ÞjóðA Sex 3^II

Dolgljóss, hefir dási
darrlatr staðit fjarri
endr, þás elju Rindar
ómynda tók skyndir.
Vasat Afríka jǫfri
Ánars mey fyr hônum
haglfaldinni at halda
hlýðisamt né lýðum.

Darrlatr dási hefir endr staðit fjarri, þás {skyndir {dolgljóss}} tók {ómynda elju Rindar}. Vasat hlýðisamt jǫfri Afríka né lýðum at halda {haglfaldinni mey Ánars} fyr hônum.

The spear-lazy sluggard stood far away at that time, when {the speeder {of battle-light}} [SWORD > WARRIOR] seized {the rival of Rindr <giantess> lacking bride-payment} [= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)]. It was not possible for the prince of Africans or his people to hold {the hail-coifed maiden of Ánarr <dwarf>} [= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)] against him.

Mss: FskBˣ(61v), FskAˣ(233) (Fsk); H(22v), Hr(17ra) (H-Hr); R(26r), Tˣ(27r), W(57), U(29v), B(5r) (SnE, ll. 1-4)

Readings: [1] Dolg‑: ‘D[…]lg’ W, dolgs U;    ‑ljóss: ‑lauss H, Hr, ‑ljós R, Tˣ, W, B, hús U;    hefir: ‘h[…]’ W;    dási: ‘daþar’ U    [2] darr‑: ‘siþar’ U;    staðit: ‘hlað[...]’ W    [3] þás (‘þa er’): so R, Tˣ, W, U, B, en FskBˣ, er FskAˣ, þar er H, Hr;    elju: so Hr, R, Tˣ, W, U, B, ‘elmi’ FskBˣ, ‘œliu’ FskAˣ, ‘eliǫ‑’ H;    Rindar: rinda FskAˣ    [4] ómynda: ‘ymynda’ R, Tˣ, ‘ymy[…]da’ W, ‘o millda’ U, ‘jmynda’ B;    tók: om. W;    skyndir: skyndar FskAˣ, skyldir U    [6] Ánars: so H, annars FskBˣ, FskAˣ, Hr    [7] hagl‑: hag‑ H, Hr

Editions: Skj AI, 369, Skj BI, 339-40, Skald I, 171; Fsk 1902-3, 223-4 (ch. 43), ÍF 29, 231-2 (ch. 51); Fms 6, 140 (HSig ch. 5), Fms 12, 141; SnE 1848-87, I, 322-3, II, 315, 528, SnE 1931, 116, SnE 1998, I, 36.

Context: Fsk records how Haraldr amasses great treasure in several seasons of raiding in Afríka; he fights the king there and conquers territories. H-Hr has a similar context. In SnE the first helmingr is cited within a sequence illustrating kennings for jǫrð ‘earth’; elju Rindar is specified within the list that heads the ch. Of the SnE mss, U lacks the attribution to Þjóðólfr and hence appears to connect the st. implicitly with the preceding one, Hfr Hákdr 6^III, which U attributes to ‘hallv’.

Notes: [All]: The kennings in this st. effect a personification of territory as Jǫrð which is strongly reminiscent of Hfr Hákdr^III. See Note to Anon Nkt 8/1, 2. — [All]: The st. is introduced, Sem Þjóðólfr skáld segir ‘As the poet Þjóðólfr says’, to which FskAˣ adds, æftir orðum sialfs hans ‘in his very words’. — [1] dolgljóss ‘of the battle-light [SWORD]’: This, the first word in the helmingr, forms a kenning with the last word, skyndir ‘speeder’ (l. 4), and this may explain the scribal confusion that has produced the variants shown. — [3] þás ‘when’: Normalised from ‘þa er’, which seems the most likely starting point for variants þar er ‘where’, en ‘and/but’ and er ‘as’, any of which would also make sense. — [3-4] ómynda elju Rindar ‘the rival of Rindr <giantess> lacking bride-payment [= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)]’: Rindr is the mother of Váli (SnE 1998, I, 19), and one of the numerous mistresses of Óðinn, hence a rival not only to his wife Frigg but also to another mistress, Jǫrð, goddess and personification of the earth (SnE 1998, I, 30, 35; see also Note to Anon Nkt 8/1, 2). The evidence for Rindr’s status (giantess or goddess) is somewhat ambivalent. Jǫrð here stands for a particular territory, taken by conquest and not paid for (ómynda), like a woman for whom no mundr, the customary payment from bridegroom to bride which legitimises the marriage, has been paid. — [5] jǫfri Afríka ‘the prince of Africans’: As the sole direct reference to Africa in the extant skaldic sources, this may have given rise to the saga accounts of triumphs in Africa, but there is some doubt as to whether they are correct. Bjarni Aðalbjarnason takes the jǫfri Afríka (dat. sg. of jǫfurr) to be the Emir Abdallah ‘from Africa’ (frá Afríku), who defended Sicily against the Greeks (ÍF 28, 75 n., and cf. Note to st. 2/2). The normal spelling is Aff-, both in the mss for this st. and generally (see LP: Affríkar), but the hending with jǫfri suggests a form with single <f> here. — [6] mey Ánars ‘maiden of Ánarr <dwarf> [= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)]’: Jǫrð (cf. Note to l. 3 above) is also the daughter of a figure whose name appears variously as Ánarr (here established by the aðalhending on hnum), Ónarr (established by rhyme on grón in Hfr Hákdr 5/4^III) and Annarr ‘Second’ whose name perhaps reflects his status as second husband of Nótt ‘Night’ (SnE 1931, 17; SnE 1988, 13). He seems to have been imagined as a dwarf (Vsp 11; Þul Dverga 3/6^III). — [7] haglfaldinni ‘the hail-coifed’: The personification of ‘earth, territory’ is reinforced by the idea that she wears a headdress, but the reference to territory is strengthened by the idea that the headdress is of hail. Most eds have adopted this reading. The variant hag-, giving ‘neatly coifed’, is also possible; compare Loki disguised as a bride by having a headdress set hagliga ‘neatly, deftly’ on his head (Þry 16, 19, NK 113). Kock preferred this reading on grounds that hagl- ‘hail’ is less appropriate in (what he took as) a reference to Africa (Skald; Kock and Meissner 1931, II, 64). There is no satisfactory Engl. equivalent for faldr m., a high headdress worn by women, and the derived verb falda, p. p. faldinn.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 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. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
7. Kock, Ernst Albin and Rudolf Meissner, eds. 1931. Skaldisches Lesebuch. 2 vols. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 17-18. Halle: Niemeyer.
8. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
9. Fsk 1902-3 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1902-3. Fagrskinna: Nóregs kononga tal. SUGNL 30. Copenhagen: Møller.
10. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
11. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
12. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
13. Internal references
14. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
15. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Fagrskinna’ 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=56> (accessed 18 April 2024)
16. (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 18 April 2024)
17. (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 18 April 2024)
18. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Anonymous Poems, Nóregs konungatal 8’ 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. 767.
19. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dverga heiti 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 697.
20. Kate Heslop 2017, ‘ Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Hákonardrápa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 212. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1257> (accessed 18 April 2024)
21. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Øxarflokkr 8’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 148.
22. Not published: do not cite ()
23. Not published: do not cite ()
24. Kate Heslop (ed.) 2017, ‘Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Hákonardrápa 5’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 219.
25. Kate Heslop (ed.) 2017, ‘Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Hákonardrápa 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 221.