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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Hróksv Hrkv 18VIII (Hálf 68)

Hubert Seelow (ed.) 2017, ‘Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka 68 (Hrókr inn svarti, Hrókskviða 18)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 357.

Hrókr inn svartiHrókskviða
171819

text and translation

Naut ekki svá         aldrs, sem skyldi,
frækn landreki         við frama dáðir.
Tólf vetra nam         tiggi at herja,
en þá var þengill         þrítugr, er dó.

Frækn landreki naut ekki aldrs svá, sem skyldi, við dáðir frama. Tiggi nam at herja tólf vetra, en þengill var þrítugr, þá er dó.
 
‘The valiant land-ruler did not enjoy as long a life as he should have done with deeds of fame. The prince started harrying at the age of twelve and the king was thirty when he died.

notes and context

[5-8]: The information that Hálfr was twelve years old when he began his viking career is in the prose text (Hálf 1981, ch. 5, 177, ll. 1-3). From a statement in the same chapter (Hálf 1981, ch. 5, 178, l. 33) that he carried on harrying for eighteen years (cf. Hálf 36/1-4), it can be deduced that he was thirty years old when he died. The age of twelve seems to have been regarded as traditionally the age of majority for Viking-Age rulers, like Óláfr Haraldsson (cf. Foote and Wilson 1980, 116).

sources

Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.

editions and texts

Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], E. 6. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Hálfssaga IX 18: AII, 267, BII, 290, Skald II, 152; Hálf 1864, 36-7, Hálf 1909, 127, FSGJ 2, 129, Hálf 1981, 194-5; Edd. Min. 47.

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