Þjsk Hák 1^I

Hôkun, vitum hvergi
(hafizk hefr runnr af gunni)
fremra jarl und ferli
(folk-Ránar) þér mána.
Þú hefr ǫðlinga Óðni
— etr hrafn af ná getnum —
— vesa mátt af því, vísi,
víðlendr — níu senda.

Hôkun, vitum hvergi jarl fremra þér und {ferli mána}; {runnr {folk-Ránar}} hefr hafizk af gunni. Þú hefr senda Óðni níu ǫðlinga; hrafn etr af getnum ná; vísi, mátt af því vesa víðlendr.

Hákon, we [I] do not know of a jarl anywhere more outstanding than you beneath {the track of the moon} [SKY]; {the tree {of the battle-Rán <goddess>}} [VALKYRIE > WARRIOR = Hákon] has made himself eminent by warfare. You have sent nine nobles to Óðinn; the raven eats from provided corpses; prince, because of that you can spread your dominion widely.

Mss: Kˣ(171r), F(29ra), J1ˣ(102v-103r), J2ˣ(95v) (Hkr); 61(24va), 53(22ra), 54(22va), Bb(33va), Flat(31vb) (ÓT, ll. 1-4)

Readings: [1] Hôkun: Hôkuni 53, 54, Flat    [2] runnr: runn 61, 53, 54, Bb    [3] fremra: ‘fre[…]’ J1ˣ, ‘fermra’ Flat;    und: ‘avndir’ Bb;    ferli: ‘felli’ F, Flat    [4] Ránar: ‘rannar’ Flat;    þér: ‘þr’ J1ˣ, þar 54, Bb;    mána: manna Bb, Flat    [5] ǫðlinga: ‘ꜹð[…]da’ J1ˣ    [7] af: ‘[…]’ J1ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 141, Skj BI, 132, Skald I, 73, NN §2443A; Hkr 1893-1901, I, 356, IV, 91-2, ÍF 26, 298-9, Hkr 1991, I, 201 (ÓTHkr ch. 50), F 1871, 131; SHI 1, 246, ÓT 1958-2000, I, 238 (ch. 104), Flat 1860-8, I, 239; ÞorlJ 1883, 160-1.

Context: The stanza is cited as evidence of Hákon jarl’s noble qualities, notwithstanding the indignities visited upon his corpse and his posthumous nickname jarl inn illi ‘the bad jarl’.

Notes: [All]: The stanza is attributed to ‘Þorleifr Rauðfeldarson’ in all mss except F, which has (normalised) Svá segir Þorleifr í Rauðfeldardrápu ‘So says Þorleifr in Rauðfeldardrápa’. This title is presumably erroneous, though Stúfsdrápa ‘Stúfr’s Drápa’ (Stúfr Stúfdr^II) is an instance of a poem named after its author. — [1]: This line lacks skothending, but parallels exist in early poetry (and cf. st. 2/1, and Þjsk Jarl 1/1, noted by Kock in NN §2443). Emendations were suggested by Jón Þorkelsson (1884, 59) and Hjelmqvist (1890, 285-6), but neither is very convincing. — [1] Hôkun ‘Hákon’: The variant Hôkuni ‘than Hákon’ is an unmetrical secondary reading (see Hjelmqvist 1890, 286-7), perhaps arising because Hôkun, rather than þér in l. 4 (cf. þar ‘there’ 54, Bb), was taken as the dat. governed by the comp. fremra ‘more outstanding’. — [5, 8] hefr senda Óðni ‘have sent to Óðinn’: That is, killed. It has been suggested (Falk 1889a; Liberman 1978), based on a reading of Hávm 144-5, that the verb senda ‘to send’ originally meant ‘to make a (human) sacrifice’. However, ‘to send to Óðinn’ is a common skaldic expression referring to the death of warriors in battle (cf. Glúmr Gráf 2/7-8, Tindr Hákdr 11/1-2 and the poems Anon Eirm and Eyv Hákm). It is difficult in this instance to gauge whether sending to Óðinn is to be taken literally or figuratively. — [5, 8] níu ǫðlinga ‘nine nobles’: Ohlmarks (1958, 398), believing that the poem depicts the battle of Hjǫrungavágr (see Introduction), proposes a list of candidates, but it is impossible to be sure who is meant, and the number nine may be a mere formula (see LP: níu; Boberg 1966, 265). — [6]: This line appears with minor variation as Ólhelg Lv 7/2. Hást Lv 4/6^IV and Þmáhl Máv 8/6^V (Eb 10) are also similar, and Gade (1995a, 101) suggests all represent reworking of a stock phrase . — [7, 8] mátt ... vesa víðlendr ‘you can spread your dominion widely’: Lit. ‘you can be wide-landed’. 

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
5. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
6. Boberg, Inger M. 1966. Motif-Index of Early Icelandic Literature. BA 27. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
7. 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.
8. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
9. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
10. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
11. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
12. Jón Þorkelsson [J. Thorkelsson]. 1884. ‘Bemærkninger til nogle steder i versene i Heimskringla’. Aftryk af oversigt over det kgl. danske videnskabs selskabs forhandlinger 1884. Copenhagen: Luno.
13. ÓT 1958-2000 = Ólafur Halldórsson, ed. 1958-2000. Saga Óláfs Tryggvasonar en mesta. 3 vols. EA A 1-3. Copenhagen: Munksgaard (Reitzel).
14. SHI = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1828-46. Scripta historica islandorum de rebus gestis veterum borealium, latine reddita et apparatu critico instructa, curante Societate regia antiquariorum septentrionalium. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp etc. and London: John & Arthur Arch.
15. Falk, Hjalmar. 1889a. ‘Oldnorske ordforklaringer’. ANF 5, 111-24.
16. Ohlmarks, Åke. 1958. Tors skalder och Vite-Krists. Trosskiftestidens isländska furstelovskalder, 980-1013. Stockholm: Geber.
17. ÞorlJ 1883 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1883. ‘Þáttr Þorleifs’. In Guðmundur Þorláksson et al. 1880-3, III, 117-63.
18. Hjelmqvist, Theodor. 1890. ‘Några anmærkninger till en vers i Heimskringla’. ANF 6, 285-7.
19. Liberman, Anatoly. 1978. ‘Germanic sendan “to make a sacrifice”’. JEGP 77, 473-88.
20. Internal references
21. R. D. Fulk 2012, ‘ Anonymous, Eiríksmál’ 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. 1003. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1009> (accessed 26 April 2024)
22. Kari Ellen Gade 2009, ‘ Stúfr inn blindi Þórðarson kattar, Stúfsdrápa’ 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. 350-8. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1394> (accessed 26 April 2024)
23. Not published: do not cite ()
24. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2012, ‘Glúmr Geirason, Gráfeldardrápa 2’ 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. 249.
25. Not published: do not cite (Hást Lv 4^IV)
26. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Óláfr inn helgi Haraldsson, Lausavísur 7’ 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. 526.
27. Kate Heslop (ed.) 2012, ‘Þorleifr jarlsskáld Rauðfeldarson, Jarlsníð 1’ 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. 372.
28. Kate Heslop (ed.) 2022, ‘Eyrbyggja saga 10 (Þórarinn svarti máhlíðingr Þórólfsson, Máhlíðingavísur 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 426.
29. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Tindr Hallkelsson, Hákonardrápa 11’ 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. 356.