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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Þul Skipa 10III

Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Skipa heiti 10’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 876.

Anonymous ÞulurSkipa heiti
910

Drengir, dragreip,         dæla, árar,
aktaumar, rœr,         arinn ok nálar,
aurborð, kjalarhæll         ok akkeri,
hnakkmiði, ausker         ok húnspænir.

Drengir, dragreip, dæla, árar, aktaumar, rœr, arinn ok nálar, aurborð, kjalarhæll ok akkeri, hnakkmiði, ausker ok húnspænir.

Ties, halyard, dale, oars, braces, clinch-plates, arinn and needles, sand-strake, keel-heel and anchor, buoy-rope, bailer and crow’s nest.

Mss: R(44r), Tˣ(46r), C(13r), A(19v), B(9r) (SnE)

Readings: [4] ok: om. Tˣ    [5] kjalar‑: so all others, ‘k\i/ælar’ R    [6] ok: om. Tˣ, C    [7] hnakk‑: so all others, ‘hnoc‑’ or ‘hnot‑’ R;    aus‑: ‘austs‑’ C, aust‑ A, B    [8] ok: om. Tˣ;    ‑spænir: ‘‑sponir’ A

Editions: Skj AI, 674, Skj BI, 669, Skald I, 333; SnE 1848-87, I, 585, II, 482, 565, 625, SnE 1931, 209, SnE 1998, I, 129.       

Notes: [1] drengir, dragreip (m. pl., n.) ‘ties, halyard’: Drengr (sg.) appears to have been a rope or cable to fasten sth. with (Falk 1912, 61), but the word is not otherwise attested as a nautical term in poetry (LP: 1-2. drengr). See AEW: 2. drengr and the weak verb drengja ‘fasten’. Dragreip ‘halyard’, lit. ‘pull-rope’ (from the stem of the strong verb draga ‘pull’ and reip n. ‘rope’) was the rope fastened to the middle of the sail-yard, which ran through the hole in the masthead (húnbora, st. 7/1) and was used to hoist or lower the sail-yard (Falk 1912, 62). See also SnSt Ht 77/8. — [2] dæla (f.) ‘dale’: The term for a kind of gutter that was used to empty out the bilge water (Falk 1912, 6); cf. dalr ‘dale, valley’ (AEW: dæla and OED: dale, n.3). The word does not otherwise occur as a nautical term in skaldic verse, but it is used in kennings for ‘ship’ in later rímur (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: dæla). — [3] aktaumar (m. pl.) ‘braces’: The first element of this cpd is derived from the strong verb aka ‘trim’ (cf. aka segli ‘trim the sail’) and the second is taumar ‘reins’ (sg. taumr). In Old Norse, the term denoted the braces of a sail (Falk 1912, 76). In later times it also referred to ropes attached to a bar across the rudder to steer a ship (SnE 1998, II, 233). In poetry, the word otherwise occurs only in Busla Busl 5/7VIII (Bós 5). — [3] rœr (f. pl.) ‘clinch-plates’: (sg.) is a small metal plate through which a rivet or clinched nail is passed (Falk 1912, 50; SnE 1998, II, 378). The word is not otherwise found in poetry. — [4] arinn (m.): The meaning of this heiti is obscure. Arinn is ‘hearth’ and CVC: arinn translates this nautical term as ‘a hatchway’. Falk (1912, 115) suggests that arinn as a heiti for a part of a ship probably had the same meaning as ON viða, a late C12th term that denoted a bridge behind the mast on which the commander stood during battle (Kommandobrücke). That interpretation remains conjectural. — [4] nálar (f. pl.) ‘needles’: These were most likely needles kept aboard ship to repair damage done to the sail, but they could also have been pegs with holes in the middle to fasten ropes on a ship (Falk 1912, 13 and n. 1). — [5] aurborð (n.) ‘sand-strake’: The second plank from the keel, i.e. the plank or strake that rested on sand when a ship was pulled ashore (Falk 1912, 52; Jesch 2001a, 141). See also Note to RvHbreiðm Hl 54/2. — [5] kjalarhæll (m.) ‘keel-heel’: A metaphoric name for the hindmost part of the keel (Falk 1912, 34). The word is not otherwise found in skaldic verse, but see hæll ‘keel’s heel’ (st. 7/7 and Note there). — [6] akkeri (m.) ‘anchor’: For detailed descriptions of the anchor, see Falk (1912, 78-9) and Jesch (2001a, 166-9). — [7] hnakkmiði (m.) ‘buoy-rope’: A rope tied to a buoy and fastened to an anchor to raise it from the bottom of the sea (from hnakkr ‘anchor-stone’, the second element perhaps from miðr ‘middle’; see Falk 1912, 79 and SnE 1998, II, 314). For hnakkmiði, see also ÓTr Lv 1/3V (Hallfr 6). — [7] ausker (n.) ‘bailer’: Or austker (so A, B, and adopted in Skj B and Skald). A scoop with which to bail the water out of a ship. The first element of the cpd is derived from the strong verb ausa ‘bail’ and the second is ker n. ‘vessel, vat’. Cf. also dæla ‘dale’ in l. 2 above. — [8] húnspænir (m. pl.) ‘crow’s nest’: Flat pieces of wood (sg. spánn), often gilded (Falk 1912, 59), which were nailed around the masthead (húnn, st. 7/1 above) to strengthen the place where the sail-yard was fastened (see also Fritzner: húnspánn). The word occurs only in the present þula.

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. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
  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. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
  9. Falk, Hjalmar. 1912. Altnordisches Seewesen. Wörter und Sachen 4. Heidelberg: Winter.
  10. Finnur Jónsson. 1926-8. Ordbog til de af samfund til udg. af gml. nord. litteratur udgivne Rímur samt til de af Dr. O. Jiriczek udgivne Bósarímur. SUGNL 51. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
  11. 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.
  12. OED = Murray, J. A. H. et al., eds. 1884-1928. The Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon. 2nd edn 1989. Simpson, J. A. and E. S. C. Weiner, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  13. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
  14. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  15. Internal references
  16. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2022, ‘Hallfreðar saga 6 (Óláfr Tryggvason, Lausavísa 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 879.
  17. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 54’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1061.
  18. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 77’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1188.
  19. Wilhelm Heizmann (ed.) 2017, ‘Bósa saga 5 (Busla, Buslubæn 5)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 32.
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