ÞKolb Eirdr 3^I

Setti jarl, sás atti,
ógnfróðr, á lǫg stóði
hrefnis, hôva stafna
hót Sigvalda at móti.
Margr skalf hlumr, en hvergi
huggendr bana uggðu,
þeirs gôtu sæ slíta,
sárgamms, blǫðum ára.

Ógnfróðr jarl, sás atti {stóði hrefnis} á lǫg, setti hôva stafna hót at móti Sigvalda. Margr hlumr skalf, en {huggendr {sárgamms}}, þeirs gôtu slíta sæ blǫðum ára, uggðu hvergi bana.

The battle-wise jarl, who urged {the stud-horses of the strake} [SHIPS] onto the sea, directed high stems somewhat against Sigvaldi. Many an oar-handle trembled, but {the comforters {of the wound-vulture}} [RAVEN/EAGLE > WARRIORS], who tore the sea with the blades of oars, feared death not at all.

Mss: Kˣ(158r), 39(7ra), F(26va), 325VIII 1(4vb), J1ˣ(94v), J2ˣ(88r) (Hkr); 61(19rb), 54(15va), Bb(25vb) (ÓT); FskBˣ(27v), FskAˣ(103) (Fsk); 510(58r) (Jvs)

Readings: [1] Setti: ‘søti’ 39, sótti F, 510, sætti FskBˣ, hætti FskAˣ;    jarl: jarls FskAˣ;    atti: at J1ˣ    [2] ógn‑: al‑ FskAˣ;    ‑fróðr: so 39, F, 325VIII 1, J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 61, 54, Bb, FskBˣ, 510, ‑fróða Kˣ, ‑fræðr FskAˣ;    lǫg: lang Bb;    stóði: stœði FskAˣ    [3] hrefnis: ‘hremfnis’ FskAˣ, ‘her fínz’ 510;    hôva: hára J1ˣ, ‘harra’ 61, 54, Bb;    stafna: rafna F    [4] hót: hóts FskBˣ, ‘hatt’ 510;    Sigvalda: ‘Sigv.’ with abbreviation mark J1ˣ, 510, Sigvaldi Bb;    at: ‘ar’ 39, 61, 54, FskAˣ, á Bb, 510    [5] skalf: ‘skalfr’ J1ˣ, skap‑ FskBˣ;    hlumr: hlymr 39, F, hlunnr 54, Bb, ‘lumr’ FskBˣ, ‘hlimr’ FskAˣ, hlynr 510    [7] gôtu: gætu(?) 54, Bb;    sæ: sá J1ˣ    [8] ‑gamms: ‑garms Bb;    blǫðum: blǫðum apparently corrected from ‘blogum’ 510;    ára: ár J1ˣ, ôrum J2ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 214, Skj BI, 204, Skald I, 106-7; Hkr 1893-1901, I, 326-7, IV, 88, ÍF 26, 277-8, Hkr 1991, I, 186 (ÓTHkr ch. 38), F 1871, 121; ÓT 1958-2000, I, 184; Fsk 1902-3, 93 (ch. 19), ÍF 29, 130 (ch. 21); Jvs 1879, 70. 

Context: In Hkr and ÓT, the Jómsvíkingar continue north towards Rogaland, raiding Hákon jarl’s lands. Hákon learns of their progress and sends scouts south into the fjords and north to Eiríkr jarl; (in Hkr only) Eiríkr proceeds south with his army. For Fsk and Jvs, see st. 2. 

Notes: [1] atti ‘urged’: In prose, etja e-u ‘to incite sby, make sby fight’ is used especially of horse-fights (CVC: etja). Its use here with a ship-kenning based on stóði ‘stud-horses’ is thus particularly apposite. — [2-3] stóði hrefnis ‘the stud-horses of the strake [SHIPS]’: Stóð n. ‘stud’ is usually collective, but is also used of individual horses (CVC, LP: stóð; cf. Eyv Hál 11/11), hence the kenning may signify the entire fleet, as assumed here, or an individual ship. — [3] hrefnis ‘of the strake’: This is the only skaldic occurrence of hrefni n. Finnur Jónsson (Hkr 1893-1901, IV) specifies the fifth strake in the ship (and cf. Falk 1912, 52-4, who cites ModIcel. hrefna), though there is no evidence of this in ON (Jesch 2001a, 141). — [3] hôva ‘high’: J1ˣ has ‘hara’ and 61ˣ, 54ˣ and Bb have ‘harra’, which could point to the gen. pl. form hára as a variant of háva (see ANG §430 Anm. 3). The resulting phrase hót háva/hára stafna ‘the threat of high stems’ can be construed as the direct object of setti, as tentatively suggested in ÍF 26 (see Note to l. 4 hót below). — [3] stafna ‘stems’: This can refer to the raised stems at the prow and/or stern of the ship. Here, where forward motion is depicted, it presumably refers to the prows, or possibly has the extended general sense, ‘ships’ (Jesch 2001a, 145). — [4] hót ‘somewhat’: I.e., by litotes, Eiríkr launches high stems with full force against Sigvaldi (so also ÍF 26; Konráð Gíslason 1892, 67-9). All mss except FskBˣ (and 51ˣ and 302ˣ, the other two copies of NRA51) have hót ‘a bit, a (significant) something’. In ON, this word is found in the dat. or gen. case (hóti, hóts) with adverbial sense (LP: 2. hót; CVC: hót n.), but ModIcel. also retains adverbial hót (usually in the phrase ekki hót ‘not at all, not a bit’), and it is understood adverbially here, qualifying setti at móti ‘directed against’. Skj B and Skald prefer the adverbial gen. hóts (‘hoz’), the reading of FskBˣ, taking hóts hôva stafna ‘very high stems’ together. A further, remote, possibility is to read hót as the word for ‘threat’ (LP: 1. hót; see Note to l. 3 hôva above). — [4] Sigvalda: Sigvaldi Strut-Haraldsson, jarl of Jómsborg, one of the leaders of the Jómsvíkingar at Hjǫrungavágr. — [5] hlumr ‘oar-handle’: Hlunnr ‘rollers, launcher’, a common word in skaldic poetry and the reading of 54 and Bb, would be compatible with the focus on launching in the first helmingr, but less so with the second helmingr, where, reading hlumr, the trembling of the oar-handles contrasts with the fearless steadfastness of the warriors who ply them; oar-blades (blǫðum) are also mentioned in l. 8. The word hlumr also occurs in l. 7 of Þór Lv, a jocular stanza with a theme of rowing. — [7] gôtu slíta ‘tore’: Lit. ‘managed to tear’, with gôtu (inf. geta ‘get’) as a pleonastic auxiliary.

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. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
5. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
6. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
7. 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.
8. Falk, Hjalmar. 1912. Altnordisches Seewesen. Wörter und Sachen 4. Heidelberg: Winter.
9. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
10. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
11. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
12. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
13. Fsk 1902-3 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1902-3. Fagrskinna: Nóregs kononga tal. SUGNL 30. Copenhagen: Møller.
14. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
15. ÓT 1958-2000 = Ólafur Halldórsson, ed. 1958-2000. Saga Óláfs Tryggvasonar en mesta. 3 vols. EA A 1-3. Copenhagen: Munksgaard (Reitzel).
16. Jvs 1879 = Petersens, Carl af, ed. 1879. Jómsvíkinga saga (efter Cod. AM. 510, 4:to) samt Jómsvíkinga drápa. Lund: Gleerup.
17. Konráð Gíslason, ed. 1892a. Udvalg af oldnordiske skjaldekvad, med anmærkninger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
18. Internal references
19. (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)
20. (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)
21. (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 19 April 2024)
22. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta’ 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=60> (accessed 19 April 2024)
23. Kate Heslop 2012, ‘ Þórarinn, Lausavísa’ 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. 445. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1457> (accessed 19 April 2024)
24. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Eyvindr skáldaspillir Finnsson, Háleygjatal 11’ 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. 210.