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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Tindr Hákdr 4I

Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Tindr Hallkelsson, Hákonardrápa 4’ 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. 345.

Tindr HallkelssonHákonardrápa
345

Vann á Vinða sinni
verðbjóðr Hugins ferðar
(beit sólgagarr seilar)
sverðs eggja spor (leggi),
áðr hjǫrmeiðar hrjóða
(hætting vas þat) mætti
(leiðar) langra skeiða
(liðs) halfan tøg þriðja.

{{{Ferðar Hugins} verð}bjóðr} vann {spor eggja sverðs} á sinni Vinða — {{seilar sól}gagarr} beit leggi —, áðr {hjǫrmeiðar} mætti hrjóða halfan þriðja tøg langra skeiða; þat vas hætting liðs leiðar.

{The offerer {of the meal {of the flock of Huginn <raven>}}} [(lit. ‘meal-offerer of the flock of Huginn’) RAVENS > CORPSES > WARRIOR = Hákon] made {trails of the edges of the sword} [WOUNDS] on the company of the Wends — {the dog {of the sun of the strap}} [(lit. ‘sun-dog of the strap’) SHIELD > SWORD] bit limbs — before {sword-trees} [WARRIORS] could clear twenty-five long warships; that was a menace for the army of the fleet.

Mss: (162r-v), 39(8rb), F(27rb), J1ˣ(98r), J2ˣ(90v) (Hkr); 61(20vb), 54(17rb), Bb(27vb) (ÓT); 510(62r) (Jvs)

Readings: [1] á: at 510;    Vinða: vág at 61, níunda 510;    sinni: mǫnnum 54, Bb    [2] verð‑: sið 54, við Bb;    ‑bjóðr: ‑bjóði 510;    ferðar: ferðir J1ˣ, ‘f[…]’ J2ˣ    [3] seilar: sveita 510    [4] sverðs: sverð J1ˣ, 510;    eggja: eggjar J1ˣ, 54, Bb;    leggi: leggja 61    [5] áðr: at 510;    ‑meiðar: meiðir 39, F, ‘meðir’ J1ˣ;    hrjóða: ‘hriðða’ F, ‘h[...]’ 510    [6] hætting: so J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 54, Bb, 510, ‘hatting’ Kˣ, hœting 39, F, ‘hetting’ 61;    vas (‘var’): varð Bb;    þat: so F, J1ˣ, 61, 54, Bb, 510, om. Kˣ, 39, J2ˣ;    mætti: mœti 39, F, mátti J1ˣ    [7] leiðar: so 39, F, 61, 510, liðar Kˣ, J2ˣ, leiðir J1ˣ, leiðing 54, Bb;    langra: langa 510    [8] tøg: ‘tyg’ J1ˣ, ‘tugg’ Bb

Editions: Skj AI, 145-6, Skj BI, 136-7, Skald I, 75, NN §§431, 2755; Hkr 1893-1901, I, 337, IV, 90-1, ÍF 26, 286 (ch. 42), F 1871, 124; Fms 1, 183, Fms 12, 46, ÓT 1958-2000, I, 199-200 (ch. 90); Fms 11, 138, SHI 11, 119, 123, Jvs 1879, 82-3.

Context: In Hkr, the stanza is cited after the battle is over, and the Jómsvíkingar defeated. In Jvs, twenty-five of their ships have been cleared; sts 4-11 are cited virtually continuously.

Notes: [1] vann ‘made’: Finnur Jónsson prints vanur as the 510 reading in Skj A, but this is not correct. — [1] sinni Vinða ‘the company of the Wends’: Interpreted thus by most eds (Jón Þorkelsson 1884, 56-7 is an exception). This reference is a key one for scholarly discussions of the Jómsvíkingar (Finnur Jónsson 1910-12, 169-71; ÍF 26, cxi-cxii). It confirms the involvement of Wendish troops from the Baltic alongside the Danish forces mentioned at st. 6/4, but it does not either prove or disprove the existence of the warrior fraternity known in later sources (though not in contemporary poetry) as the Jómsvíkingar. — [3] seilar sólgagarr ‘the dog of the sun of the strap [(lit. ‘sun-dog of the strap’) SHIELD > SWORD]’:  Seil f. here seems to denote the strap or thong by which a shield is held, and sól ‘sun’ is suitable as a base-word to a shield-kenning because of its circular shape and brightness (Meissner 167-8). For further sword-kennings with a base-word meaning ‘wolf, dog’, see Meissner 155. — [4] leggi ‘limbs’: Comparing ÞKolb Eirdr 15/4, Kock (NN §2755) argues for leggja ‘lay, place’, the reading of 61, but the parallel is only partial. — [5-8]: (a) Adopted in this edn is the interpretation of Reichardt (1928, 50-2), followed by Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson (ÍF 26), where liðs leiðar ‘the army of the fleet’ is treated as an attributive gen. depending on hætting ‘menace, danger’. Ms. meiðar is retained as a pl. form of meiðr ‘tree’, with the verb mætti (3rd pers. pret. subj.) ‘could’ correspondingly a pl. Kennings with this base-word are exceedingly common (cf. LP: meiðr). Other possibilities are as follows. (b) Liðs leiðar could be taken as governing skeiðar, hence ‘warships belonging to the levied army’ (so Fms 12; SHI 11; Jón Þorkelsson 1884, 56). (c) Liðs could be taken with hætting ‘menace for the army’ and leiðar as part of a kenning leiðar hjǫrmeiðir ‘destroyer of the sword-path [(lit. ‘sword-destroyer of the path’) SHIELD > WARRIOR]’ (so Finnur Jónsson 1886b, 333; cf. Hkr 1893-1901, IV; Skj B). However, this entails preferring the reading of 39 and F, meiðir ‘destroyer’, and since hjǫrmeiðir ‘sword-destroyer’ is in itself a standard kenning for ‘warrior’ there is no necessity for kenning inversion and complex word order (as pointed out by Kock, NN §431; cf. Reichardt 1928, 51); Reichardt additionally noted that leið is not elsewhere attested in kennings for ‘shield’. (c) Kock (NN §431) opted for a cpd, with tmesis, of leiðar with skeið, equating this with leiðangrsskip ‘ship obtained through a levy’. He then linked liðs with the verb hrjóða, explaining this as ‘to clear of the army, empty of men’; this solution is rejected by Reichardt (1928, 52).  — [7] leiðar ‘of the fleet’: Most scholars interpret this as ‘levy’, equivalent to leiðangr ‘levy’ (comparing st. 9/4). Thus Finnur Jónsson (LP: leið 2) glosses the word as leding, ledingsfærd, hærtog tilsøs ‘levy, voyage of the levy, military expedition at sea’, a notion extensively canvassed by Malmros (1985; 1999; 2002). But the evidence for this technical sense at so early a date is insecure (Jesch 2001a, 196-8). — [8] liðs ‘for the army’: Lit. ‘of the army’. Finnur Jónsson (Hkr 1893-1901, IV) identifies the lið with Hákon’s personal retinue; compare Jesch (2001a, 188): ‘troop or retinue accompanying a shipborne war-leader’, presumably also acting as his crew.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
  3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
  4. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
  5. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  6. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  7. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
  8. 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.
  9. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
  10. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
  11. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
  12. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
  13. 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.
  14. Malmros, Rikke. 1985. ‘Leding og skjaldekvad: Det elvte århundredes nordiske krigsflåder, deres teknologi og organisation og deres placering i samfundet belyst gennem den samtidige fyrstedigtning’. ÅNOH, 89-139.
  15. ÓT 1958-2000 = Ólafur Halldórsson, ed. 1958-2000. Saga Óláfs Tryggvasonar en mesta. 3 vols. EA A 1-3. Copenhagen: Munksgaard (Reitzel).
  16. 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.
  17. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1928. Studien zu den Skalden des 9. und 10. Jahrhunderts. Palaestra 159. Leipzig: Mayer & Müller.
  18. Jvs 1879 = Petersens, Carl af, ed. 1879. Jómsvíkinga saga (efter Cod. AM. 510, 4:to) samt Jómsvíkinga drápa. Lund: Gleerup.
  19. Finnur Jónsson. 1910-12. ‘Jomsvikingerne’. HT(D) 8 ser. 3, 263-74.
  20. Finnur Jónsson. 1886b. ‘Bidrag til en rigtigere forståelse af Tindr Hallkelssons vers’. ÅNOH, 309-68.
  21. Internal references
  22. (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 29 March 2024)
  23. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Jómsvíkinga saga’ 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=51> (accessed 29 March 2024)
  24. Russell Poole 2012, ‘ Anonymous, Liðsmannaflokkr’ 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. 1014. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1023> (accessed 29 March 2024)
  25. Jayne Carroll (ed.) 2012, ‘Þórðr Kolbeinsson, Eiríksdrápa 15’ 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. 510.
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