gram þenna;
bægisk ǫld, svát eigi
Ôleifs náik máli.
Mér varð orð at órum
auðsótt frǫmum dróttni,
þás óðum mjǫk móðir
mjǫll á Dofrafjalli.

Ér þrøngvisk of þenna ungan gram, ítrmenni; ǫld bægisk, svát náik eigi máli Ôleifs. Mér varð orð at frǫmum dróttni órum auðsótt, þás óðum mjǫk móðir mjǫll á Dofrafjalli.

You throng about this young ruler, glorious crowd; people are pushing, so that I cannot obtain speech with Óláfr. For me a word with our outstanding lord was easy to get when we waded, quite exhausted, through the snow on Dovrefjell.

Mss: Flat(187ra), Flat(92vb), Tóm(126r), 73aˣ(127v), 71ˣ(106r), 76aˣ(135v) (ÓH)

Readings: [1] Þrøngvisk: þrøngvask 73aˣ, 71ˣ, 76aˣ;    ér: ek Flat(92vb), eir Tóm, enn 73aˣ, 71ˣ, 76aˣ;    of: um Flat(92vb), Tóm, 73aˣ, 71ˣ, 76aˣ    [2] ‑menni: ‑nenninn Flat(92vb)    [3] svát (‘sua at’): svá 76aˣ    [4] náik (‘nai ek’): ‘nang’ 73aˣ    [5] varð: var Flat(92vb);    órum: orðum Tóm, ôrum 71ˣ, 76aˣ    [6] dróttni: drótti Tóm    [7] óðum: vǫðum 76aˣ;    móðir: óðir Tóm    [8] á: so all others, af Flat(187ra);    ‑fjalli: fjǫllum Tóm

Editions: Skj AI, 269, Skj BI, 249, Skald I, 129, NN §§1873, 2480F; Fms 5, 180, Fms 12, 110, Flat 1860-8, II, 112, III, 240, ÓH 1941, II, 687, 697, 698, 699; Konráð Gíslason 1892, 42, 201-2, Jón Skaptason 1983, 195, 321.

Context: One day Sigvatr has urgent business with King Óláfr, but there is such a throng of people around the king that Sigvatr cannot get to speak with him. Then Sigvatr speaks this stanza; it has the desired effect. In all the mss the incident comes at the end of the account of the journey through Dofrafjall (Dovrefjell) on which Sigvatr finds a way to give his cloak to the king, who is feeling the cold, without insulting him.

Notes: [All]: Sigvatr’s point is that there may be crowds jostling around the king now, but few of them shared the king’s hardships on his winter journey through Dovrefjell.  — [3] ǫld bægisk ‘people are pushing’: Against the evidence of the mss, Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) reads bægjumk ǫld, which he takes to mean ‘people are holding me back’. But since bægja as a transitive verb means ‘push’, there is nothing objectionable about m. v. bægisk ‘push’ (Kock, NN §1873). — [8] Dofrafjalli ‘Dovrefjell’: A mountain range in Opplandene, Norway. 

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. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. Konráð Gíslason, ed. 1892a. Udvalg af oldnordiske skjaldekvad, med anmærkninger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.