Sturl Hryn 6^II

Svíða létu þínar þjóðir
þunnar skeiðr með búnu reiði
— Gautar spurðu leiðangr ljótan —
lunda völl at Mostrarsundi.
Síðan leit, er seglum hlóðu,
snarfengr konungr, yðrir drengir
— lýsa tók af herskips hausum —
hrygðarfólk í Dana bygðum.

Þjóðir þínar létu þunnar skeiðr með búnu reiði svíða {völl lunda} at Mostrarsundi; Gautar spurðu ljótan leiðangr. Síðan leit hrygðarfólk í bygðum Dana, er drengir yðrir, snarfengr konungr, hlóðu seglum; lýsa tók af hausum herskips.

Your men caused the slender warships with adorned tackle to move swiftly across [lit. scorch] {the plain of puffins} [SEA] to Mostrarsund; the Gautar heard about the menacing fleet. Then the rueful people in the settlements of the Danes saw when your warriors, sturdy king, took down the sails; it began to gleam from the warship’s heads.

Mss: F(117vb), E(189v), 81a(118rb), 304ˣ(347r), Flat(182va) (Hák)

Readings: [1] Svíða: so E, 81a, ‘Seíða’ F, sneiða 304ˣ, ‘Sveiða’ Flat    [2] skeiðr: skeiðar 304ˣ;    með: und E, 304ˣ, Flat;    búnu reiði: búnum reiða 81a    [4] at: á 304ˣ;    Mostrar‑: so 304ˣ, Flat, ‘morstrar’ F, ‘mustrar’ E, mostra 81a    [5] leit: so 81a, 304ˣ, lætr F, lét E, Flat;    er: ek E, 81a    [7] hausum: húsum 81a    [8] bygðum: bygðir Flat

Editions: Skj AII, 103-4, Skj BII, 114-15, Skald II, 60, NN §2285; F 1871, 549, E 1916, 645, Hák 1910-86, 646, Hák 1977-82, 163, Flat 1860-8, III, 191-2.

Context: Hákon’s ships glide across the sea, gleaming in the sun, and land in Halland.

Notes: [All]: According to the prose, King Hákon split up his troops before attacking Halland. One third of the forces sailed to Mostrarsund in northern Halland, the rest went south to Glaumsteinn. Neither of these place names has been identified. — [1] svíða (inf.) ‘move swiftly across [lit. scorch]’: The reading of E and 81a has been chosen here rather than that of F. In F 1871, Unger wrote ‘Sneiða’ without any comments, but upon closer inspection, it is obvious that this reading is incorrect. It seems that the scribe started to write ‘Seiða’ but then tried to change it into something else by adding <y> or <v> in front of the <e>. The left stroke of <y> merges with the <S> and the right stroke is not decisive enough, so ‘Seiða’ is the best reading. In E, Finnur Jónsson read ‘Sniða’ (‘cut’), and printed it that way without comments in Skj A and E 1916, but the scribe clearly wrote ‘Suida’ as did the scribe of 81a. AM 304ˣ has sneiða ‘hurry’, but in view of the readings of the other mss, this looks like a lectio facilior. It is hard to make sense of svíða ‘scorch, burn’ in this context. Possibly the ships are seen from afar leaving a wake so they seem to burn a line across the sea. On the other hand, svíða might be related to the Faroese verb svíða ‘waver’ or ‘rush by’ and the Norw. verb svida ‘move easily’. Flat has ‘Sveiða’ (sveiða) ‘wander, soar’. According to Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (ÍO 995), the verb sveiða first appears in Icel. in the C15th, but he points out that there is one example of the verb in pres. part., sveiðandi, which could very well mean svífandi ‘soaring’. It therefore seems reasonable to translate svíða as ‘move swiftly’. — [3] ljótan (adj. m. acc. sg.) ‘menacing’: Lit. ‘ugly’. This is construed here with leiðangr ‘fleet’ but could also be a descriptive element referring to the kenning völl lunda ‘the plain of puffins’ (l. 4), i.e. ‘the ugly sea’, indicating that the ships were sailing over a turbulent sea. Konráð Gíslason (1895-7, I, 72) and Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) thought that ljótan qualified völl lunda, but Kock (NN §2285) disagreed on the grounds that the adj. precedes the heiti or kenning it qualifies in Hryn, if it is not part of the same l. as it is here, so he construed ljótan with leiðangr ‘terrible fleet’ (l. 3) (see also Note to Valg Har 11/4).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
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. 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.
7. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
8. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
9. E 1916 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1916. Eirspennill: AM 47 fol. Nóregs konunga sǫgur: Magnús góði – Hákon gamli. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske historiske kildeskriftskommission.
10. Hák 1977-82 = Mundt, Marina, ed. 1977. Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar etter Sth. 8 fol., AM 325VIII, 4° og AM 304, 4°. Oslo: Forlagsentralen. Suppl. by James E. Knirk, Rettelser til Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar etter Sth. 8 fol., AM 325VIII, 4° og AM 304, 4°. Norrøne tekster 2. Oslo: Norsk historisk kjeldeskrift-institutt, 1982.
11. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
12. Hák 1910-86 = Kjær, Albert and Ludvig Holm-Olsen, eds. 1910-86. Det Arnamagnæanske haandskrift 81a fol. (Skálholtsbók yngsta) indeholdende Sverris saga, Bǫglungasǫgur, Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar. Oslo: Den norske historiske kildeskriftkommission and Kjeldeskriftfondet.
13. Internal references
14. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Valgarðr á Velli, Poem about Haraldr harðráði 11’ 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. 309-10.