Þloft Hfl 1I
Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Þórarinn loftunga, Hǫfuðlausn 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. 850.
Knútr ‘Knútr’
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Knútr (noun m.): Knútr
verr ‘defends’
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3. verja (verb): defend
grund ‘the land’
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grund (noun f.): earth, land
notes
[1] grund ‘the land’: The word may refer to the earth generally, but more probably to Knútr’s realm in particular; Þórarinn in Glækv 9/4 uses the term to refer to Norway, as posthumously controlled by the saintly Óláfr Haraldsson.
kennings
gætir Gríklands‘the guardian of Greece ’
= God
the guardian of Greece → God
kennings
gætir Gríklands‘the guardian of Greece ’
= God
the guardian of Greece → God
notes
[2] Gríklands ‘of Greece’: Probably referring to Byzantium. On the terms Gríkland, lit. ‘Greek-land’, and Gríkir ‘Greeks’ in skaldic verse see Jesch (2001a, 100). For the few early God-kennings involving a geographical determinant, see Meissner 378; Arn Hardr 17/3II vǫrðr Girkja ok Garða ‘guardian of the Greeks and of Garðar’ is the closest parallel. Ms. 61 offers the alternative reading that ‘the guardian of the heavenly kingdom [defends] Greece’.
kennings
gætir Gríklands‘the guardian of Greece ’
= God
the guardian of Greece → God
notes
[2] Gríklands ‘of Greece’: Probably referring to Byzantium. On the terms Gríkland, lit. ‘Greek-land’, and Gríkir ‘Greeks’ in skaldic verse see Jesch (2001a, 100). For the few early God-kennings involving a geographical determinant, see Meissner 378; Arn Hardr 17/3II vǫrðr Girkja ok Garða ‘guardian of the Greeks and of Garðar’ is the closest parallel. Ms. 61 offers the alternative reading that ‘the guardian of the heavenly kingdom [defends] Greece’.
himin ‘the heavenly’
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himinn (noun m.; °himins, dat. himni; himnar): heaven, sky < himinríki (noun n.): Heaven
[2] himinríki: himnar 321ˣ, himinríkis 61, 75c, Tóm, himna ríki Flat
ríki ‘kingdom’
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ríki (noun n.; °-s; -): kingdom, power < himinríki (noun n.): Heaven
[2] himinríki: himnar 321ˣ, himinríkis 61, 75c, Tóm, himna ríki Flat
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The stanza follows the ‘head-ransom’ narrative summarised in the Introduction above.
These lines, which are said in ÓH-Hkr to be the stef ‘refrain’ for Þórarinn’s poem, bear an obvious resemblance to the refrains of other poems for Knútr. Sigvatr Þórðarson views Knútr as being und himnum ‘under the heavens’ (Sigv Knútdr 3/1, 7/1), while the refrain of Þórarinn’s own Tøgdr (1/1), though incomplete, has the similar und sólar ‘under the sun’s …’. But by far the closest resemblance is to the stef of Hallvarðr Háreksblesi’s Knútdr (Hallv Knútdr 8/8III): Knútr verr jǫrð sem ítran | alls dróttinn sal fjalla ‘Knútr defends the earth as the lord of all [defends] the splendid hall of the mountains [HEAVEN]’. Since the likely date for this poem is c. 1029, it appears to be Hallvarðr who is the borrower here. As Frank (1994b, 116-17) notes, these four refrains depict Knútr ‘in cosmic high relief’, and in their association of God and king they may show influence from Anglo-Saxon royal ideology (see also Fidjestøl 1993b, 106, 118-19).
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