FriðÞ Lv 18^VIII (Frið 23)

Þér munuð ekki         oss um kúga,
æðrufullir         eyjarskeggjar!
Heldr mun ek ganga         en griða biðja
einn til ógnar         við yðr tíu.

Þér munuð ekki um kúga oss, æðrufullir eyjarskeggjar! Ek mun heldr ganga einn til ógnar við yðr tíu en biðja griða.

You will not tyrannise over us, fearful island-beards! I will rather go alone to battle against you ten than sue for peace.

Mss: 510(94r), Holm10 VI(2r) (ll. 7-8), 568ˣ(101r), 27ˣ(136r), papp17ˣ(360r), 109a IIˣ(149r), 1006ˣ(587), 173ˣ(88r) (Frið)

Readings: [1] munuð: ‘munu[…]’ 568ˣ;    ekki: ‘[…]’ 568ˣ, ei papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ    [2] oss um kúga: oss kúgat geta papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ    [6] biðja: ‘[…]ia’ 568ˣ    [7] einn: so 568ˣ, 27ˣ, papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 173ˣ, en 510, ‘eirn’ 1006ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 274-5, Skj BII, 296, Skald II, 156; Falk 1890, 79, Frið 1893, 20, 50, 75, Frið 1901, 31, Frið 1914, 20; Edd. Min. 100.

Context: The jarl asks Hallvarðr for information about the men he has seen and tells him to go and meet them at the seashore. However, a viking named Atli starts to cause trouble and is aggressive towards Friðþjófr, who responds with this stanza.

Notes: [All]: The stanza is fairly stable in all mss. The metre is fornyrðislag. The fragmentary ms. Holm10 VI records one and a half lines (ll. 7-8) of this stanza. It shows no significant variation from the other mss here. — [1] þér ‘you’: The younger form of the 2nd pers. pl. nom. pers. pron ér, present in all mss, has been retained here (cf. ANG §464 and Anm. 5, §465, Anm. 5); Edd. Min., Skj B and Skald restore ér to achieve double alliteration. — [2] um kúga oss ‘tyrannise over us’: Ms. 510’s reading oss of kúga, which contains the archaic pleonastic particle of, has been normalised to a standard appropriate to the period after 1250. Similar examples occur elsewhere in the fornaldarsaga corpus, suggesting that some of the extant mss are based on older exemplars; cf. Ásm 1/3, 5 and Ǫrv 138/8 and Notes there. — [4] eyjarskeggjar ‘island-beards’: A pejorative term, found also in Heiðr 19/4 and Ǫrv 106/6, in the latter case also about men from Orkney, apparently reflecting a mainland Scandinavian view that island-dwellers were rough and hairy. A political faction in Norway c. 1093 that rebelled against King Sverrir was called Eyjarskeggjar. This group came from Orkney and the Hebrides and attempted to install Sigurðr, the young alleged son of Magnús Erlingsson, on the throne of Norway (see Sv chs 119-20, ÍF 30, 180-6). — [8] við yðr tíu ‘against you ten’: According to the prose of the A recension (Frið 1914, 19) Atli and his companions were twelve; according to the B recension (Frið 1901, 30) they were ten in all.

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. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
5. ÍF 30 = Sverris saga. Ed. Þorleifur Hauksson. 2007.
6. Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
7. Frið 1893 = Larsson, Ludvig, ed. 1893b. Sagan ock rimorna om Friðþiófr hinn frækni. SUGNL 22. Copenhagen: Malmström.
8. Frið 1901 = Larsson, Ludvig, ed. 1901. Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna. ASB 9. Halle: Niemeyer.
9. Frið 1914 = Wenz, Gustaf, ed. 1914. Die Friðþjófssaga in ihrer Überlieferung untersucht und der ältesten Fassung kritisch herausgegeben. Halle: Niemeyer.
10. Falk, Hjalmar. 1890. ‘Om Friðþjófs saga’. ANF 6, 60-102.
11. Internal references
12. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Sverris saga’ 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=2> (accessed 24 April 2024)
13. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 66 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 19)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 430.
14. Peter Jorgensen (ed.) 2017, ‘Ásmundar saga kappabana 1 (Hildibrandr, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 16.
15. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 106 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Ævidrápa 36)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 915.
16. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 138 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Ævidrápa 68)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 944.