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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Sigv Frag 1III

Diana Whaley (ed.) 2017, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Fragments 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. 347.

Sigvatr ÞórðarsonFragments
12

introduction

The source poem of this fragment (Sigv Frag 1) is unknown. It is preserved only in SnE (Skm) and followed immediately there by Sigv Nesv 7/5-8I (see Context below), but as Fidjestøl (1982, 123) points out, it is unlikely to belong to Nesjavísur since Sigvatr was present at the battle of Nesjar (1016), whereas the fragment does not claim to be an eyewitness report, but rather uses the formula frák ‘I heard’ (l. 1). The SnE mss R (as main ms.), , W, U are used below. A transcript of the helmingr in 761bˣ(331v) is copied from SnE mss, with the main text probably from W (except for the reading at rather than á in l. 1), and with marginal variants from R. It is not used in the present edition.

text and translation

Þat frák víg á vatni
verðung jǫfurs gerðu,
nadda él en, nýla,
næst telk eigi in smæstu.

Frák verðung jǫfurs gerðu nýla þat víg á vatni, en telk næst {eigi in smæstu él nadda}.
 
‘I heard the prince’s retinue recently fought that battle on the water, and next I will recount not the smallest storms of barbs [BATTLES].

notes and context

The helmingr is among citations illustrating terms for the retinues or war-bands of rulers. It is introduced Svá kvað Sigvatr ‘Sigvatr composed this’, and followed by Ok enn þetta ‘And also this’ and Sigv Nesv 7/5-8I.

[3-4]: This edn and most others take these lines (with or without nýla ‘recently’) as a syntactic unit, and agree that smæstu él nadda ‘smallest storms of barbs [BATTLES]’ is the object of telk ‘I will recount’. However, telk, næst and eigi in (l. 4) are problematic and the meaning of the whole uncertain: see Notes below. (a) This edn reads eigi in smæstu ‘not the smallest’ and assumes litotes: the poet will go on to praise the retinue for battles that are far from minor; cf. ‘next I recount none of the smallest, the next ones I recount will be none of the smallest either’, suggested by Faulkes as a second possibility in SnE 1998, II, 365. This accords well with skaldic convention. (b) Finnur Jónsson’s solution in Skj B is syntactically similar, but he seems not to assume litotes, translating, men jeg opregner ingen af de mindste kampe derefter ‘but I (will?) recount none of the smallest battles afterwards’. (c) Kock (Skald; NN §683) finds the assumption of the conj. en ‘and, but’ problematic and offers a wholly different construal using the variant enn ‘still, further’. Lines 1-3 are read as a single clause, with él nadda ‘storm(s) of barbs [BATTLES]’ standing in apposition with víg ‘battle’ and hence as a second object to gerðu ‘fought, made’ (as reaffirmed in NN §1853E). Line 4 is read as a complete clause, Næst telk eng en smæstu!, with the sense härefter täljer jag de minsta ej! ‘after this I will not reckon up the smallest!’ However, this solution is unsatisfactory, not least because adv. enn would be metrically too heavy.

readings

sources

Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.

editions and texts

Skj: Sigvatr Þórðarson, 14. Et par halvvers af ubestemmelige digte 1: AI, 275, BI, 254, Skald I, 131, NN §683, 1853E; SnE 1848-87, I, 458-9, II, 337, III, 92-3, SnE 1931, 162, SnE 1998, I, 80.

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