Þhorn Harkv 21^I

‘Ulfheðnar heita,         þeir es í orrostu
        blóðgar randir bera;
vigrar rjóða,         es til vígs koma;
        þeim es þar sist saman.
Áræðismǫnnum einum,         hygg ek, þar undir felisk
skyli sá inn skilvísi,         þeim es í skjǫld hǫggva.’

‘Þeir heita ulfheðnar, es bera blóðgar randir í orrostu; rjóða vigrar, es koma til vígs; þar es þeim sist saman. Þar, hygg ek, felisk sá inn skilvísi skyli undir einum áræðismǫnnum, þeim es hǫggva í skjǫld.’

‘They are called wolf-skins, who bear bloody shields in combat; they redden spears when they come to war; there [at Haraldr’s court] they are seated together. There, I believe, he, the sovereign wise in understanding, may entrust himself to men of courage alone, those who hew into a shield.’

Mss: 51ˣ(3r), FskBˣ(3v-4r), 302ˣ(5v), FskAˣ(11), 52ˣ(4v-5r), 301ˣ(4r) (Fsk); Flat(76ra)

Readings: [1, 2] heita þeir: þeir heita FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ    [2] orrostu: orrostum FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ    [4] vigrar: vígr FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ, vígr at Flat    [5] es (‘er’): þá er FskAˣ, 301ˣ, þá er corrected from þar er 52ˣ    [6] sist: sízt 52ˣ, sýst Flat    [8] undir felisk: undir felask 51ˣ, FskBˣ, 302ˣ, FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ, om. Flat    [9] skyli sá: hœfa at standa þá er skatnar Flat;    inn (‘hinn’): en 51ˣ, FskBˣ, 302ˣ, om. Flat;    ‑vísi: vísir Flat    [10] þeim es (‘þæim er’): om. Flat

Editions: Skj AI, 28, Skj BI, 25, Skald I, 16, NN §3206 anm.; Fsk 1902-3, 11-12, ÍF 29, 63-4 (ch. 2); Flat 1860-8, I, 568 (HarHárf); Möbius 1860, 230, Jón Helgason 1946, 140, Jón Helgason 1968, 20.

Context: In Fsk, as for st. 20; Flat is very similar.

Notes: [All]: The stanza is ascribed in Flat to Auðunn illskælda. It contains the raven’s reply to the valkyrie’s previous question. — [1] ulfheðnar ‘wolf-skins’: Berserks; see Note to st. 8/5.  — [6] sist ‘seated’: Most eds have read (with Flat) the word as sýst, p. p. of sýsla (LP: 2. sýsla 1) or sýsa (CVC: sýsa) ‘do, work, effect, transact business’. Thus, for example, Kershaw (1922, 85) renders the line, ‘and then they act all in a body’. Yet the reading ‘sist’ found in most of the mss is presumably intended to represent the p. p. of the verb sissa ‘to seat’ (so Lindquist 1929, 6-7; Jón Helgason 1946, 140 and 1968, 20, n.), which takes a dat. object. This produces less colourful (and perhaps less apposite) meaning, but the sense and syntax are less strained (since it is usually the work done that is in the dat. after sýsla). — [7-10]: Here the metre changes from ljóðaháttr to málaháttr. The Flat readings could give Áræðismǫnnum einum | hygg ek þar hœfa at standa, | þá es skatnar skilvísir | í skjǫld hǫggva, presumably ‘I believe it is fitting for men of courage alone to stand there when men wise in understanding hew into a shield’ (so Möbius 1860), but they lack proper alliteration in ll. 7-8.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 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. Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
7. Fsk 1902-3 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1902-3. Fagrskinna: Nóregs kononga tal. SUGNL 30. Copenhagen: Møller.
8. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
9. Möbius, Theodor. 1860. Edda Sæmundar hins fróða. Mit einem Anhang bisher ungedruckter Gedichte. Leipzig: Hinrichs.
10. Kershaw, Nora, ed. and trans. 1922. Anglo-Saxon and Norse Poems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
11. Lindquist, Ivar. 1929. Norröna lovkväden från 800 och 900 talen. I: Förslag till restituerad täxt jämte översättning. Lund: Gleerup.
12. Jón Helgason, ed. 1968. Skjaldevers. 3rd edn. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
13. Jón Helgason. 1946. ‘Haraldskvæði’. Tímarit Máls og menningar, 131-46.
14. Internal references
15. Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘(Biography of) Auðunn illskælda’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 18.
16. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Flateyjarbók’ 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=44> (accessed 23 April 2024)
17. (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 23 April 2024)
18. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Haralds þáttr hárfagra’ 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=137> (accessed 23 April 2024)