Þjóð Lv 2^I

Fariða ér, áðr fleyja
flatvǫllr heðan batnar,
— verpr Geitis vegr grjóti —
Górøðr, of sæ stóran.
Vindbýsna skalt, vísi
víðfrægr, heðan bíða;
vesið með oss, unz verði
veðr; nús brim fyr Jaðri.

Fariða ér, Górøðr, of stóran sæ, áðr {flatvǫllr fleyja} batnar heðan; {vegr Geitis} verpr grjóti. Víðfrægr vísi, skalt bíða vindbýsna heðan; vesið með oss, unz verði veðr; nús brim fyr Jaðri.

Do not go, Guðrøðr, over the swollen sea before {the flat plain of ships} [SEA] improves after this; {the road of Geitir <sea-king>} [SEA PATH] flings stones. Far-renowned leader, you must wait out the wind-portents [storm] here; remain with us until there is favourable weather; now there is surf off Jæren.

Mss: F(13ra), Kˣ(75r), J1ˣ(43r-v), J2ˣ(42v), 761aˣ(51r) (Hkr)

Readings: [1] fleyja: flýja Kˣ, fleyja with flýja in margin 761aˣ    [3] Geitis: ‘gettis’ J2ˣ;    vegr: veg Kˣ    [4] Górøðr (‘gvðrꜹðr’): ‘Guð(n)ǫðr’(?) J2ˣ    [7] unz: so all others, und F

Editions: Skj AI, 21, Skj BI, 19, Skald I, 12, NN §§143, 1814E, 2817 anm.; Hkr 1777-1826, I, 115, VI, 21, Hkr 1868, 75, Hkr 1893-1901, I, 150-1, IV, 42-3, ÍF 26, 139, Hkr 1991, 87 (HHárf), F 1871, 59.

Context: Þjóðólfr warns his foster-son Guðrøðr ljómi ‘Beam of light’ to delay a voyage from Hvinir (Kvine) to Rogaland till the present storms have passed. The prose following the stanza adds that Guðrøðr sets out all the same, and he and his men perish off Jaðarr (Jæren).

Notes: [2] heðan ‘after this’: Normally ‘hence’. It is tempting to construe this with fariða ér ‘do not go’ (so, e.g. Uppström 1919, 42). However, as the division of a line into three parts is extremely rare (Reichardt 1928, 155-72 collects examples), it is best to give heðan temporal significance such as þaðan ‘thence, thereafter’ often has (so Kock, NN §§1814E, 2817 anm.). — [3] vegr ‘the road’: Skj B and Skald adopt the acc. form veg found in Kˣ. Skj B further makes this the object of fariða ér ‘do not go (on)’ and forms an intercalary clause of verpr … grjóti … of sæ stóran ‘stones are tossed over/on the swollen sea’. Kock (NN §143; Skald) simplifies the word order somewhat, taking l. 3 as an intercalary clause with an impersonal verb and an acc. of place, ‘stones are cast on/over Geitir’s road [SEA]’. But adopting nom. vegr, which is found in all the other mss, renders the clearest syntax (so also ÍF 26; Hkr 1991). It also perhaps explains why the sea is said to fling stones, since the vegr may be envisaged as a road surfaced with gravel (Reichardt 1928, 165). — [4] Górøðr ‘Guðrøðr’: Son of King Haraldr hárfagri ‘Fair-hair’ and foster-son of Þjóðólfr. Although the mss give the first element of his name as Guð-, the variant form Górøðr, with compensatory lengthening upon loss of ð in Goðrøðr (ANG §§123, 292), is required by the aðalhending with stóran ‘big, swollen, stormy’. — [5] vindbýsna ‘the wind-portents [storm]’: Eggert Ó. Brím (1895, 25) interprets this to mean ‘culmination of the storm’; see also Finnur Jónsson (1884, 60). LP: vindbýsn (following in part Konráð Gíslason 1892, 48) explains that it means ‘wind-sign’, i.e. ‘sign that the wind is at its fiercest (and will soon abate)’. This may be right, but there is stronger precedent for the meaning if we associate the word with býsnaveðr ‘portentous weather’ (see CVC: býsn) and assume a similar meaning. It makes better sense, too, for Þjóðólfr to warn against departing if the weather is portentous than if the storm is about to abate. — [6] heðan ‘here’: The meaning is normally ‘hence, from here’, but with bíða ‘await’ heðan is often used to mean ‘here’: see CVC: bíða I. — [8] Jaðri ‘Jæren’: Guðrøðr’s voyage to Rogaland would take him westwards along Jæren, which lies along the coast in the extreme south-west of Norway. The implication of the final clause is that the weather is even worse off Jæren than it is here in Kvine. The aðalhending of veðr ‘weather’ and Jaðri is permissible because the latter word presumably still had the form *Eðri in Þjóðólfr’s day, fracture not yet having spread from the cases without syncope (Hoffory 1883).

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. 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.
6. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
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. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
9. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
10. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
11. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
12. Finnur Jónsson. 1884. Kritiske studier over en del af de ældste norske og islandske skjaldekvad. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
13. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1928. Studien zu den Skalden des 9. und 10. Jahrhunderts. Palaestra 159. Leipzig: Mayer & Müller.
14. Konráð Gíslason, ed. 1892a. Udvalg af oldnordiske skjaldekvad, med anmærkninger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
15. Uppström, Anders, trans. 1919. ‘Visor ur Snorre Sturlesons Konunga Sǫgur’. In Uppström 1914-19, III, 39-49.
16. Eggert Ó. Brím. 1895. ‘Bemærkninger angående en del vers i “Noregs konungasögur” (Reykjavík 1892)’. ANF 11, 1-32.
17. Hoffory, J. 1883. ‘Þjóðólfr hinn hvinverski og brydningen’. ANF 1, 44-6.
18. Hkr 1777-1826 = Schöning, Gerhard et al., eds. 1777-1826. Heimskringla edr Noregs konunga-sögor. 6 vols. Copenhagen: Stein.
19. Hkr 1868 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1868. Heimskringla eller Norges kongesagaer af Snorre Sturlassøn. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger & Christie.
20. Internal references
21. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Haralds saga 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=140> (accessed 19 April 2024)