Vígf Lv 1^I

Oss es leikr, en lauka
liggr heima vinr feimu,
— þryngr at Viðris veðri
vandar — góðr fyr hǫndum.
Hlýs kveðk hœlis bósa
— hann væntir sér annars —
vífs und vǫrmum bœgi
— vér skreytum spjǫr — neyta.

Góðr leikr es fyr hǫndum oss, en vinr {feimu lauka} liggr heima; þryngr at {veðri {vandar Viðris}}. Kveðk bósa neyta hlýs hœlis und vǫrmum bœgi vífs; hann væntir sér annars; vér skreytum spjǫr.

Good sport is at hand for us [me], but the friend {of the lady of leeks} [WOMAN] lies around at home; [events] press towards {the storm {of the rod of Viðrir <= Óðinn>}} [SWORD > BATTLE]. I declare the womaniser enjoys cosy refuge under the warm arm of the woman; he expects something different; we [I] polish [my] spear.

Mss: FskBˣ(28v), FskAˣ(106) (Fsk); 7(36v-37r), Flat(25rb), 510(59v) (Jvs)

Readings: [1] es (‘er’): om. 510;    en: so Flat, enn er FskBˣ, enn FskAˣ, 7, 510    [2] vinr: om. 510    [3] þryngr: ‘þrængr’ FskAˣ, ‘þraungr’ Flat, 510;    veðri: varðar 510    [4] vandar: vǫndr 510;    góðr: ‘goð’ 7    [5] Hlýs: ‘loð’ 7, ‘hlyss’ Flat;    kveðk (‘queð ek’): so 7, kveðr FskBˣ, ‘qvæð’ FskAˣ, ‘kuet ek’ Flat, kveðju 510;    hœlis: hæla FskBˣ, 7, 510, ‘hlæsa’ FskAˣ, ‘hel a‑’ Flat;    bósa: ‘bꝍlas’ FskAˣ, ‘bossa’ Flat, 510    [6] væntir sér: so FskAˣ, Flat, 510, ok vættir FskBˣ, vættir sér 7    [7] vífs: ‘vis’ 510;    und: undum Flat    [8] skreytum: skeytum FskAˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 121, Skj BI, 115, Skald I, 65, NN §§641, 2509, 2902I; Fsk 1902-3, 95-6 (ch. 20), ÍF 29, 132 (ch. 22); Fms 11, 130 n., Fms 12, 238, Flat 1860-8, I, 189, Jvs 1875, 28, Jvs 1879, 74, Jvs 1962, 34. 

Context:

The stanza follows Þskúm Lv within the prelude to the battle of Hjǫrungavágr (Liavågen). In Fsk, which places the scene on board Hákon jarl’s ship and attributes Þskúm Lv 1 to Vígfúss Víga-Glúmsson, it is merely introduced, Þá kvað hann ok þetta ‘Then he also spoke this’. Jvs, on the other hand, places the scene on Eiríkr jarl’s ship, and there is a change of poet, Vigfúss uttering the stanza as he sharpens his spear in readiness for battle.

Notes: [All]: For the sea-battle at Hjǫrungavágr (c. 985) and other skaldic poetry associated with it, see the entry on Hákon jarl Sigurðarson in ‘Ruler biographies’ in Introduction to this volume. — [1] lauka ‘of leeks’: Or ‘of herbs’. The exact sense of laukr m. is somewhat elusive, but can include leek, garlic, onion, herbs and plants generally (see Guðrún P. Helgadóttir 1981). It is a stock attribute of women, forming the determinant of kennings (see LP: 1. laukr) and appearing in another context contrasting war and womanising, or at least home comforts, in Anon Sveinfl, with its image of a girl plying a man with ale and laukar. — [2] feimu ‘of the lady’: This is a heiti for ‘woman’ in Þul Kvenna I 1/4^III, and hence its coupling with a determinant lauka ‘of leeks, herbs’ may be superfluous, but it could be that feima was, rightly or wrongly, being thought of as a goddess- or valkyrie-name, which would be a standard type of base-word in a woman-kenning. It also occurs as the name of a low-born woman in Rþ 25/6 and of a troll-woman in Gríms saga loðinkinna: see Feima Lv 1/1^VIII (GrL 2) and Note. Konráð Gíslason and Eiríkur Jónsson (Nj 1875-8, II, 109) suggested ‘modest woman’ (cf. ModIcel. adj. feiminn ‘shy, bashful’). — [5] hœlis ‘refuge’: The reading hæla or hœla has strongest ms. support, but the verb hœla ‘boast, praise’ would not easily fit the syntax, so that it seems necessary to emend to hœlis, gen. sg. of hœli n. ‘refuge, shelter’, as object of neyta ‘enjoy’, unless one assumes a weak m. variant hœli, which would have gen. sg. hœla. Kock (Skald; NN §2509, following a suggestion of Meissner) instead reads hœlibósa as a cpd, ‘bragging womaniser’, and takes neyta as intransitive. — [7] vífs und vǫrmum bœgi ‘under the warm arm of the woman’: Cf. Tindr Hákdr 1/2, which also mentions a woman’s arms when contrasting martial deeds with lying with a woman, and Stefnir Lv 2/7-8, which boasts of preferring the rigours of seafaring to warm embraces. The line lacks hending, which led Kock (Skald; NN §2509) to suggest replacing bœgi ‘arm’ by its synonym armi, and transposing the first two words, to give vǫrmum vífs und armi. He defended the resulting placement of the adj. against an objection from Kuhn in NN §2902I. — [8] vér skreytum spjǫr ‘we [I] polish [my] spear’: Since spjǫr is n., the form could be sg. or pl., and vér could either refer to the skald alone or have its literal sense ‘we’.

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. Nj 1875-89 = Konráð Gíslason and Eiríkur Jónsson. 1875-89. Njála: Udgivet efter gamle håndskrifter. Íslendingasögur udgivne efter gamle haandskrifter af Det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-selskab 4. Copenhagen: Thiele.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. 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.
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. Fsk 1902-3 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1902-3. Fagrskinna: Nóregs kononga tal. SUGNL 30. Copenhagen: Møller.
9. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
10. Jvs 1879 = Petersens, Carl af, ed. 1879. Jómsvíkinga saga (efter Cod. AM. 510, 4:to) samt Jómsvíkinga drápa. Lund: Gleerup.
11. Jvs 1962 = Blake, N. F., ed. and trans. 1962. The Saga of the Jomsvikings. London etc.: Nelson.
12. Guðrún P. Helgadóttir. 1981. ‘Laukagarðr’. In Dronke et al. 1981, 171-4.
13. Jvs 1875 = Cederschiöld, Gustaf J. Chr., ed. 1875. Jómsvíkinga saga: efter skinnboken no: 7, 4:to å Kungl. biblioteket i Stockholm. Lund: Berling.
14. Internal references
15. (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 18 April 2024)
16. (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 18 April 2024)
17. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Gríms saga loðinkinna’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 288. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=76> (accessed 18 April 2024)
18. Diana Whaley 2012, ‘(Biography of) Vígfúss Víga-Glúmsson’ 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. 361.
19. Diana Whaley 2012, ‘ Anonymous, Flokkr about Sveinn Álfífuson’ 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. 1029. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1082> (accessed 18 April 2024)
20. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Kvenna heiti 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 772.
21. Diana Whaley 2012, ‘ Þorleifr skúma Þorkelsson, Lausavísa’ 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. 359. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1476> (accessed 18 April 2024)
22. Not published: do not cite ()
23. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2012, ‘Stefnir Þorgilsson, Lausavísur 2’ 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. 450.
24. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2012, ‘Þorleifr skúma Þorkelsson, Lausavísa 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. 360.
25. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Tindr Hallkelsson, Hákonardrápa 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. 338.
26. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Gríms saga loðinkinna 2 (Feima Hrímnisdóttir, Lausavísa 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 290.