Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Þorkell Skallason, Valþjófsflokkr 1’ 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. 382-3.
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hundrað (noun n.; °-s; hundruð/-): hundred
[1] hundrað ‘a hundred’: Most likely the long hundred (120).
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láta (verb): let, have sth done
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í (prep.): in, into
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heitr (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): hot, ardent
[1] heitum: heitu F
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hirðmaðr (noun m.): retainer
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jǫfurr (noun m.): ruler, prince
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3. brenna (verb; (weak, transitive)): to burn (weak, intr.)
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sókn (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): attack, fight
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2. en (conj.): but, and
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seggr (noun m.; °; -ir): man
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sviðukveld (noun n.): scorching evening
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
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eldr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i/-(HómÍsl¹(1993) 24v²⁴); -ar): fire
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1. fregna (verb): hear of
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
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4. at (conj.): that
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2. fyrðr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -): man
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knega (verb): to know, understand, be able to
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flagð (noun n.): troll-woman < flagðvigg (noun n.)
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3. und (prep.): under, underneath
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kló (noun f.; °-; klǿr): claw
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liggja (verb): lie
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ímleitr (adj.): [to dark-coloured]
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2. fá (verb; °fǽr; fekk, fengu; fenginn): get, receive
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áta (noun f.; °-u; -ur): food
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2. ól (noun n.): ?troll-woman, affliction
[8] óls: ‘ꜹl’ F, ‘auls’ Hr
[8] óls ‘of the troll-woman’: Hap. leg. Ól (n.) does not otherwise occur as a name of, or as a term for, ‘troll-woman’, but that is the only sense it could have in this kenning (so earlier eds). AEW: ól 2 suggests that the word could be a cognate to OE wōl ‘pestilence’, OHG wuol, wōl ‘destruction’. Ól is otherwise attested only in the meaning ‘leather strap’.
[8] hræ Frakka ‘the carrion of the Normans’: Both Skj B and Skald take this as a cpd hræfrakka (nom. hræfrakki) ‘spear, sword’ as attested in GSúrs Lv 1/1V and in Þul Sverða 2/8III (see also Falk 1914, 52, 75). Whereas that interpretation is possible, it is more likely in view of the context that the nominal phrase refers to the slain Normans here.
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frakki (noun m.): Frank, Norman
[8] hræ Frakka ‘the carrion of the Normans’: Both Skj B and Skald take this as a cpd hræfrakka (nom. hræfrakki) ‘spear, sword’ as attested in GSúrs Lv 1/1V and in Þul Sverða 2/8III (see also Falk 1914, 52, 75). Whereas that interpretation is possible, it is more likely in view of the context that the nominal phrase refers to the slain Normans here.
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Hundrað lét í heitum |
The Yggr <= Óðinn> of battle [WARRIOR = Waltheof] caused a hundred retainers of the ruler [William] to burn in hot fire, and that was a scorching evening for the men. It is known that people lay beneath the claw of the troll-woman’s steed [WOLF]; food was given to the dark-coloured horse of the troll-woman [WOLF] from the carrion of the Normans.
After the battle of Hastings and the fall of the Engl. king, Harold Godwineson (14 October 1066), Waltheof, who had escaped from the battlefield, and a unit of his men encountered a hundred of William the Conqueror’s Norman soldiers. The Normans fled into an oak forest, which Waltheof set fire to, killing all of William’s men.
It is not documented in any source that Waltheof fought at the battle of Hastings; rather, it seems that this st. documents a completely different event—the sacking of York on 21 September 1069. On that occasion, Waltheof and other Engl. noblemen joined Danes who had been sent by King Sveinn Úlfsson of Denmark in a revolt against William. The Danes and their Engl. allies, among them Waltheof, attacked York and the forces which William had left behind in the stronghold (see ASC s. a. 1068 ([1069] ‘D’), 1069 (‘E’)). According to Chronicle ‘D’, the rebels demolished the castle. The entire town, including the minster of St. Peter, was destroyed by fire and hundreds of Normans perished. That fire was, however, set by the Normans themselves (on these events, see also Scott 1952, 166-7, 174-81). — This episode is also told in Fsk (ÍF 29, 293-4), but the st. is not cited.
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