Valg Har 6^II

Eik slǫng und þér, yngvi
ógnblíðr, í haf síðan
— rétt vas yðr of ætlat
óðal — frá Svíþjóðu.
Hýnd bar rif, þars rennduð
rétt á stag fyr slétta,
skeið, en skelkðuð brúðir,
Skáney, Dǫnum nánar.

Síðan slǫng eik und þér í haf frá Svíþjóðu, ógnblíðr yngvi; rétt óðal vas of ætlat yðr. Skeið bar hýnd rif, þars rennduð rétt á stag fyr slétta Skáney, en skelkðuð brúðir nánar Dǫnum.

Then the oak-ship sped beneath you into the ocean away from Sweden, battle-rejoicing lord; lawful inheritance awaited you. The warship carried a sail hoisted high where you scudded straight ahead past flat Skåne, and you scared women closely related to the Danes.

Mss: Kˣ(532r-v), 39(21rb), F(44ra), E(13r), J2ˣ(264r) (Hkr); FskBˣ(64v), FskAˣ(244) (Fsk); Mork(3r) (Mork); Flat(194rb) (Flat); H(29r), Hr(21rb) (H-Hr)

Readings: [2] í haf: so 39, F, E, FskBˣ, FskAˣ, Mork, Flat, H, Hr, undir þér Kˣ, J2ˣ    [3] vas (‘var’): varð FskBˣ;    ætlat: so all others, ‘ætloð’ Kˣ    [5] Hýnd bar rif þars: ‘h[…]’ Mork;    Hýnd: hund Flat;    rif: ríks Hr;    þars (‘þar er’): þá er Flat, þar Hr;    rennduð: reynduð 39, E, renndu FskBˣ, FskAˣ, renndi Mork, H, Hr, ‘reyðí’ Flat    [6] stag: slag 39, stig E;    slétta: sléttu FskAˣ    [7] skeið en skelkðuð brúðir: ‘skelkur en | skeidr | brudir’ Hr;    skeið: skeiðr FskBˣ, Mork, Flat, H;    skelkðuð: so FskBˣ, Mork, H, skelkðu Kˣ, 39, F, E, J2ˣ, FskAˣ, ‘skeldud’ Flat;    brúðir: ‘[…]’ Mork    [8] Skáney Dǫnum nánar: ‘[…]’ Mork;    nánar: vánir F, ‘vanar’ H

Editions: Skj AI, 391-2, Skj BI, 361, Skald I, 181; ÍF 28, 92-3 (HSig ch. 19), F 1871, 203, E 1916, 45; ÍF 29, 239 (ch. 51); Mork 1867, 17, Mork 1928-32, 88, Andersson and Gade 2000, 150-1, 473 (MH); Flat 1860-8, III, 306 (MH); Fms 6, 174 (HSig ch. 17).

Context: According to Mork, Fsk and Flat, Haraldr travelled from Sweden to Denmark to meet his nephew, Magnús Óláfsson. Hkr and H-Hr state that Haraldr joined forces with Magnús’s enemy, Sveinn Úlfsson, and accompanied him on an expedition to Denmark (see sts 7-9 below).

Notes: [1] slǫng ‘sped’: The verb is part of an impersonal construction with eik ‘oak-ship’ as an instr. dat. — [3] rétt (n. nom. sg.) ‘lawful’: Taken here as an adj. qualifying óðal (n. nom. sg.) ‘inheritance’ (l. 4). It could also be an adv. (‘justly’) qualifying ætlat ‘awaiting, intended for’ (l. 3). — [5] hýnd rif ‘sail hoisted high’: Rif (lit. ‘reef’) is the portion of a sail that can be rolled up, and the adj. hýnd refers to the reefs being hoisted all the way to the mast-top (húnn). See Jesch 2001a, 161, 163 and Note to ÞjóðA Magnfl 4/6. — [5] rennduð (2nd pers. pl. pret. indic.) ‘you scudded’: The FskBˣ variant renndu (3rd pers. pl. pret. indic.) takes skeiðr (f. nom. pl.) ‘warships’ (l. 7) as the subject (‘where the warships scudded’), which leaves bar hýnd rif ‘(it) carried a sail hoisted high’ (l. 5) as an awkward impersonal construction. Renndi (3rd pers. sg. pret. indic.) (so Mork, H, Hr) is ungrammatical unless skeiðr (f. nom. pl.) is emended to the sg. skeið: skeið bar hýnd rif, þars renndi ‘the warship carried a sail hoisted high where it scudded’. — [6] rétt á stag ‘straight ahead’: Lit. ‘straight on the stay’. Implies that the ship was sailing straight forwards in the direction of the forestay (the rope running from the mast to the prow). See Falk 1912, 59, Jesch 2001a, 165, ÞjóðA Magnfl 4/6 and Gísl Magnkv 15/2-3. — [7] skeið ‘the warship’: See Note to st. 1/2 above. — [7] skelkðuð (2nd pers. pl. pret. indic.) ‘you scared’: The Hkr variant skelkðu (3rd pers. pl. pret. indic.) ‘they scared’ makes little sense. — [8] Skáney ‘Skåne’: District (Scania) in southern Sweden, then a part of Denmark.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
5. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
6. Falk, Hjalmar. 1912. Altnordisches Seewesen. Wörter und Sachen 4. Heidelberg: Winter.
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. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
9. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
10. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
11. E 1916 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1916. Eirspennill: AM 47 fol. Nóregs konunga sǫgur: Magnús góði – Hákon gamli. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske historiske kildeskriftskommission.
12. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
13. 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.
14. Internal references
15. (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 17 April 2024)
16. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Flateyjarbók’ 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=44> (accessed 17 April 2024)
17. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Fagrskinna’ 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=56> (accessed 17 April 2024)
18. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Hulda-Hrokkinskinna’ 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=84> (accessed 17 April 2024)
19. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Morkinskinna’ 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=87> (accessed 17 April 2024)
20. (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 17 April 2024)
21. (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 17 April 2024)
22. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Gísl Illugason, Erfikvæði about Magnús berfœttr 15’ 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. 426-7.
23. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Magnússflokkr 4’ 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. 68-9.