ÞjóðA Har 4^II

Sorgar veit, áðr slíti
sæfang ór mar strǫngum
herr, þars heldr til varra,
hár sjau tøgum ára.
Norðmeðr róa naðri
neglðum straum inn heglða
— úts, sem innan líti
arnarvæng — með jarni.

Sorgar veit, áðr herr slíti sæfang ór strǫngum mar, þars hár heldr sjau tøgum ára til varra. Norðmeðr róa naðri neglðum með jarni inn heglða straum; úts, sem líti innan arnarvæng.

Anguish will be felt, before the troop whips the sea-gear [oar] out of the powerful sea, where the oarport holds [each of] the seventy oars in place for the stroke [lit. strokes]. The Norwegians row the snake [ship] nailed with iron on the hail-beaten current; [looking] out, it is like seeing an eagle’s wing from within.

Mss: Kˣ(558v), F(48va), E(20v), J2ˣ(281r-v) (Hkr); 570a(24r) (HÍ); H(55r), Hr(40rb) (H-Hr)

Readings: [1] Sorgar: Skógs H, Hr;    veit: veit ek J2ˣ, Hr;    áðr: at J2ˣ, áðr en H, Hr;    slíti: slítisk E, 570a, H, Hr    [2] sæfang (‘siafang’): sjáfǫng F    [3] herr: om. E;    varra: ‘uarar’ 570a    [4] sjau tøgum: so F, E, H, ‘lxxxgom’ Kˣ, ‘lxxgom’ J2ˣ, ‘víj tígir’ 570a, ‘vj́·tigum’ Hr    [5] Norð‑: norðr Hr    [6] heglða: ‘helgda’ E, ‘hellda’ 570a    [7] úts (‘ut er’): út F, 570a;    innan: unnar H, Hr;    líti: lítit 570a    [8] ‑væng: vængs 570a;    með: ór F, 570a, af E, H, Hr

Editions: Skj AI, 381-2, Skj BI, 351-2, Skald I, 177, NN §§872, 3088; Hkr 1893-1901, III, 157, IV, 225, ÍF 28, 143, Hkr 1991, 652 (HSig ch. 60), F 1871, 226, E 1916, 72-3; HÍ 1952, 25; Fms 6, 309-10 (HSig ch. 76), Fms 12, 154.

Context: This follows st. 3 with no link in Hkr, but with brief links in HÍ and H-Hr.

Notes: [1] sorgar veit ‘anguish will be felt’: Especially in light of the companion st. 3 this is likely to be an impersonal verb phrase which refers to the strain on the oars before the voyage ends, but herr ‘troop’ in l. 3 could be the understood subject. In either case the reference could be specifically to sea-battles ahead. — [3, 4] þars hár heldr sjau tøgum ára til varra ‘where the oarport holds [each of] the seventy oars in place for the stroke [lit. strokes]’: The mix of sg. (hár heldr ‘oarport holds’) and pl. sjau tøgum ára til varra ‘seventy oars in place for the strokes’ is not unusual in skaldic poetry. As Jesch points out (2001, 155), hár ‘oarport, hole in the upper gunwale supporting the oar’, sometimes refers more broadly to the space occupied by the oarsman (it is taken as the whole ship in ÍF 28), and vǫrr ‘stroke, pull of the oar’ to the sea, but here the more precise meanings are likely. Finnur Jónsson took til varra as a reference to arriving at the landing-stage (Hkr 1893-1901, IV; Skj B). — [7, 8] úts, sem líti innan arnarvæng ‘[looking] out, it is like seeing an eagle’s wing from within’: (a) Innan is here taken as an adv. The viewpoint may be imaginatively that of the oarsmen (Jesch 2001a, 155) or that of someone looking innan ‘from the land’ at the scene út ‘out at sea’; either way there is mild tautology. (b) Innan could alternatively qualify arnarvæng ‘eagle’s wing’ (so Poole 1991, 60). For innan plus acc. rather than gen., cf. innan hverja vík ‘in every bay’, st. 5/8. (c) A further possibility is to take út ‘out’ with the róa cl.: the men row out onto the hail-beaten current (so Skj B and ÍF 28). Skj B reads unnar (so H, Hr) rather than innan in l. 7, hence straum unnar ‘current of the wave’ (bølgeström), but this assumes a disjointed l. 7, and innan has stronger ms. support (as Kock pointed out, NN §872).

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. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
7. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
8. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
9. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
10. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
11. E 1916 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1916. Eirspennill: AM 47 fol. Nóregs konunga sǫgur: Magnús góði – Hákon gamli. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske historiske kildeskriftskommission.
12. HÍ 1952 = Jón Helgason and Jakob Benediktsson, eds. 1952. Hákonar saga Ívarssonar. SUGNL 62. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
13. Poole, Russell. 1991. Viking Poems on War and Peace: A Study in Skaldic Narrative. Toronto Medieval Texts and Translations 8. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.
14. Internal references
15. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Heimskringla’ 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=4> (accessed 23 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 23 April 2024)
17. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Hákonar saga Ívarssonar’ 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=141> (accessed 23 April 2024)
18. (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)