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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Skúli Svǫlðr 1III

Kate Heslop (ed.) 2017, ‘Skúli Þorsteinsson, Poem about Svǫlðr 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. 361.

Skúli ÞorsteinssonPoem about Svǫlðr
12

text and translation

Vakik, þars vel leizk ekka
(víðis) áðr ok síðan
(greppr hlýðir þá góðu
gallópnis vel spjalli).

Vakik, þars leizk ekka vel áðr ok síðan; þá hlýðir greppr vel góðu spjalli {víðis gallópnis}.
 
‘I wake up where sorrow thrived earlier and afterwards; then the poet listens well to the good tale of the ocean of the eagle [BLOOD].

notes and context

This helmingr is the last in a series of five verse quotations exemplifying eagle-heiti in SnE, here gallópnir ‘shrill-crier’ (see Note to l. 4).

The sense of the half-stanza as interpreted here is that the poet awakens from a dream about his past martial exploits (‘where sorrow thrived’) and begins to think about these events (‘listens to the tale of blood’) and to compose his poem. Alternative readings (all of which involve emendation) include those of Skj B, which interprets the helmingr as expressing regret for lost prowess and calling for a hearing, Kock (NN §768), who sees a typical résumé of blood-spilling and gold-winning, and Faulkes (SnE 1998), who interprets the helmingr as counterpointing the warrior’s trepidation before the battle with the raven’s glee.

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: Skúli Þórsteinsson, 1. Digt om Svolderslaget 1: AI, 305, BI, 283, Skald I, 145, NN §768; SnE 1848-87, I, 492-3, II, 354, 457, 544, 598, III, 101, SnE 1931, 173, SnE 1998, I, 92.

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