ÞGísl Búdr 10^I

Ǫrum réð sér snǫrpum
— slíkt es raun gǫrpum —
flagð it forljóta
af fingrum skjóta.
Gerðisk grimmt fíkjum
at gumnum ríkjum
— gnýr vas hôr hlífa —
hregg ok loptdrífa.

It forljóta flagð réð skjóta snǫrpum ǫrum af fingrum sér; slíkt es raun gǫrpum. Fíkjum grimmt hregg ok loptdrífa gerðisk at ríkjum gumnum; {gnýr hlífa} vas hôr.

The very ugly troll-woman shot sharp arrows from her fingers; such is a trial for brave men. An extremely savage storm and sky-blizzard arose against the mighty men; {the clash of shields} [BATTLE] was loud.

Mss: 61(20ra), 53(16va), 54(16va), Bb(26vb) (ÓT)

Readings: [1] sér: svá 53, 54, Bb

Editions: Skj AI, 555, Skj BI, 538, Skald I, 261; Fms 1, 176, Fms 12, 44, ÓT 1958-2000, I, 192-3 (ch. 90); Ólafur Halldórsson 2000, 29, 81.

Context: When the weather clears, the Jómsvíkingar think they can see a woman on Hákon jarl’s ship: arrows fly rapidly from her fingers and each arrow causes the death of a man.

Notes: [All]: As observed by Ólafur Halldórsson (2000, 81), the stanza may well be based on Jvs (see Jvs 1882, 116). — [1, 4] réð skjóta ‘shot’: Réð is here taken as an auxiliary; if it has fuller meaning the sense is ‘contrived to shoot’.  — [1] sér ‘her’: Dat. sg. used as poss., with fingrum ‘fingers’. The variant svá ‘so’ in 53, 54, Bb could be taken to mean ‘equally’ (CVC: svá B. II) with the following adj. snǫrpum ‘brave’, but this would make little sense in context. — [2] es ‘is’: This is seemingly a generalisation. The emendation to vas ‘was’ in Skj B, followed by Skald, produces a comment that is more retrospective and context-specific. — [3] flagð ‘troll-woman’: Named elsewhere in the legend of the Jómsvíkingar as Þorgerðr Hǫlgabrúðr; see Note to Bjbp Jóms 32/2. — [5] fíkjum ‘extremely’: An adverbial use of the dat. pl. of adj. fíkr ‘greedy, eager’; it also appears in Bjbp Jóms 12/6 and 26/8.

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. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
6. ÓT 1958-2000 = Ólafur Halldórsson, ed. 1958-2000. Saga Óláfs Tryggvasonar en mesta. 3 vols. EA A 1-3. Copenhagen: Munksgaard (Reitzel).
7. Jvs 1882 = Petersens, Carl af, ed. 1882. Jómsvíkinga saga efter Arnamagnæanska handskriften No. 291 4:to i diplomatariskt aftryck. SUGNL 7. Copenhagen: Berling.
8. Ólafur Halldórsson. 2000a. Danish Kings and the Jomsvikings in the Greatest Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason. London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. Internal references
10. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Jómsvíkinga saga’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=51> (accessed 19 April 2024)
11. Emily Lethbridge (ed.) 2012, ‘Bjarni byskup Kolbeinsson, Jómsvíkingadrápa 12’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 969.
12. Emily Lethbridge (ed.) 2012, ‘Bjarni byskup Kolbeinsson, Jómsvíkingadrápa 32’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 987.