Anon (FoGT) 7^III

Hákon rieð fyr hauðri
handsterkr, þar er guð merkti
refsiþátt hinn rietta
rangri þjóð að angri.
Laust með elding æstri
alvirkr höfuðkirkju
himnagarðs að hjörðum
hirðir glæpsku firðum.

Handsterkr Hákon rieð fyr hauðri, þar er guð merkti hinn rietta refsiþátt að angri rangri þjóð. {Hirðir {himnagarðs}}, alvirkr að hjörðum firðum glæpsku, laust höfuðkirkju með æstri elding.

Strong-handed Hákon ruled over the land where God showed the just law of punishment to the distress of the sinful people. {The shepherd {of the heavens’ stronghold}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = God], most careful for the flocks freed from sin, struck the cathedral with raging lightning.

Mss: W(112) (FoGT)

Readings: [2] þar er: ‘þ[…]r er’ W    [4] að: af W    [7] að: ok W

Editions: Skj AII, 215, Skj BII, 232, Skald II, 120; SnE 1848-87, II, 196-7, III, 155, FoGT 1884, 123, 246-7, FoGT 2004, 33, 61, 93-5, FoGT 2014, 6-7, 61.

Context: This stanza is the second example given by the author of FoGT to illustrate the figure of chronographia. It is introduced with the following explanation: Sva er ok hin sama figvra, þo at skaalldit segi, hvat samtiða er, ęðr hverer hofðingiar londvm styra, sem her ‘It is also the same figure when the poet tells what is contemporaneous or which chieftains rule lands, as here’.

Notes: [All]: The syntax of this stanza is difficult if W’s af (l. 4) and ok (l. 7) are retained, and they have been emended to að in both instances, following suggestions by Sveinbjörn Egilsson in the first instance and Jón Þorkelsson in FoGT 1884, 246 n. 6 in the second. If ok in l. 7 remains, it is necessary to construe og hjörðum glæpsku firðum ‘and for the flocks freed from sin’ (ll. 7, 8) as an extension of að angri rangri þjóð ‘to the distress of the sinful people’ (l. 4), and this seems an impossibly strained word order (see FoGT 1884, 246 n. 6) across two helmingar. — [All]: Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, II, 190 n. 1) first suggested that the main event mentioned in this stanza might be a reference to the burning of the cathedral at Skálholt by a lightning strike in 1309, mentioned in many of the Icelandic annals. Cf. Lárentíus saga biskups (ÍF 17, 304), Skálholts-Annaler (Storm 1888, 202). This took place in the reign of King Hákon háleggr ‘Long-leg’ Magnússon of Norway (r. 1299-1319). As the stanza represents this event as having taken place in the past, it has been presumed to date from after Hákon’s death in 1319, thus providing a terminus post quem for the stanza and possibly the treatise as a whole (cf. FoGT 1884, xliii). The stanza presents the cathedral fire as God’s punishment on the sinful Icelanders. It is an open question as to whether the author of FoGT considered this stanza an example of contemporaneous events or of a named ruler of the land, or both. See further Anon (FoGT) 11 and Notes. — [1]: This line is very similar to SnSt Ht 14/1 Hákun ræðr með heiðan, and the grammarian may well have had it in mind, as Snorri’s stanza appears later in FoGT as st. 35.  — [2] handsterkr ‘strong-handed’: Lit. ‘hand-strong’. This adj. could be construed either with Hákon (l. 1), as here (following SnE 1848-87 and FoGT 1884) or with guð ‘God’ (l. 2), as in Skj B and FoGT 2004. Cf. Note to st. 25/4. — [6] höfuðkirkju ‘the cathedral’: Lit. ‘head church’.

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. 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.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Storm, Gustav, ed. 1888. Islandske annaler indtil 1578. Christiania (Oslo): Det norske historiske kildeskriftfond. Rpt. 1977. Oslo: Norsk-historisk kjeldeskrift-institutt.
6. ÍF 15-17 = Biskupa sögur. Ed. Sigurgeir Steingrímsson, Ólafur Halldórsson and Peter G. Foote (15), Ásdís Egilsdóttir (16), Guðrún Ása Grímsdóttir (17). 1998-2003.
7. FoGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
8. FoGT 2004 = Longo, Michele, ed. [2004]. ‘Il Quarto Trattato Grammaticale Islandese: Testo, Traduzione e Commento’. Dottorato di Ricerca in ‘Linguistica Sincronica e Diacronica’ (XV Ciclo). Palermo: Università degli Studi di Palermo, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia.
9. FoGT 2014 = Clunies Ross, Margaret and Jonas Wellendorf, eds. 2014. The Fourth Grammatical Treatise. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
10. Internal references
11. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, The Fourth Grammatical Treatise’ 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=34> (accessed 25 April 2024)
12. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 14’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1118.
13. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise 11’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 584.
14. Not published: do not cite ()