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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Þjsk Jarl 1I

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.

Þorleifr jarlsskáld RauðfeldarsonJarlsníð1

Þoku ‘Fog’

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1. þoka (noun f.; °-u; -ur): [Fog, mist]

notes

[1] þoku dregr upp it ýtra ‘fog rises up on the outer side’: This line lacks skothending. Emendation of ýtra ‘outer, outer side’ to eystra ‘east’ (Skj B; Skald) gives end-rhyme with vestra ‘west’ in l. 2, as well as syntactic and semantic parallelism. These features enhance the stanza’s incantatory quality (cf. for example the runic metrical charms in Liestøl 1963, 38-41), but it makes sense as it stands so has not been emended here; see also Note to Þjsk Hákdr 1/1.

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dregr ‘rises’

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2. draga (verb; °dregr; dró, drógu; dreginn/droget(Hirð NKS 1642 4° 146v²⁹; cf. [$962$])): drag, pull, draw

notes

[1] þoku dregr upp it ýtra ‘fog rises up on the outer side’: This line lacks skothending. Emendation of ýtra ‘outer, outer side’ to eystra ‘east’ (Skj B; Skald) gives end-rhyme with vestra ‘west’ in l. 2, as well as syntactic and semantic parallelism. These features enhance the stanza’s incantatory quality (cf. for example the runic metrical charms in Liestøl 1963, 38-41), but it makes sense as it stands so has not been emended here; see also Note to Þjsk Hákdr 1/1.

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upp ‘up’

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upp (adv.): up

notes

[1] þoku dregr upp it ýtra ‘fog rises up on the outer side’: This line lacks skothending. Emendation of ýtra ‘outer, outer side’ to eystra ‘east’ (Skj B; Skald) gives end-rhyme with vestra ‘west’ in l. 2, as well as syntactic and semantic parallelism. These features enhance the stanza’s incantatory quality (cf. for example the runic metrical charms in Liestøl 1963, 38-41), but it makes sense as it stands so has not been emended here; see also Note to Þjsk Hákdr 1/1.

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it ‘on’

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2. inn (art.): the

notes

[1] þoku dregr upp it ýtra ‘fog rises up on the outer side’: This line lacks skothending. Emendation of ýtra ‘outer, outer side’ to eystra ‘east’ (Skj B; Skald) gives end-rhyme with vestra ‘west’ in l. 2, as well as syntactic and semantic parallelism. These features enhance the stanza’s incantatory quality (cf. for example the runic metrical charms in Liestøl 1963, 38-41), but it makes sense as it stands so has not been emended here; see also Note to Þjsk Hákdr 1/1.

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ýtra ‘the outer side’

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ýtri (adj. comp.): outer side

notes

[1] þoku dregr upp it ýtra ‘fog rises up on the outer side’: This line lacks skothending. Emendation of ýtra ‘outer, outer side’ to eystra ‘east’ (Skj B; Skald) gives end-rhyme with vestra ‘west’ in l. 2, as well as syntactic and semantic parallelism. These features enhance the stanza’s incantatory quality (cf. for example the runic metrical charms in Liestøl 1963, 38-41), but it makes sense as it stands so has not been emended here; see also Note to Þjsk Hákdr 1/1.

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ei ‘’

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3. ei (adv.): not

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él ‘a storm’

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él (noun n.; °; dat. -um): storm

[2] él: ei 4867ˣ, 563aˣ

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festisk ‘gathers’

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2. festa (verb): fasten, betrothe, promise

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it ‘in’

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2. inn (art.): the

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vestra ‘the west’

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2. vestr (adv.): west, in the west

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mǫkkr ‘the cloud’

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mǫkkr (noun m.): [cloud]

[3] mǫkkr (‘mokkr’): ‘nockur’ 4867ˣ, 563aˣ

notes

[3, 4] mǫkkr náms naðrbings ‘the cloud from the taking of the adder-bed [GOLD]’: That is, presumably, the smoke and soot from Þorleifr’s burned ship. Nám m. ‘seizure, taking’ occurs nowhere else as a simplex (though cf. landnám ‘land-taking, settlement’) and mǫkkr m. ‘cloud’ appears otherwise only in a C13th stanza (Guðbr Frag 2/1III) and in the name Mǫkkurkálfi, given to a giant animated figure made of clay (SnE 1998, I, 21-2). Although the gen. case of náms is unexpected, the sense of the phrase is clear enough.

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mun ‘must’

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munu (verb): will, must

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náms ‘from the taking’

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nám (noun n.; °-s): learning

notes

[3, 4] mǫkkr náms naðrbings ‘the cloud from the taking of the adder-bed [GOLD]’: That is, presumably, the smoke and soot from Þorleifr’s burned ship. Nám m. ‘seizure, taking’ occurs nowhere else as a simplex (though cf. landnám ‘land-taking, settlement’) and mǫkkr m. ‘cloud’ appears otherwise only in a C13th stanza (Guðbr Frag 2/1III) and in the name Mǫkkurkálfi, given to a giant animated figure made of clay (SnE 1998, I, 21-2). Although the gen. case of náms is unexpected, the sense of the phrase is clear enough.

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af ‘for’

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af (prep.): from

[3] af: ‘a[...]’ 4867ˣ

notes

[3] af nøkkvi ‘for some reason’: Kock (NN §318) thinks this adverbial phrase qualifies the final clause, in accordance with its position in the stanza, but the Text above, with Skj B, sees af nøkkvi as implying a question (what caused the fog and storm?) to which mǫkkr náms naðrbings is the answer (Skj B takes it with l. 1 rather than l. 2, as here).

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nøkkvi ‘some reason’

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nøkkurr (pron.): some, a certain

notes

[3] af nøkkvi ‘for some reason’: Kock (NN §318) thinks this adverbial phrase qualifies the final clause, in accordance with its position in the stanza, but the Text above, with Skj B, sees af nøkkvi as implying a question (what caused the fog and storm?) to which mǫkkr náms naðrbings is the answer (Skj B takes it with l. 1 rather than l. 2, as here).

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niðr ‘’

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3. niðr (adv.): down

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naðr ‘of the adder’

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naðr (noun m.): snake < naðrbingr (noun m.)

[4] naðr‑: niðr 4867ˣ, 563aˣ

kennings

naðrbings
‘of the adder-bed ’
   = GOLD

the adder-bed → GOLD

notes

[3, 4] mǫkkr náms naðrbings ‘the cloud from the taking of the adder-bed [GOLD]’: That is, presumably, the smoke and soot from Þorleifr’s burned ship. Nám m. ‘seizure, taking’ occurs nowhere else as a simplex (though cf. landnám ‘land-taking, settlement’) and mǫkkr m. ‘cloud’ appears otherwise only in a C13th stanza (Guðbr Frag 2/1III) and in the name Mǫkkurkálfi, given to a giant animated figure made of clay (SnE 1998, I, 21-2). Although the gen. case of náms is unexpected, the sense of the phrase is clear enough.

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bings ‘bed’

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bingr (noun m.; °dat. -i): [bed, lair] < naðrbingr (noun m.)

kennings

naðrbings
‘of the adder-bed ’
   = GOLD

the adder-bed → GOLD

notes

[3, 4] mǫkkr náms naðrbings ‘the cloud from the taking of the adder-bed [GOLD]’: That is, presumably, the smoke and soot from Þorleifr’s burned ship. Nám m. ‘seizure, taking’ occurs nowhere else as a simplex (though cf. landnám ‘land-taking, settlement’) and mǫkkr m. ‘cloud’ appears otherwise only in a C13th stanza (Guðbr Frag 2/1III) and in the name Mǫkkurkálfi, given to a giant animated figure made of clay (SnE 1998, I, 21-2). Although the gen. case of náms is unexpected, the sense of the phrase is clear enough.

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kominn ‘have come’

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koma (verb; kem, kom/kvam, kominn): come

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hingat ‘this way’

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hingat (adv.): (to) here

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Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses

Þorleifr travels to Hákon jarl’s court disguised as a beggar, in order to perform a composition called KonuvísurVísur about a woman’ (‘konur visur’, Flat(27vb)), but see Noreen 1922a, 45; Almqvist 1965-74, I, 194-5). In these, Hákon is spoken of as a woman in poetic terms (kona kenndr í skáldskap), as revenge for Hákon’s attack on his ship (see Biography above). At first Hákon hears praise of himself and his son Eiríkr jarl (see Introduction to Þjsk Hák), but he is soon assailed by unbearable itching between his thighs. He commands Þorleifr to recite something better, but when Þorleifr starts the Þokuvísur ‘Fog Vísur’, said to be the middle part of the poem, darkness falls. The third and last part of the poem causes weapons to fight by themselves and Hákon to fall unconscious. He awakes to find Þorleifr magically escaped and his own beard and half his hair rotted away, never to return. 

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