Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Sexstefja 23’ 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, pp. 137-8.
Fœrði fylkir Hǫrða
— friðr namsk ár it þriðja —
— rendr bitu stôl fyr strǫndu —
starf til króks at hvarfi.
{Fylkir Hǫrða} fœrði starf til króks at hvarfi; friðr namsk it þriðja ár; stôl bitu rendr fyr strǫndu.
{The ruler of the Hǫrðar} [NORWEGIAN KING = Haraldr] brought the task to completion finally; peace took hold in the third year; steel weapons had bitten shields by the shore.
Mss: Kˣ(571r), 39(29va), F(51ra), E(24r), J2ˣ(290r) (Hkr); FskBˣ(78r), FskAˣ(287-288) (Fsk); Mork(14v) (Mork); Flat(201va) (Flat); H(60v), Hr(44va) (H-Hr)
Readings: [1] Fœrði: ‘Færdr’ Flat [2] þriðja: ‘þriðia et j’ Hr [3] stôl: hart FskBˣ [4] starf: ‘stanf’ E
Editions: Skj AI, 374, Skj BI, 344, Skald I, 173, NN §§806, 862; Hkr 1893-1901, III, 184, IV, 235, ÍF 28, 167, Hkr 1991, 670 (HSig ch. 74), F 1871, 238, E 1916, 85; Fsk 1902-3, 278 (ch. 47), ÍF 29, 273 (ch. 57); Mork 1928-32, 225, Andersson and Gade 2000, 239, 478 (MH); Flat 1860-8, III, 372 (MH); Fms 6, 341 (HSig ch. 91), Fms 12, 159.
Context: The third year after the Battle of the Nissan (Niz), Haraldr and Sveinn Úlfsson make peace.
Notes: [1, 4] fœrði starf til króks ‘brought the task to completion’: Starf could mean either ‘work, task’ in general, or more specifically ‘fighting’, as attested in Sigv Víkv 7/8I, Þorm Þorgdr 1/1V and elsewhere. Fœra til króks contextually seems to mean ‘complete, finish’, and there is a general consensus about this, but the exact sense is obscure. Krókr ‘hook, bend’ has multiple applications, including everyday objects and landscape features, but the present usage does not match any recorded idiom, and Þjóðolfr’s semi-figurative usage in his Run 1, ók í ǫngvan krók ‘drove into a tight spot’, does not seem to help. Sveinbjörn Egilsson suggested a reference to anchoring a ship, i.e. completing a journey; Finnur Jónsson (Hkr 1893-1901, IV, 235) cited this but himself suggested reference to hanging something that is completed on a hook. ÍF 28, ÍF 29, Hkr 1991 and Andersson and Gade take the emphasis to be especially on ceasing warfare (the starf), and Finlay (2004, 217) translates ‘hung up hostility’. — [3] rendr ‘shields’: (a) Rǫnd f. ‘shield’ normally has a disyllabic nom. pl. randir, but it is also among the nouns which can alternatively have monosyllabic, i-mutating nom. plurals (ANG §392). The monosyllabic form is also required in Anon Krm 9/2VIII. The reading rendr ‘shields’ is adopted in all recent eds and translations. (b) Finnur Jónsson emended rendr (all mss) to rend, on grounds that rendr does not occur so early as this (Hkr 1893, IV, 235; also Kock in Skald and NN). This would be n. nom. pl. p. p. from renna ‘make run, impel’ qualifying stl ‘steel weapons’, hence rennd stl bitu ‘steel weapons, impelled, bit’. — [4] at hvarfi ‘finally’: Hvarf n. has a range of meanings including ‘disappearance, refuge, headland’ and it occurs in the idiom vesa at hvarfi ‘give support’, but as with til króks the idiom here has not been identified, though the obvious sense, ‘finally’, has been generally accepted. There is, moreover, dispute as to which cl. the phrase belongs. Finnur Jónsson in Hkr 1893-1901 and Skj B favoured taking it with l. 2, but others (including Kock in NN §§806, 862) with ll. 1 and 4, as also here.
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