Þhorn Harkv 5^I

‘Kunna hugða ek þik konung myndu,         þann es á Kvinnum býr,
dróttin Norðmanna;         djúpum ræðr hann kjólum,
roðnum rǫndum         ok rauðum skjǫldum,
tjǫrgum ôrum         ok tjǫldum drifnum.

‘Hugða ek þik myndu kunna konung, þann es býr á Kvinnum, {dróttin Norðmanna}; hann ræðr djúpum kjólum, roðnum rǫndum ok rauðum skjǫldum, tjǫrgum ôrum ok drifnum tjǫldum.

‘I thought you would recognise the king, the one who lives at Kvinnar, {lord of Norwegians} [NORWEGIAN KING = Haraldr]; he commands deep ships, reddened shield-rims and red shields, tarred oars and foam-spattered awnings.

Mss: 51ˣ(2r), FskBˣ(2v), 302ˣ(3r), FskAˣ(7-8), 52ˣ(3v), 301ˣ(3v) (Fsk)

Readings: [1] ek: so FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ, om. 51ˣ, FskBˣ, 302ˣ;    myndu: mynda 301ˣ    [2] Kvinnum: ‘kymnum’ FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ    [3] dróttin: dróttinn FskBˣ, FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ    [6] ok: so FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ, om. 51ˣ, FskBˣ, 302ˣ    [7] tjǫrgum: tjǫrguðum FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ    [8] ok: om. 51ˣ, FskBˣ, 302ˣ;    tjǫldum drifnum: drifnum skjǫldum FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 25, Skj BI, 22, Skald I, 14; Fsk 1902-3, 8, ÍF 29, 61 (ch. 2); Möbius 1860, 228, Jón Helgason 1946, 135-6, Jón Helgason 1968, 16.

Context: As for st. 1.

Notes: [All]: For Haraldr’s war-band and life at his court, see also sts 6, 13, 15-23 below, Þjóð Har 1-3, Þjóð Lv 1 and Hhárf Lv 1 . — [1]: Sievers (1879, 296), followed by Sueti (1884, 25) would emend to Kunna munt konung ‘You probably know the king’.  — [2] á Kvinnum ‘at Kvinnar’: There is considerable doubt as to the nom. form (Kvinnar f. pl. is assumed), whether this is a p. n., and if so, where the place is. (a) It has been identified (Fsk 1847, 213) with Kvinnherad in Sunnhordland. Von See (1961b, 108) is convinced that a place in Kvinnherad is meant, and Steinnes (1949-51, 384-6) would narrow the location to Omviksdalen. (b) Kvinnum has been taken as a corruption of í Kǫrmtu, in reference to Karmøy in Rogaland, where Haraldr is known to have had an estate at Avaldsnes (Ǫgvaldsnes; so Olsen 1913; Koht 1955, 34, 37; Tveiten 1966, 18). (c) Lie (1956a) asserts rather that the word does not refer to a place (and in any case not a place on land, as this and the following stanza portray Haraldr as a sea-king) but is a scribal error of a common sort for knúum, dat. pl. of masc. knúi. The actual meaning of knúi is not known for certain (Faulkes in SnE 1998, II, 336 gives ‘knuckle’), but it is used as a heiti for ‘ship’ in Þul Skipa 4/1^III. — [4] kjólum ‘ships’: Some eds read kjǫlum ‘keels’ (Munch and Unger 1847, 112; Möbius 1860). — [5] rǫndum ‘shield-rims’: To avoid two references to shields, Skj B emends to rǫngum ‘ship’s ribs’ (which Hallberg 1975, 117, takes to be the meaning of rǫndum), and Lindquist (1929, 4) and Skald emend to brǫndum ‘prows’. Kiil (1958a, 32) interprets rǫndum to refer to the upper edge of the ship’s sides. Sievers (1879, 296) would delete l. 6 altogether. — [7] tjǫrgum ‘tarred’: From tjǫrugr. Though the eds have generally preferred tjǫrguðum (p. p.) ‘tarred’, the reading of the FskA transcripts, it is easier to see why a scribe would have altered tjǫrgum to the more common tjǫrguðum than the reverse. — [8] tjǫldum ‘awnings’: When ships were in harbour, awnings or ‘tents’ were erected on board to provide shelter (see Falk 1912, 10-13; Jesch 2001a, 154, 164-5).

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. Hallberg, Peter. 1975. Old Icelandic Poetry: Eddic Lay and Skaldic Verse. Trans. Paul Schach and Sonja Lindgrenson. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press.
5. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
6. Falk, Hjalmar. 1912. Altnordisches Seewesen. Wörter und Sachen 4. Heidelberg: Winter.
7. Fsk 1902-3 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1902-3. Fagrskinna: Nóregs kononga tal. SUGNL 30. Copenhagen: Møller.
8. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. Fsk 1847 = Munch, P. A. and C. R. Unger, eds. 1847. Fagrskinna. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
10. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
11. Sievers, Eduard. 1879. ‘Beiträge zur Skaldenmetrik II’. BGDSL 6, 264-376.
12. Munch, P. A. and C. R. Unger, eds. 1847. Oldnorsk læsebog med tilhörende glossarium. Christiania (Oslo): Dahl.
13. Möbius, Theodor. 1860. Edda Sæmundar hins fróða. Mit einem Anhang bisher ungedruckter Gedichte. Leipzig: Hinrichs.
14. Lindquist, Ivar. 1929. Norröna lovkväden från 800 och 900 talen. I: Förslag till restituerad täxt jämte översättning. Lund: Gleerup.
15. See, Klaus von. 1961b. ‘Studien zum Haraldskvæði’. ANF 76, 96-111. Rpt. in von See 1981a, 295-310.
16. Koht, Halvdan. 1955. Harald Hårfagre og rikssamlinga. Oslo: Aschehoug.
17. Jón Helgason, ed. 1968. Skjaldevers. 3rd edn. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
18. Tveiten, Hallvard, trans. 1966. Norrøne skaldekvad. Oslo: Saabye.
19. Jón Helgason. 1946. ‘Haraldskvæði’. Tímarit Máls og menningar, 131-46.
20. Kiil, Vilhelm. 1958a. ‘Haraldskvæði og den unge Lúfa’. MM, 28-32.
21. Lie, Hallvard. 1956a. ‘Hvor bodde Harald Hårfagre ifølge Haraldskvæði 5?’. ANF 71, 25-7.
22. Olsen, Magnus. 1913. ‘Om Harald Haarfagres kongsgaarde: En tekstrettelse til Haraldskvæði str. 5, 2’. MM, 66-72. Rpt. in Olsen 1938a, 197-203.
23. Steinnes, Asgaut. 1949-51. ‘Alvheim’. HT(N) 35, 353-404.
24. Sueti, Friedrich. 1884. Ueber die auf den König Haraldr Hárfagri bezüglichen Gedichtfragmente in der norwegischen Königschronik Fagrskinna. Leipzig: August Press.
25. Internal references
26. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Skipa heiti 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 867.
27. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Haraldr hárfagri Hálfdanarson, Lausavísa 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. 71.
28. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Poem about Haraldr hárfagri 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. 61.
29. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Lausavísur 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. 64.