Þjóð Yt 5I
Edith Marold (ed.) 2012, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Ynglingatal 5’ 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. 16.
Hitt ‘It’
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2. inn (art.): the
vas ‘happened’
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
fyrr ‘earlier’
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fyrr (adv.): before, sooner
at ‘that’
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4. at (conj.): that
fold ‘the ground’
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fold (noun f.): land
ruða ‘’
ryðu ‘’
sverð ‘the sword’
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sverð (noun n.; °-s; -): sword < sverðberandi (noun m.)sverð (noun n.; °-s; -): sword < sverðrjóðandi (noun m.)
kennings
sverðberendr‘the sword-bearers ’
= WARRIORS
the sword-bearers → WARRIORS
rjóðendr ‘’
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rjóðandi (noun m.): reddener < sverðrjóðandi (noun m.)
berendr ‘bearers’
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1. -berandi (noun m.): [bearers] < sverðberandi (noun m.)
[3] ‑berendr: ‑rjóðendr J2ˣ, R685ˣ
kennings
sverðberendr‘the sword-bearers ’
= WARRIORS
the sword-bearers → WARRIORS
Svíum ‘’
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Svíar (noun m.): Swedes
sínum ‘with [the blood of] their’
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3. sinn (pron.; °f. sín, n. sitt): (refl. poss. pron.)
[4] sínum: Svíum R685ˣ
dróttni ‘leader’
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dróttinn (noun m.; °dróttins, dat. dróttni (drottini [$1049$]); dróttnar): lord, master
Ok ‘And’
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
herra ‘’
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1. herra (noun m.; °herra; herrar): lord < landherr (noun m.): land’s people, land’s army
herr ‘the army’
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herr (noun m.; °-s/-jar, dat. -; -jar, gen. -ja/herra): army, host < landherr (noun m.): land’s people, land’s army
[5] ‑herr: ‑herra R685ˣ
á ‘’
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3. á (prep.): on, at
af ‘away from’
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af (prep.): from
[6] af: so J2ˣ, R685ˣ, á Kˣ, 521ˣ, F, 761aˣ, om. papp18ˣ
notes
[6, 8] af lífsvǫnum Dómalda ‘away from the lifeless Dómaldi’: (a) The reading af ‘from, of’ (J2ˣ, R685ˣ) is adopted in this edn, as in most eds. (b) Á ‘on, upon, to, towards’ (Kˣ, F, 761aˣ) would imply that the king was already dead when the warriors raised their weapons against him. Konráð Gíslason (1881, 217-18) assumes the idiomatic expression bera vápn á e-n ‘raise arms against sby’ and counters the objection that the weapons were already dreyrug ‘bloody’ (l. 7) by asserting that this is a descriptive epithet based on the associative link between blood and weapons (and a similar epithet occurs in st. 11/6).
lífs ‘the life’
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líf (noun n.; °-s; -): life < lífsvanr (adj.)líf (noun n.; °-s; -): life < lífsvanr (adj.)
notes
[6, 8] af lífsvǫnum Dómalda ‘away from the lifeless Dómaldi’: (a) The reading af ‘from, of’ (J2ˣ, R685ˣ) is adopted in this edn, as in most eds. (b) Á ‘on, upon, to, towards’ (Kˣ, F, 761aˣ) would imply that the king was already dead when the warriors raised their weapons against him. Konráð Gíslason (1881, 217-18) assumes the idiomatic expression bera vápn á e-n ‘raise arms against sby’ and counters the objection that the weapons were already dreyrug ‘bloody’ (l. 7) by asserting that this is a descriptive epithet based on the associative link between blood and weapons (and a similar epithet occurs in st. 11/6).
vanan ‘’
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2. vanr (adj.): lacking < lífsvanr (adj.)
vǫnum ‘less’
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2. vanr (adj.): lacking < lífsvanr (adj.)
[6] ‑vǫnum: so F, J2ˣ, R685ˣ, ‑vanan Kˣ, papp18ˣ, 521ˣ, 761aˣ
notes
[6, 8] af lífsvǫnum Dómalda ‘away from the lifeless Dómaldi’: (a) The reading af ‘from, of’ (J2ˣ, R685ˣ) is adopted in this edn, as in most eds. (b) Á ‘on, upon, to, towards’ (Kˣ, F, 761aˣ) would imply that the king was already dead when the warriors raised their weapons against him. Konráð Gíslason (1881, 217-18) assumes the idiomatic expression bera vápn á e-n ‘raise arms against sby’ and counters the objection that the weapons were already dreyrug ‘bloody’ (l. 7) by asserting that this is a descriptive epithet based on the associative link between blood and weapons (and a similar epithet occurs in st. 11/6).
dreyrug ‘bloody’
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dreyrugr (adj.; °dreyrgan/dreyrugan; superl. dreyrgastr): bloody
vôpn ‘weapons’
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vápn (noun n.; °-s; -): weapon
Dómalda ‘Dómaldi’
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Dómaldi (noun m.): Dómaldi
notes
[6, 8] af lífsvǫnum Dómalda ‘away from the lifeless Dómaldi’: (a) The reading af ‘from, of’ (J2ˣ, R685ˣ) is adopted in this edn, as in most eds. (b) Á ‘on, upon, to, towards’ (Kˣ, F, 761aˣ) would imply that the king was already dead when the warriors raised their weapons against him. Konráð Gíslason (1881, 217-18) assumes the idiomatic expression bera vápn á e-n ‘raise arms against sby’ and counters the objection that the weapons were already dreyrug ‘bloody’ (l. 7) by asserting that this is a descriptive epithet based on the associative link between blood and weapons (and a similar epithet occurs in st. 11/6). — [8] Dómalda ‘Dómaldi’: Two forms of the name occur: Dómaldi (Yt; Yng) and Dómaldr (Íslb, ÍF 1, 27). Turville-Petre (1978-9, 64) claims that the first element dóm-, related to dómr ‘judgement’, only occurs in Continental and OE names (cf. Dómarr in st. 6/5). The second could be traced to Gmc *-waldaz ‘ruler’, a common element in names.
Dómalda ‘Dómaldi’
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Dómaldi (noun m.): Dómaldi
notes
[6, 8] af lífsvǫnum Dómalda ‘away from the lifeless Dómaldi’: (a) The reading af ‘from, of’ (J2ˣ, R685ˣ) is adopted in this edn, as in most eds. (b) Á ‘on, upon, to, towards’ (Kˣ, F, 761aˣ) would imply that the king was already dead when the warriors raised their weapons against him. Konráð Gíslason (1881, 217-18) assumes the idiomatic expression bera vápn á e-n ‘raise arms against sby’ and counters the objection that the weapons were already dreyrug ‘bloody’ (l. 7) by asserting that this is a descriptive epithet based on the associative link between blood and weapons (and a similar epithet occurs in st. 11/6). — [8] Dómalda ‘Dómaldi’: Two forms of the name occur: Dómaldi (Yt; Yng) and Dómaldr (Íslb, ÍF 1, 27). Turville-Petre (1978-9, 64) claims that the first element dóm-, related to dómr ‘judgement’, only occurs in Continental and OE names (cf. Dómarr in st. 6/5). The second could be traced to Gmc *-waldaz ‘ruler’, a common element in names.
bar ‘bore’
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3. bera (verb; °berr; bar, báru; borinn): bear, carry
þás ‘when’
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þás (conj.): when
ár ‘for good harvests’
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2. ár (noun n.; °-s; -): year, year’s abundance < árgjarn (adj.)
gjǫrn ‘eager’
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gjarn (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): eager < árgjarn (adj.)
Jóta ‘of the Jótar’
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Jóti (noun m.; °; -ar): one of the Jótar
kennings
dolgi Jóta.‘the enemy of the Jótar. ’
= Dómaldi
the enemy of the Jótar. → Dómaldi
notes
[10] dolgi Jóta ‘the enemy of the Jótar [= Dómaldi]’: This kenning may refer to unrecorded military confrontations with the Jótar, the people of Jutland, or it might have been a conventional circumlocution for any (Swedish) king. Cf. also st. 19/6, which refers to Ǫnundr as dolgi Eista ‘enemy of the Estonians’. Dolgi is dat. sg. since sóa ‘sacrifice’ takes a dat. object.
dolgi ‘the enemy’
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dolgr (noun m.; °dat. -; -ar): enemy, battle
kennings
dolgi Jóta.‘the enemy of the Jótar. ’
= Dómaldi
the enemy of the Jótar. → Dómaldi
notes
[10] dolgi Jóta ‘the enemy of the Jótar [= Dómaldi]’: This kenning may refer to unrecorded military confrontations with the Jótar, the people of Jutland, or it might have been a conventional circumlocution for any (Swedish) king. Cf. also st. 19/6, which refers to Ǫnundr as dolgi Eista ‘enemy of the Estonians’. Dolgi is dat. sg. since sóa ‘sacrifice’ takes a dat. object.
kind ‘the race’
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kind (noun f.; °-ar; -r): offspring, race
of ‘’
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4. of (particle): (before verb)
sóa ‘sacrifice’
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sóa (verb): [sacrifice, slain]
skyldi ‘had to’
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skulu (verb): shall, should, must
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
King Dómaldi succeeds his father Vísburr. The Swedes, plagued by famine, stage a sacrificial ceremony in Uppsala three years in a row. The first year they sacrifice bulls and the second year humans. When the famine continues, they finally sacrifice their king Dómaldi himself.
According to HN (2003, 74), Dómaldi was sacrificed to the goddess Ceres, possibly meaning Freyja: Cuius filium Domald Sweones suspendentes pro fertilitate frugum Cereri hostiam obtulerunt ‘In hanging his [Vísbúrr’s] son Dómaldr, the Swedes made an offering to Ceres for the fruitfulness of the harvest’. The supposition in ÍF 26 (and similarly Hkr 1991), that Dómaldi was first hanged and then marked by a spear in sacrifice to Óðinn, is improbable, since an offering to Óðinn is unlikely to belong within the context of fertility rites. On the contrary, this stanza of Yt clearly connects the sacrifice to a desire for good harvests. The sacrificial killing of Dómaldi has been the subject of much debate, involving contradictory conceptions of sacral kingship, royal sacrifice etc., cf. Baetke (1964, 51-68), Turville-Petre (1964, 191), and overview in Sundqvist (2002, 241-53).
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