ÞjóðA Lv 4^II

Mildingr rauð í móðu
— mót hart vas þar — spjóta
(Dǫnum vôru goð) geira,
(grǫm) en þat vas skǫmmu.
Setti niðr á sléttu
Serklandi gramr merki;
— stóð at stillis ráði
stǫng — en þat vas lǫngu.

Mildingr rauð geira í {móðu spjóta}; hart mót vas þar; en þat vas skǫmmu; goð vôru grǫm Dǫnum. Gramr setti merki niðr á sléttu Serklandi; stǫng stóð at ráði stillis; en þat vas lǫngu.

The gracious ruler reddened lances in {the river of spears} [BLOOD]; a harsh encounter took place there; and that was a short time ago; the gods were wrathful towards the Danes. The lord planted his banner on level Serkland; the standard stood [high] at the command of the ruler; but that was a long time ago.

Mss: F(54va) (Hkr); Mork(17r) (Mork); Flat(202ra) (Flat); H(70r), Hr(50va) (H-Hr)

Readings: [1] rauð: ‘ro᷎ð’ Flat;    í móðu: so all others, af móði F    [2] mót: ‘mótr’ Mork;    hart: illt Mork, H, Hr;    þar: þat Flat, Hr;    spjóta: spjótum Mork, H, Hr    [3] vôru: var Hr    [8] en þat vas (‘enn þat var’): var þat fyrir H

Editions: Skj AI, 380, Skj BI, 350, Skald I, 176, NN §2268; F 1871, 255; Mork 1928-32, 248, Andersson and Gade 2000, 253, 479 (MH); Fms 6, 385-6 (HSig ch. 108), 12, 162; Flat 1860-8, III, 378 (MH).

Context: In Mork, Flat and H-Hr, King Haraldr exchanges sts with a man fishing (Þfisk Lv 1, Hharð Lv 10), then bids Þjóðólfr join in. After he has recited, the king mocks the inexact rhyme of grǫm : skǫmmu, and Þjóðólfr refuses to participate further. Ms. F has a similar context but lacks the criticism.

Notes: [1, 2] í móðu spjóta ‘in the river of spears [BLOOD]’: (a) So Andersson and Gade 2000. (b) Alternatively, í móðu could stand alone as a rather curious ‘in the river’, and spjóta would form the determinant in a battle-kenning, mót spjóta ‘meeting of spears’ (Skj B). (c) Í móðu geira could be taken as ‘in the river of spears [BLOOD]’, with the object of rauð ‘reddened’ understood as weapons (Fidjestøl 1971, 49 n., as one option). (d) The F reading af móði would presumably mean ‘in his zeal’ or ‘in anger’ (Fidjestøl 1971, 49 n.). — [2] hart ‘harsh’: The variant reading illt ‘bad, dire’ (so Mork, H, Hr) is equally good. — [2] þar ‘there’: The variant þat ‘that (was a harsh assembly)’ (so Flat, Hr) is also possible. — [3] geira ‘lances’: This is most naturally taken as object of rauð ‘reddened’. Presumably in order to integrate geira with the adjacent phrases, Kock took it with goð in l. 3 to give goð geira ‘deities of spears’, hence ‘valkyries’. However, as well as being slightly implausible, this entails either taking rauð ‘reddened’ as intransitive, or emending to réð (í móðu) ‘headed along the river’ (NN §§847C, 2268; Kock and Meissner 1931, I, 55 and II, 52 (: geirr), 138 (: ráða 10)). — [4, 8] en þat vas skǫmmu; en þat vas lǫngu ‘and that was a short time ago; but that was a long time ago’: These echo ll. 4 and 8 in Þfisk Lv 1-3, Hharð Lv 10-11 and Anon (HSig) 3-4, linking Þjóðólfr’s st. to the others in the skaldic repartee (on which see Fidjestøl 1971, which includes comment on variants in the ‘refrain’, and on other links between the sts). There may also be a more distant echo of vas þat fyr lǫngu in Þjóð Haustl 6/2^III (cf. Gade 1995a, 156, 261 n. 18). The H reading here may echo Haust and/ or the similar l. 8 of Þfisk Lv 1-2. — [4] grǫm; skǫmmu ‘wrathful; a short time ago’: King Haraldr’s metrical point (Context above) is the counsel of perfection, but aðalhendingar with unequal consonant length are quite common (Gade 1995a, 6, 23 and 249, n. 20).

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. Andersson, Theodore M. and Kari Ellen Gade, trans. 2000. Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157). Islandica 51. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
7. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
8. Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
9. 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.
10. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
11. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
12. Fidjestøl, Bjarne. 1971. ‘Tåtten om Harald Hardråde og fiskaren Þorgils’. MM, 34-49. Rpt. as ‘The Tale of Haraldr harðráði and Þorgils the Fisherman’ in Fidjestøl 1997a, 277-93.
13. Internal references
14. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Flateyjarbók’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=44> (accessed 23 April 2024)
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 23 April 2024)
16. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Morkinskinna’ 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=87> (accessed 23 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 23 April 2024)
18. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Magnúss saga góða ok Haralds harðráða’ 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=147> (accessed 23 April 2024)
19. Kari Ellen Gade and Diana Whaley (eds) 2009, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Haralds saga Sigurðarsonar 3’ 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. 817.
20. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Haraldr harðráði Sigurðarson, Lausavísur 10’ 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. 51-2.
21. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Þorgils fiskimaðr, Lausavísur 1’ 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. 333-4.
22. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Haustlǫng 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. 440.