Anon Gát 1^III

Ek sá fljúga         fugla marga:
aldrtjón Ellu,         eggdauða menn,
ben bíldskorna,         buðlung Dana,
þjónustumey,         þunga báru.

Ek sá marga fugla fljúga: aldrtjón Ellu, eggdauða menn, bíldskorna ben, buðlung Dana, þjónustumey, þunga báru.

I saw many birds fly: life-loss of Ælla <Northumbrian king>, men killed by the sword, lancet-scored wound, king of Danes, serving-girl, heavy wave.

Mss: 625(77r), 743ˣ(103r), 167b 3ˣ(14r)

Readings: [3] Ellu: ella 167b 3ˣ    [6] buðlung: ok buðlung 167b 3ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 228, Skj BII, 247-8, Skald II, 128-9; SnE 1848, 239, LaufE 1979, 406.

Context: In all mss used here, the riddles are prefaced with an introductory statement (SnE 1848, 238-9): Bóndi nokkurr sendi húskarl sinn morgun einn at hugleiða um tún. En er hann kom aptr, spurði bóndi, hví hann hefði svo lengi á burtu verit. Húskarl sagði: ek hefir horft á þat, sem ek hefi sèt. Bóndi spyr: hvat sáttu? ‘A certain farmer sent his servant one morning to contemplate [things] around the farmstead. And when he came back, the farmer asked why he had been away so long. The servant said, ‘I have been thinking about that which I have seen’. The farmer asks: ‘what did you see?’.

Notes: [3] aldrtjón Ellu ‘life-loss of Ælla <Northumbrian king>’: I.e. ‘eagle’ (ON ǫrn). Ælla (Ella) or Ælle was king of Northumbria in 867 and was killed during the Viking incursions into the British Isles that year (see ASC, s. a.). According to several sources, he was tortured to death by means of the so-called ‘blood-eagle’ rite by Ívarr inn beinlausi ‘the Boneless’ and his brothers in vengeance for their father, Ragnarr loðbrók ‘Shaggy-breeches’, whom Ælla had killed. Precisely what blood-eagling involves varies from source to source: the carving of an eagle into the victim’s back, with or without the addition of salt (Ragn ch. 17, FSGJ I, 278; Saxo 2005, I, 9, 5, 5, pp. 610-11; ÍF 26, 132; ÍF 34, 13); the tearing out of ribs and lungs (Orkn ch. 8, ÍF 34, 13; HHárfHkr ch. 30, ÍF 26, 132); or a combination of all of the above (RagnSon ch. 3, FSGJ I, 298). Roberta Frank (1984a; 1990b) has argued that the rite never existed at all, and that the later descriptions resulted from misinterpretation of a skaldic stanza, Sigv Knútdr 1^I (see Note to [All] there). She believes that the stanza merely suggests that Ívarr and his brothers provided Ælla’s body as carrion for the eagle, a standard skaldic motif. Whatever the historical reality, the present line requires understanding the ‘eagle’ as the method of Ælla’s death. A similar principle is involved in ESk Hardr II 3/1, 2^II, where eagles are referred to as geitunga Ellu ‘Ælla’s birds’. The solution is written above the line in 1562ˣ. — [4] eggdauða menn ‘men killed by the sword’: Lit. ‘sword-edge-dead men’. This and the following four lines employ the literary device of ofljóst, where a homonym of the intended solution is substituted by a circumlocutory phrase. Eggdauða menn, i.e. men killed by the sword, are valr ‘the slain’; its homonym valr is ‘falcon’. Cf. Gestumbl Heiðr 35/2^VIII (Heiðr 82), which uses the same substitution though with dauða menn ‘dead men’. Eggdauða is a hap. leg. Again, the solution is written in above the line in 1562ˣ. — [5] bíldskorna ben ‘lancet-scored wound’: The procedure of blood-letting is called æða-blóð (CVC), the homonym æðr being both ‘blood-vessel’ and ‘eider duck’. Cf. Gestumbl Heiðr 35/3^VIII (Heiðr 82) and Anon (FoGT) 20/5, which rely on the same pun on æðr, and Notes there. Bíldskorinn ‘lancet-scored’ is a hap. leg. — [6] buðlung Dana ‘king of Danes’: I.e. Skjǫldungr (so Skj B), one of the Skjǫldungar, the Danish royal dynasty. Tradition traces the line back to Óðinn. A skjǫldungr is also a sheldrake or shelduck, Tadorna tadorna, named among the heiti for birds in Þul Fugla 3/8. SnE 1848 gives the solution kráka ‘crow’, perhaps, although the homonym is not exact, in reference to Hrólfr kraki ‘Pole-ladder’, a legendary Danish king. It is not clear where this solution is taken from, as 743ˣ is not annotated here and 1562ˣ gives hœnir, i.e. hœnur ‘hens’ (Fritzner: hœna). Hœnir was one of the Æsir (see e.g. Simek 1993, 156), and some scholars have suggested he may have been able to take the form of a bird (e.g. Turville-Petre 1964, 141-2 and 142 n. 34; see Note to Þjóð Haustl 4/2), but there is no reason he should be particularly associated with the Danes. — [7] þjónustumey ‘serving-girl’: Synonymous with þerna, whose homonym means ‘tern’, a seabird in the family Sternidae, which appears as a bird-heiti in Þul Fugla 4/3. — [8] þunga báru ‘heavy wave’: I.e dúfa, ‘wave, dip’ (in poetry; cf. ONP: 2 dúfa, LP: 2. dúfa) and ‘dove, pigeon’. Dúfa is listed in Skm as one of the nine daughters of Ægir and Rán (SnE 1998, I, 95); her name is thus used in poetry as a heiti for ‘wave’. Cf. Þul Sjóvar 4/6, Þul Waves 1/8. SnE 1848 prints heimbrimi, after the annotations of various mss. This is presumably an error for ModIcel. himbrimi, ON himbrin (Þul Fugla 2/3) ‘great northern diver’ (Colymbus glacialis). The second part of this cpd, brimi (more commonly brim; LP: brimi, brim) means ‘surf’ or ‘sea’.

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 = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1848. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, eða Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál og Háttatal. Reykjavík: Prentsmiðja landsins.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. LaufE 1979 = Faulkes, Anthony, ed. 1979. Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar (Laufás Edda). RSÁM 13. Vol. I of Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1977-9.
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. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
8. Turville-Petre, Gabriel. 1964. Myth and Religion of the North. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
9. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
10. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
11. ÍF 34 = Orkneyinga saga. Ed. Finnbogi Guðmundsson. 1965.
12. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
13. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
14. ASC [Anglo-Saxon Chronicle] = Plummer, Charles and John Earle, eds. 1892-9. Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1952.
15. Frank, Roberta. 1984a. ‘Viking Atrocity and Skaldic Verse: The Rite of the Blood-Eagle’. English Historical Review 99, 332-43.
16. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
17. Saxo 2005 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2005. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum / Danmarkshistorien. Trans. Peter Zeeberg. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Det danske sprog- og litteraturselskab & Gads forlag.
18. Simek, Rudolf. 1993. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Trans. Angela Hall. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
19. Internal references
20. (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 26 April 2024)
21. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Orkneyinga 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=47> (accessed 26 April 2024)
22. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ragnars saga loðbrókar’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 616. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=81> (accessed 26 April 2024)
23. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ragnars sona þáttr’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 777. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=85> (accessed 26 April 2024)
24. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 82 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 35)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 449.
25. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ 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=112> (accessed 26 April 2024)
26. Not published: do not cite (Rloð^VIII)
27. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Heiti for waves 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. 997.
28. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sjóvar heiti 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 836.
29. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Fugla heiti 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 953.
30. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Fugla heiti 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 954.
31. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Fugla heiti 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 955.
32. Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Knútsdrápa 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. 651.
33. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Haustlǫng 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 437.