ǪrvOdd Ævdr 25^VIII (Ǫrv 95)

Sigldum síðan         suðr með landi
tállaust skipum         tveimr ok einu.
Væntu fengjar,         þeir er fyrir vissu,
ef vér Elfarsker         öll kannaðim.

Sigldum síðan suðr með landi tállaust tveimr ok einu skipum. Væntu fengjar, þeir er vissu fyrir, ef vér kannaðim öll Elfarsker.

We sailed then south along the coast without deceit with three ships. They who knew beforehand hoped for booty, if we explored all the Götaälv skerries.

Mss: 343a(80v), 471(94v), 173ˣ(62rb) (Ǫrv)

Readings: [3] tállaust: ‘taflaust’ 173ˣ    [4] tveimr: ‘ii’ 471    [5] Væntu: so 173ˣ, væntum 343a, 471    [6] þeir: so 471, þar 343a, þat 173ˣ;    vissu: so 471, 173ˣ, váru 343a    [7] ef vér Elfarsker: skjótt ef Elfarsker 471, ok Elfarsker 173ˣ    [8] öll: om. 471, skjótt 173ˣ;    kannaðim: könnuðum 343a, 471, könnuðu 173ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 310, Skj BII, 329, Skald II, 176, NN §2604B; Ǫrv 1888, 201, FSGJ 2, 347-8.

Notes: [3] tállaust ‘without deceit’: Both 343a and 471 have this reading. The first element of this adv. is tál ‘deceit, allurement’, and the normal meaning of the adv. is ‘without deceit, guilelessly’. It is probably largely emphatic here and may simply mean ‘for sure, certainly’; cf. NN §88. Finnur Jónsson emends to tálaust, which he translates in Skj B as uden hindring ‘without impediment’, but in LP he suggests a derivation from tálauss ‘doubtless, sure’, suggesting the first element is tá- ‘two’ (cf. LP: tálauss). Other occurrences of tállaust ‘without deceit’ are Anon Nkt 34/1^II and Sturl Hákkv 4/1^II. — [3-4] tveimr ok einu skipum ‘with three ships’: Lit. ‘with two and one ships’. This corresponds to the prose text of 7 and 344a, but not that of 343a and 471, which mention four ships. — [5-6]: These lines are unsatisfactory in some respect in all mss. This edn adopts 173ˣ’s væntu ‘they hoped for’, instead of 343a’s and 471’s væntum ‘we hoped for’ and then 471’s reading of l. 6. Ms. 343a’s reading of l. 6, þar er váru fyrir ‘where there was [were] any to be found’, adopted by Skj B, requires the pl. verb váru ‘were’ to be understood to refer back to fengjar ‘booty’ (l. 5), which is gen. sg. It is possible that the line in 343a has been corrupted by a scribe anticipating the similar l. 6 in the following stanza. Kock produces the lines væntu fengjar, | þeir’s fyrir váru ‘they who were at hand, hoped for booty’, which do not occur in any single ms., while Ǫrv 1888 has væntum fengjar, | [þar] er fyrir vissum ‘we hoped for booty, where we knew beforehand’, again not found in any ms.  — [7, 8] ef vér kannaðim ‘if we explored’: All mss have the 1st pers. pl. pret. indic. here, but all eds have restored the pret. subj. after ef ‘if’.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. 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.
6. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
7. Ǫrv 1888 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1888. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Leiden: Brill.
8. Internal references
9. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Anonymous Poems, Nóregs konungatal 34’ 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. 783.
10. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, Hákonarkviða 4’ 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. 702.