Steinn Óldr 11^II

Enn at gǫrva gunni
gramr bjósk við styr ramman;
herskildi bað halda
hraustgeðr konungr austan.
Út fœrðu lið lítlu
lǫng borð fyr Stað norðan
— trôðu túnvǫll reyðar
tveir dǫglingar — meira.

Enn gramr bjósk við ramman styr at gǫrva gunni; hraustgeðr konungr bað halda herskildi austan. Lǫng borð fœrðu meira lið út lítlu fyr norðan Stað; tveir dǫglingar trôðu {túnvǫll reyðar}.

But the prince prepared for fierce fighting after the finished battle; the brave-minded king commanded that the war-shield be brought from the east. The long ships brought more troops out [to sea] a little north of Stadlandet; two noblemen set foot {on the farm-yard of the whale} [SEA].

Mss: Mork(20r) (Mork); H(78v), Hr(55va) (H-Hr)

Readings: [2] ramman: rǫmmu H, rǫmmum Hr    [8] dǫglingar: so H, Hr, ‘dꜹlingar’ Mork

Editions: Skj AI, 411-12, Skj BI, 381, Skald I, 189, NN §893; Mork 1867, 125, Mork 1928-32, 288, Andersson and Gade 2000, 279, 483 (Ólkyrr); Fms 6, 437 (Ólkyrr ch. 1).

Context: As sts 7-10 above. In Mork this is the seventh st. in the sequence. H-Hr creates a new prose environment from the poetic content.

Notes: [1] at gǫrva gunni ‘after the finished battle’: This is taken as a prepositional phrase with both the adj. gǫrva ‘finished’ and gunni battle’ in the f. acc. sg. (for at + acc. in the meaning ‘after’, see Fritzner: at 1). If at gørva (or gerva) is taken as an inf. with bjósk ‘prepared’ (l. 2) (bjósk at gørva gunni ‘prepared to wage war’; so Skj B; Skald), við styr ramman ‘for fierce fighting’ (l. 2) becomes superfluous. — [3] herskildi ‘the war-shield’: See Note to Steinn Niz 7/7 above. — [5-8]: In the second helmingr other eds (Skj B; Skald) emend trðu ‘set foot on’ (l. 7) to trðut ‘did not set foot on’ and meira (n. acc. sg.) ‘more’ (l. 8) to meiri (m. nom. pl.) ‘more, greater’ and read tveir dǫglingar meiri trðut túnvǫll reyðar ‘two greater noblemen never set foot on the farm-yard of the whale’. — [5] lítlu ‘a little’: This adv. could also modify lið ‘troops’ (l. 5): lítlu meira lið ‘a little more troops’. — [6] lítlu fyr norðan Stað ‘a little north of Stadlandet’: Peninsula between Nordfjord and Sunnmøre, Norway. — [6] lǫng borð ‘the long ships’: Lit. ‘the long plankings’. Borð ‘planking’ used as pars pro toto for ‘ship’. — [7] reyðar ‘of the whale’: Reyðr is a baleen whale (rorqual), any whale of the species Balaenoptera. In ModIcel. reyðarhvalur refers specifically to the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus). See also HSn Lv 2/3 and Anon Nkt 2/2. Reyðr is also a fish, the Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus). See Note to Sturl Hrafn 7/8 and Sturl Hákfl 2/1. — [8] tveir dǫglingar ‘two noblemen’: According to H-Hr, these were Óláfr and his brother, Magnús. In Mork the conflict with Denmark takes place after the death of Magnús (1069), and the two noblemen are not identified (Óláfr and Sveinn Úlfsson?). If sts 9-11 are misplaced in their present contexts, however (see Note to st. 9/4 above), the two noblemen who set out from the east would be Óláfr and his father, Haraldr, embarking on their expedition west to England via Orkney in 1066. The likelihood of that being the case is strengthened by the use of the adv. austan ‘from the east’ (l. 4), because an army sailing westwards from the western coast of Norway could hardly end up in Denmark. According to Hkr (ÍF 28, 175-8), Haraldr and Óláfr sailed from Trondheim (north of Stadlandet) to the islands of Solund at the estuary of Sognefjorden and then west to Shetland and Orkney.

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. Andersson, Theodore M. and Kari Ellen Gade, trans. 2000. Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157). Islandica 51. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
7. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
8. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
9. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
10. Mork 1867 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1867. Morkinskinna: Pergamentsbog fra første halvdel af det trettende aarhundrede. Indeholdende en af de ældste optegnelser af norske kongesagaer. Oslo: Bentzen.
11. Internal references
12. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Heimskringla’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=4> (accessed 19 April 2024)
13. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Hulda-Hrokkinskinna’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=84> (accessed 19 April 2024)
14. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Morkinskinna’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=87> (accessed 19 April 2024)
15. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Anonymous Poems, Nóregs konungatal 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 763.
16. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Hallr Snorrason, Lausavísur 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 637-8.
17. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, Hákonarflokkr 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 747.
18. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, Hrafnsmál 7’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 733-4.