R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Þorbjǫrn hornklofi, Haraldskvæði (Hrafnsmál) 1’ 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. 94.
Hlýði hringberendr, meðan ek frá Haraldi segi
odda íþróttir inum afarauðga.
Frá môlum mun ek segja, þeim es ek mey heyrða
hvíta haddbjarta, es við hrafn dœmði.
{Hringberendr} hlýði, meðan ek segi íþróttir odda frá Haraldi inum afarauðga. Ek mun segja frá môlum, þeim es ek heyrða hvíta, haddbjarta mey, es dœmði við hrafn.
Let {sword-bearers} [WARRIORS] listen, while I recount feats of weapon-points concerning Haraldr the exceedingly wealthy. I shall recount the words that I heard a white, bright-haired girl [utter] when she spoke with a raven.
Mss: 51ˣ(1v), FskBˣ(2r), 302ˣ(2v), FskAˣ(6), 52ˣ(3r), 301ˣ(3r) (Fsk)
Readings: [2] ek: om. FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ; segi: segi ek FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ [3] odda: oddi FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ; íþróttir: so FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ, íþróttar 51ˣ, FskBˣ, 302ˣ [4] afarauðga: so FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ, hárfagra 51ˣ, FskBˣ, 302ˣ [8] dœmði: rœddi FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ
Editions: Skj AI, 24, Skj BI, 22, Skald I, 14, NN §1815; Fsk 1902-3, 6, ÍF 29, 59-60 (ch. 2); Möbius 1860, 228, Jón Helgason 1946, 133-4, Jón Helgason 1968, 15.
Context: In Fsk, this stanza and the next five are offered in evidence of the remark that champions flocked to Haraldr hárfagri because of his munificence and the splendour of his court.
Notes: [1] hringberendr ‘sword-bearers [WARRIORS]’: Hringr refers to a ring on a sword-hilt, and hence by pars pro toto is used as sword-heiti, and this is assumed here (so Skj B, and see LP: 2. hringr, Tveiten 1966, 18, and Note to Þul Sverða 7/7III). If on the other hand hring- is literal, i.e. ‘ring’, the meaning is ‘nobles’ (see ÍF 29, 59 n.). — [3] íþróttir odda ‘feats of weapon-points’: This could be considered a battle-kenning, as by Meissner (Meissner 201), though there are no close parallels. — [4] afarauðga ‘exceedingly wealthy’: The use of this epithet is appropriate to the context of addressing courtiers, for whom a ruler’s wealth (and thus his munificence) is of the first importance. The variant hárfagra ‘Fair-hair’ does not supply the necessary (vocalic) alliteration. It may be influenced by the fact that it appears in early poetry (Þjóð Har 5/7 and Jór Send 2/4) and became the conventional nickname of Haraldr; see ‘Ruler biographies’ in Introduction to this volume. — [6] þeim es ek heyrða ... mey ‘that I heard a ... girl’: This is elliptical, lacking an inf. of a verb of saying. (a) In the translation given here, segja (frá) of l. 5 is assumed to be supplied again in the next line, hence ‘recount … [utter]’ (so Ulset 1975, 27). (b) Skj B interprets the construction as ‘the words that I heard from a girl’, to which Kock (NN §1815) objects on the ground that mey cannot mean ‘from a girl’. (c) Kock assumes a mixed construction, in which dœma môlum ‘speak (in) words’ is conflated with ek heyrða mey, es dœmði ‘I heard a girl who spoke’, equivalent to ek heyrða, at mær dœmði ‘I heard that a girl spoke’. Note that es ‘when’ in l. 8 may instead mean ‘who’, while Kershaw (1922, 83) interprets it as ‘as, when’.
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