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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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ÞjóðA Sex 26II

Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Sexstefja 26’ 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. 139-40.

Þjóðólfr ArnórssonSexstefja
252627

Mǫrk lét veitt fyr verka
vekjandi mér snekkju
(hann lætr hylli sinnar)
hjaldrs (tilgørðir valda).

{Vekjandi hjaldrs snekkju} lét mér veitt mǫrk fyr verka; hann lætr tilgørðir valda hylli sinnar.

{The rouser of the warship’s battle} [WARRIOR] had me presented with a mark for my poetry; he lets deserving actions determine his favour.

Mss: (587r), 39(32rb), F(54rb), E(29r), J2ˣ(300v) (Hkr); H(78r), Hr(55rb) (H-Hr)

Readings: [1] veitt: veit J2ˣ, vítt H, Hr    [2] vekjandi: ‘veckianndi’ F, ‘veikiandi’ E;    mér: mjǫk H, Hr;    snekkju: sœkja H, Hr    [3] lætr: lét J2ˣ    [4] hjaldrs: hjall E

Editions: Skj AI, 375, Skj BI, 345, Skald I, 174, NN §§1021, 1138; Hkr 1893-1901, III, 220, IV, 242, ÍF 28, 199-200, Hkr 1991, 691 (HSig ch. 99), F 1871, 253, E 1916, 102; Fms 6, 430 (HSig ch. 124), Fms 12, 168.

Context: The st. is quoted in the same context as st. 24 above. Haraldr’s greed for power and prosperity, as well as his generosity to friends, is remembered.

Notes: [1] mǫrk ‘a mark’: A measurement of weight, equal to eight aurar ‘ounces’ or approximately 214 grams. In prose, a mark is often specified to be of silver or gold. — [1] verka ‘poetry’: Kreutzer (1977, 48) counts this among fourteen instances of verk in this sense, most in the later Christian poetry. — [2, 4] vekjandi hjaldrs snekkju ‘the rouser of the warship’s battle [WARRIOR]’: These three words seem to form a single kenning, since although vekjandi hjaldrs ‘rouser of battle’ would be a very natural warrior-kenning, given that the verb vekja takes objects referring to strife, this would leave snekkju unaccounted for. The solution here is also that of Finnur Jónsson in Hkr 1893-1901, IV (recognising the rarity of the expression ‘ship’s battle’), and Skj B, also ÍF 28 and Hkr 1991. A variant on it is Kock’s snekkju hjaldrs-vekjandi ‘the warship’s battle-rouser or warrior’ (NN §§1021, 1138). Other alternatives are less satisfactory. (b) Tilgørðir hjaldrs could be taken together in the sense ‘deserving actions in battle’, or hjaldrs could be an adverbial gen. ‘in battle’ qualifying the whole of ll. 3-4, but this would be at odds with the mention of verka ‘poetry’ in l. 1 and would leave vekjandi snekkju ‘rouser of the warship’ as the kenning, which would not quite conform to the usual patterns (cf. Meissner 343, 348). (c) Sœkja, the H, Hr variant on snekkju, does not help, and probably belongs with the many unreliable readings unique to H-Hr. — [3, 4] hylli sinnar ‘his favour’: This f. gen. sg. phrase is difficult to account for. (a) Semantically, hylli sinnar (f. gen. sg.) ‘his favour, magnanimity’ fits well with valda ‘cause’, and is taken here as its object, as by all modern eds (LP: hylli, valda and eds listed above). Valda with a gen. object is rare (so Finnur Jónsson in Hkr 1893-1901, IV) or unparalleled (ÍF 28 finds no parallel in early poetry), but would be supported by the fact that its cognates OE wealdan and OS waldan take gen. objects. (b) The other main solution would be to take tilgørðir hylli sinnar together, with the sense ‘actions deserving his favour’, though this is somewhat forced.  

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. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
  4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  6. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
  7. 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.
  8. Kreutzer, Gert. 1977. Die Dichtungslehre der Skalden: Poetologische Terminologie und Autorenkommentare als Grundlage einer Gattungspoetik. 2nd edn. Hochschulschriften: Literaturwissenschaft 1. Meisenheim am Glan: Hain.
  9. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
  10. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
  11. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
  12. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
  13. E 1916 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1916. Eirspennill: AM 47 fol. Nóregs konunga sǫgur: Magnús góði – Hákon gamli. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske historiske kildeskriftskommission.
  14. Internal references
  15. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Hulda-Hrokkinskinna’ 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=84> (accessed 29 March 2024)
  16. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Haralds saga Sigurðssonar’ 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=142> (accessed 29 March 2024)
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