Stúfr Stúfdr 2^II

Fór ofrhugi inn øfri
eggdjarfr und sik leggja
— fold vas víga valdi
virk — Jórsali ór Girkjum.
Ok með œrnu ríki
óbrunnin kom gunnar
heimil jǫrð und herði.
Hafi ríks, þars vel líkar.

Inn øfri ofrhugi fór eggdjarfr ór Girkjum leggja und sik Jórsali; fold vas virk {valdi víga}. Ok með œrnu ríki kom heimil jǫrð óbrunnin und {herði gunnar}. Hafi ríks, þars vel líkar….

The very reckless one set out, sword-daring, from the Greeks to subjugate Jerusalem; the country was submissive {to the controller of combats} [WARRIOR]. And because of his abundant force the land was delivered as his due, unburned, to {the strengthener of battle} [WARRIOR]. May the powerful have, where it is good to be….

Mss: Mork(2v) (Mork); Flat(194ra) (Flat); H(27r), Hr(19vb) (H-Hr); FskBˣ(62v), FskAˣ(236) (Fsk); Kˣ(528v), 39(20rb), F(43rb), E(12r), J2ˣ(261v) (Hkr)

Readings: [1] ofrhugi inn: so Kˣ, 39, F, E, J2ˣ, ofrhuginn Mork, H, Hr, ‘ofrhugrinn’ Flat, ‘ofruginn’ FskBˣ, ‘ofrughin’ FskAˣ;    øfri: ‘yfrín’ Hr    [3] fold: hold Flat;    vas (‘var’): ‘rꜹðz’ F;    valdi: om. Hr    [4] virk: virkr F;    ‑sali: ‑sala Flat, FskBˣ;    ór: ok H, Hr, FskBˣ, FskAˣ, F, E;    Girkjum: grikkjum Flat, H, E, J2ˣ, girki F    [5] œrnu: einu F    [6] óbrunnin: ór brunnan Flat, óbrunnit Hr    [7] heimil: ‘hennis’ Flat, heimul H;    herði: harðri FskAˣ    [8] Hafi ríks þars vel líkar: so Kˣ, 39, F, J2ˣ, Haralds ǫnd ofarr lǫndum Mork, H, FskBˣ, FskAˣ, Haralds kund ofra lǫndum Flat, hefir ríks þat líkat Hr, hafi ríks þess vel líkat E

Editions: Skj AI, 404, Skj BI, 373, Skald I, 186, NN §§880, 3396S; Mork 1867, 11, Mork 1928-32, 78, Andersson and Gade 2000, 144, 472 (MH); Flat 1860-8, III, 303 (MH); Fms 6, 161 (HSig ch. 11); ÍF 29, 233 (ch. 51); ÍF 28, 83 (HSig ch. 12), F 1871, 199, E 1916, 41.

Context: Haraldr set out with his army from Byzantium for Palestine, where all strongholds and castles surrendered peacefully to him.

Notes: [All]: Haraldr’s journey to Palestine, which must have taken place prior to his campaigns in Sicily (c. 1036?), appears to have been a peaceful excursion, and Stúfr’s claims have been seen as exaggerated (see ÍF 28, 84 n. 2; Sigfús Blöndal 1978, 63-5; Jesch 2001a, 101). — [1] inn øfri ‘the very’: Lit. ‘the higher’. This comp. adj. is used in a figurative sense (‘the one who has the upper hand’). — [4] ór Girkjum ‘from the Greeks’: I.e. from the terroritory of the Greeks. This prepositional phrase can also have the meaning ‘from Greece’ (see NN §880 and the examples given there), but the literal translation has been retained here because ‘Greece’ may evoke the concept of present-day Greece’s geographical boundaries. Ok Girkjum (or: ok Grikkjum) ‘and the Greeks’ (so H, Hr, FskBˣ, FskAˣ, F, E), which has been adopted in Skj B, gives fold vas virk víga valdi ok Girkjum ‘the country was submissive to the controller of combats and to the Greeks’ (ll. 3-4), but forces an awkward tripartite l. For the variant forms Grik-, Girk-, see ANG §§279.1, 315. — [8]: This l., which in the Fsk and Mork versions is rendered as Haralds ǫnd ofarr lǫndum ‘Haraldr’s spirit above the lands’ is a part of a klofastef ‘split refrain’. The complete refrain reads as follows (see sts 3/8, 6/4 below): Hafi ríks þars vel líkar | vist of aldr með Kristi | Haralds ǫnd ofarr lǫndum, i.e. Hafi ǫnd ríks Haralds vist of aldr með Kristi ofarr lǫndum, þars vel líkar ‘May the spirit of powerful Haraldr have residence forever with Christ above the lands, where it is good to be’. See Introduction to poem above. The ms. variants show that Snorri, who must have known the entire refrain, changed the reading of the last l. from his Mork exemplar to include all three ll. in the sts he cited from the poem.

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. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
8. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
9. 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.
10. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
11. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
12. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
13. E 1916 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1916. Eirspennill: AM 47 fol. Nóregs konunga sǫgur: Magnús góði – Hákon gamli. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske historiske kildeskriftskommission.
14. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
15. 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.
16. Sigfús Blöndal. 1978. The Varangians of Byzantium: An Aspect of Byzantine Military History. Trans. and rev. Benedikt S. Benedikz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. First published 1954 as Væringja saga. Reykjavík: Ísafoldarprentsmiðja.
17. Internal references
18. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Fagrskinna’ 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=56> (accessed 16 April 2024)
19. (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 16 April 2024)
20. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Haralds saga Sigurðssonar’ 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=142> (accessed 16 April 2024)
21. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Magnúss saga góða ok Haralds harðráða’ 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=147> (accessed 16 April 2024)