FriðÞ Lv 32^VIII (Frið 38)

Bú þú, Hringr konungr,         heill ok lengi,
æztr öðlinga         undir Ymis hausi.
Gættu, vísir, vel         vífs ok landa;
skulu vit Ingibjörg         aldri finnaz.

Bú þú, Hringr konungr, heill ok lengi, æztr öðlinga undir {hausi Ymis}. Vísir, gættu vel vífs ok landa; skulu vit Ingibjörg aldri finnaz.

May you live, King Hringr, fortunate and long, the foremost of princes beneath {the skull of Ymir <giant>} [SKY/HEAVEN]. Ruler, look after your wife and lands well; Ingibjǫrg and I must never meet [again].

Mss: 510(96r), Holm10 VI(3v), 568ˣ(103r), 27ˣ(139r), papp17ˣ(362v), 1006ˣ(597), 173ˣ(94r) (Frið)

Readings: [1] Bú þú Hringr konungr: Hringr konungr 27ˣ    [2] heill ok lengi: heill vertu lengi 27ˣ    [3] öðlinga: so Holm10 VI, 568ˣ, 27ˣ, konungr öðlinga 510, buðlungr papp17ˣ, buðlunga 1006ˣ, 173ˣ    [4] Ymis: so Holm10 VI, 568ˣ, 27ˣ, Vendils 510, heims papp17ˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ;    hausi (‘hosi’): so Holm10 VI, 27ˣ, skauti 510, papp17ˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ, ljósi 568ˣ    [5] Gættu vísir: ‘g[…]’ 568ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 278, Skj BII, 299-30, Skald II, 158, FF §49; Falk 1890, 87, Frið 1893, 35, 58-9, 87-8, Frið 1901, 49, Frið 1914, 32; Edd. Min. 102-3.

Context: King Hringr tries to dissuade Friðþjófr from leaving his court, but Friðþjófr indicates his resolve to leave in this stanza.

Notes: [All]: The stanza is in both A and B recension mss, with the exception of 109a IIˣ. The metre is fornyrðislag. — [4] undir hausi Ymis ‘beneath the skull of Ymir <giant> [SKY/HEAVEN]’: Most eds (Edd. Min.; Skj B; Skald; Frið 1914) have favoured this reading which is present in Holm10 VI (‘hosi’) and 27ˣ (‘hause’). This kenning alludes to the Old Norse myth of how Óðinn and his brothers Vili and Vé fashion the sky out of the skull of the primaeval giant Ymir, whom they had killed (Gylf, SnE 2005, 12). The sky-kenning hauss Ymis occurs also in Arn Magndr 19/4^II, but not elsewhere in Old Norse poetry. Its use here may be a conscious archaism; most of the other mss support the notion of a sky-kenning, but avoid the mythological allusion. Ms. 510 has skauti Vendils ‘the corner [district] of Vendill’, presumably referring to the Swedish district of Vendel, north of Uppsala (on Vendill, see Þjóð Yt 15/8^I, Note to [All]). The reference to Vendel seems misplaced here and may indicate scribal misunderstanding. The B redaction mss have a lectio facilior, undir skauti heims ‘beneath the corner of the world’ [SKY], which has been adopted in Frið 1901. The use of the word skaut here relates to its meaning in the cpd himinskaut (often pl.) ‘corner, surface of the heavens, sky’, which depends on the idea that the sky is a kind of cloth held taut at its four corners by four dwarfs, representing each of the four cardinal directions (cf. SnE 2005, 12).

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. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
5. 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.
6. FF = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1922. Fornjermansk forskning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 18:1. Lund: Gleerup.
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), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ 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=113> (accessed 3 May 2024)
13. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Magnússdrápa 19’ 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. 229.
14. Edith Marold (ed.) 2012, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Ynglingatal 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. 34.