Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Stúfr inn blindi Þórðarson kattar, Stúfsdrápa 8’ 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. 357-8.
Gekk sem vind, sás vættki,
varðandi, fjǫr sparði,
geira regns í gǫgnum
glaðr orrostu þaðra.
Gramr flýðit sá síðan
— sœm eru þess of dœmi
éls und erkistóli —
eld né jarn it fellda.
{Varðandi {regns geira}}, sás vættki sparði fjǫr, gekk þaðra glaðr í gǫgnum orrostu sem vind. Síðan flýðit sá gramr eld né it fellda jarn; eru sœm of dœmi þess und {erkistóli éls}.
{The warden {of spears’ rain}} [BATTLE > WARRIOR], who not at all heeded his life, went there, exultant, through battle like the wind. Later that prince fled neither fire nor the pure iron; there are fitting proofs of that under {the archiepiscopal seat of the storm} [HEAVEN].
Mss: Mork(19v) (Mork); Flat(204ra) (Flat); H(76r), Hr(54ra) (H-Hr); FskAˣ(306) (Fsk)
Readings: [1] sás vættki (‘sa er vętki’): sá vaski Flat, ‘sa er væcte’ FskAˣ [3] regns: regn Flat, Hr, hreggs FskAˣ; gǫgnum: ‘genum’ Flat, glyggju FskAˣ [4] orrostu: so Hr, orrustur Mork, H, FskAˣ, ‘ok rostur’ Flat; þaðra: aðrar Flat, ‘þeðra’ FskAˣ [5] flýðit: flýði Flat, Hr, ‘fluðe at’ FskAˣ [6] sœm eru þess of dœmi: so Hr, sœm ef þess eru dœmi Mork, H, sœm en þess eru dœmi Flat, sœm ef þess væri dœmi FskAˣ [7] erki‑: eiki‑ Flat, ‘ækki’ FskAˣ [8] jarn it: jarðar Hr
Editions: Skj AI, 405, Skj BI, 374, Skald I, 186, NN §§806, 2040; Mork 1867, 118, Mork 1928-32, 277, Andersson and Gade 2000, 271-2, 481 (MH); Flat 1860-8, III, 395 (MH); Fms 6, 419 (HSig ch. 119); ÍF 29, 286 (ch. 69).
Context: Haraldr advanced at the battle of Stamford Bridge against Harold Godwineson of England (on 25 September 1066).
Notes: [All]: For the battle of Stamford Bridge, see also Hharð Lv 13-14, Arn Hardr 10-13 and ÞjóðA Lv 10-11. — [1] vættki ‘not at all’: Most earlier eds emend to vekki ‘not at all’ to achieve internal rhyme (so Skj B; ÍF 29), but this assimilation occurred considerably later (see ANG §274.1). — [4] orrostu (f. dat. sg.) ‘battle’: Orrostur (f. nom. or acc. pl.) ‘battles’ (so Mork, H, FskBˣ) is ungrammatical (the prep. í gǫgnum ‘through’ takes the dat.). — [5] síðan ‘then’: Skj B takes this adv. with the following cl., which creates a more convoluted w. o. (see NN §806) and violates the w. o. in an independent cl. (the finite verb must appear in syntactic positions 1 or 2). — [6] eru sœm of dœmi þess ‘there are fitting proofs of that’: So Hr, which offers the best reading. Ef eru sœm dœmi þess ‘if there are fitting proofs of that’ (so Mork, H) makes little sense. That also holds true for the FskAˣ variant (ef væri sœm dœmi þess ‘if there were fitting proofs of that’), which, in addition, is hypermetrical. The Flat variant must represent an attempt to restore the meaning (en eru sœm dœmi þess ‘and there are fitting proofs of that’). — [7] und erkistóli éls ‘under the archiepiscopal seat of the storm [HEAVEN]’: It is interesting that this poem is much more strongly Christian in tenor than the other poems about Haraldr (see also the content of the klofastef ‘split refrain’). Stúfr’s grandmother, Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir, is said to have been the first nun and anchoress in Iceland (see ÍF 5, 228), and it could well be that Stúfr grew up in a pious environment. — [8] it fellda jarn ‘the pure iron’: Felldr is the p. p. of the weak verb fella ‘purify iron’ (Fritzner: fellujarn; Falk 1914, 1-2). Finnur Jónsson suggests ‘the drawn sword’ (LP: fella 2; so also ÍF 29), which is not immediately obvious.
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