Valg Har 11^II

Lauðr vas lagt í beðja;
lék sollit haf golli,
enn herskipum hrannir
hǫfuð ógurlig þógu.
Ræðr, en ræsir œðri
rístr aldri sæ kaldan,
— sveit tér sínum dróttni
snjǫll — Nóregi ǫllum.

Lauðr vas lagt í beðja; sollit haf lék golli, enn hrannir þógu ógurlig hǫfuð herskipum. Ræðr ǫllum Nóregi, en œðri ræsir rístr aldri kaldan sæ; snjǫll sveit tér dróttni sínum.

Foam was folded into layers; the swollen sea played with gold, and waves washed the terrifying heads of the warships. You rule all Norway, and a nobler regent will never carve the cold sea; the valiant company support their lord.

Mss: Mork(3v) (Mork); Flat(194va) (Flat); H(30r), Hr(22ra) (H-Hr); FskBˣ(65v-66r), FskAˣ(247) (Fsk, ll. 5-8); R(38v), Tˣ(40r), A(13v), B(6r), 744ˣ(36r), C(7v) (SnE, ll. 1-4)

Readings: [1] vas (‘var’): er B;    í: á C;    beðja: ‘bebi’ Mork, bæði Flat, H, Hr, R, C, ‘bedi’ Tˣ, B, beð A    [2] lék: legg C;    haf golli: ‘[…]’ B, ‘ḥạf gollí’ 744ˣ    [3] ‑skipum: ‑skipa A, B    [6] rístr: so H, Hr, FskAˣ, ríkr Mork, Flat, ristum FskBˣ;    aldri: ‘alldum’ FskBˣ    [7] tér: ‘þier’ Flat

Editions: Skj AI, 393, Skj BI, 362-3, Skald I, 181, NN §877; Mork 1867, 19, Mork 1928-32, 92, Andersson and Gade 2000, 153, 474 (MH); Flat 1860-8, III, 308 (MH); Fms 6, 180 (HSig ch. 19); ÍF 29, 242 (ch. 52); SnE 1848-87, I, 500-1, II, 451, 535, 600, SnE 1931, 176, SnE 1998, I, 95.

Context: As above. In SnE (Skm) hrǫnn is given as a heiti for ‘wave’.

Notes: [1] beðja (m. acc. pl.) ‘layers’: The emendation beðja ‘layers’ is conjectural, but none of the variants allows for an adequate reading. Beðr ‘layer, bed, quilt’ is a m. ja-stem and the regular acc. pl. is beði, but the metre requires a long-stemmed disyllabic word in positions 5-6. Beðja could be an archaic form (Gmc *baðja-: see ANG §368; SnE 1998 I, 147, 216). Skj B connects beðja with golli (n. dat. sg.) ‘gold’ (l. 2) which is taken as a possessive dat. (Skummet fyldte guldets underlag ‘The foam filled the gold’s pad’), but in LP: beðr 2, Finnur suggests the (unattested) translation ‘long foaming breakers’ (lange skumbølger). Kock (NN §877) tentatively emends to beðjum (m. dat. pl.) which he translates as långa bäddar ‘long beds’. The idea seems to be that the foam formed layers, just like a down-quilt, covering the sea and making it ‘swollen’ (sollit haf (l. 2)). See also Indrebø 1928, 116-20. — [4] þógu ógurlig hǫfuð ‘washed the terrifying heads’: See Note to st. 10/5 above. Landnámabók (Ldn, ÍF 1, 313), contains an instructive section on the terror that these heads could inspire: Þat var upphaf hinna heiðnu laga, at menn skyldi eigi hafa hǫfuðskip í haf, en ef þeir hefði, þá skyldi þeir af taka hǫfuð, áðr þeir kœmi í landsýn, ok sigla eigi at landi með gapandi hǫfðum eða gínandi trjónum, svá at landvættir fælisk við ‘That was the opening [section] of the pagan laws, that people must not have ships with heads when setting out to sea. But if they did, then they must take off the heads before they sighted land and not sail toward land with gaping heads or yawning mouths, so that the guardian spirits of the land would be frightened’.

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. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
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. 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.
8. Andersson, Theodore M. and Kari Ellen Gade, trans. 2000. Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157). Islandica 51. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
9. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
10. 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.
11. ÍF 1 (parts 1 and 2) = Íslendingabók; Landnámabók. Ed. Jakob Benediktsson. 1968. Rpt. as one volume 1986.
12. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
13. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
14. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
15. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
16. Indrebø, Gustav. 1928. ‘Tri namn or Haakonssoga’. MM, 116-20.
17. Mork 1867 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1867. Morkinskinna: Pergamentsbog fra første halvdel af det trettende aarhundrede. Indeholdende en af de ældste optegnelser af norske kongesagaer. Oslo: Bentzen.
18. Internal references
19. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
20. (forthcoming), ‘ Anonymous, Landnámabók’ in Guðrún Nordal (ed.), Poetry on Icelandic History. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 4. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=25> (accessed 16 April 2024)
21. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 16 April 2024)
22. (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 16 April 2024)
23. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Magnúss saga góða ok Haralds harðráða’ 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=147> (accessed 16 April 2024)