ÞSkegg Hardr 1^II

Náði gørr enn glóðum,
Grikklands, jǫfurr handa,
stólþengill gekk strǫngu
steinblindr aðalmeini.

Jǫfurr náði enn gørr {glóðum handa}; {stólþengill Grikklands} gekk steinblindr strǫngu aðalmeini.

The prince obtained even more {embers of the hands} [GOLD]; {the emperor of Greece} [= Michael Kalaphates] became stone-blind from the violent, major injury.

Mss: Kˣ(530r), 39(20vb), F(43va), E(12v), J2ˣ(262v) (Hkr); FskBˣ(63v), FskAˣ(239) (Fsk); Mork(3r) (Mork); H(28r), Hr(20vb) (H-Hr)

Readings: [1] glóðum: ‘gloðo’ FskAˣ    [2] Grikk‑: grik‑ 39, FskBˣ, Mork, H, Hr, girk‑ FskAˣ    [3] ‑þengill: þengils Hr;    gekk: lét Hr    [4] ‑meini: ‘‑meni’ Mork

Editions: Skj AI, 400, Skj BI, 368, Skald I, 184, NN §879; ÍF 28, 86 (HSig ch. 14), F 1871, 201, E 1916, 42; ÍF 29, 235 (ch. 51); Mork 1867, 14, Mork 1928-32, 83, Andersson and Gade 2000, 147, 472 (MH); Fms 6, 167 (HSig ch. 14).

Context: The st. describes the blinding of the Byzantine emperor Michael V Kalaphates by Haraldr harðráði (and his men?).

Notes: [All]: For this event, see ÞjóðA Sex 7-8, Valg Har 4, ÍF 28, 87-8 n. 1 and Sigfús Blöndal 1978, 93-5. Sex 7-8 mention explicitly that Haraldr himself blinded Michael. According to contemporary Byzantine sources (cited in Sigfús Blöndal 1978, 93), the emperor was blinded by ‘brave men who did not shrink from anything’, a description that fits Haraldr and his men well. Emperor Michael and his uncle, Constantine, were blinded in public on 21 April 1042. — [1] enn gørr ‘even more’: Lit. ‘still more completely’. The adv. enn is taken as an intensifier to the comp. adv. gørr ‘more’. Skj B treats en(n) as the conjunction ‘but’ and gørr (gǫrr) as an adj. (m. nom. sg.) qualifying jǫfurr (l. 2) (gǫrr jǫfurr translated as den raske konge ‘the brave king’). That interpretation entails the prepositioning of the finite verb náði ‘gained’ in the bound cl. beginning with en, which is not possible (see Kuhn, 1983, 203; NN §879). — [2] Grikklands (n. gen. sg.) ‘of Greece’: For the variant forms Grik-, Girk-, see ANG §§279.1, 315. — [3] stólþengill ‘emperor’: Lit. ‘chair-’ or ‘throne-lord’. According to Sigfús Blöndal (1978, 3, 177) the term stólþengill (or stólkonungr ‘chair-’ or ‘throne-king’) is the Scandinavian version of Russian stolnyi knyazi ‘great princes’.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. Andersson, Theodore M. and Kari Ellen Gade, trans. 2000. Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157). Islandica 51. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
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. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
9. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
10. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
11. E 1916 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1916. Eirspennill: AM 47 fol. Nóregs konunga sǫgur: Magnús góði – Hákon gamli. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske historiske kildeskriftskommission.
12. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
13. Mork 1867 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1867. Morkinskinna: Pergamentsbog fra første halvdel af det trettende aarhundrede. Indeholdende en af de ældste optegnelser af norske kongesagaer. Oslo: Bentzen.
14. Sigfús Blöndal. 1978. The Varangians of Byzantium: An Aspect of Byzantine Military History. Trans. and rev. Benedikt S. Benedikz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. First published 1954 as Væringja saga. Reykjavík: Ísafoldarprentsmiðja.
15. Internal references
16. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Magnúss saga góða ok Haralds harðráða’ 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=147> (accessed 26 April 2024)
17. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Sexstefja 7’ 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. 118-19.
18. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Valgarðr á Velli, Poem about Haraldr harðráði 4’ 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. 303.