Anon (Ágr) 1^I

Æ standa mér augu
of eld til Gráfeldar.

Æ standa augu mér of eld til Gráfeldar.

Always my eyes are turned across the fire to Gráfeldr (‘Grey-cloak’).

Mss: Ágr(5va) (Ágr)

Readings: [1] Æ: ‘Ęa’ Ágr

Editions: Skj AI, 178, Skj BI, 168, Skald I, 90, NN §§2761, 2902G; ÍF 29, 12, Ágr 2008, 16-17 (ch. 8).

Context: The couplet is cited to illustrate the handsome appearance of Haraldr gráfeldr, but without a narrative context to identify the occasion or the speaker.

Notes: [1] æ ‘always’: ‘Ęa’ in the ms. appears to be a scribal error. — [2] of eld ‘across the fire’: Of eld is written clearly as two words in the ms., and the line is a Type B with the prep. of ‘across’ in anacrusis. Kock (NN §2761) initially took of eld as a cpd adj. ófeld ‘unwavering’ (lit. ‘not-turned-down’) qualifying augu (n. nom. pl.) ‘eyes’ (l. 1), hence ‘always my unwavering eyes are turned towards Gráfeldr’. Kuhn (1936b, 159) pointed out that this construction involves illicit alliteration on the rhyming syllables, in response to which Kock (NN §2902G; Skald) created another cpd adj. of-eld ‘exceedingly kindled’ or ‘burning’. Aside from the fact that the cpd is unattested, this reading is metrically impossible: the two syllables in the cpd would resolve on the first lift, creating a pentasyllabic line (see Kuhn 1937, 51-2).  — [2] til Gráfeldar ‘to Gráfeldr (“Grey-cloak”)’: Haraldr Eiríksson, the son of Eiríkr blóðøx ‘Blood-axe’ Eiríksson and Gunnhildr, got this nickname because he wore a grey cloak of sheepskin given to him by Icelandic merchants (see ÍF 26, 211-12 and Note to Anon Nkt 16/5^II; for Haraldr’s career see ‘Ruler biographies’ in Introduction to this volume.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
5. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
6. Kuhn, Hans (1899). 1937. ‘Zum Vers- und Satzbau der Skalden’. ZDA 74, 49-63. Rpt. in Kuhn (1899) 1969-78, I, 468-84.
7. Ágr 2008 = Driscoll, Matthew J., ed. and trans. 2008. Ágrip af Nóregskonungasǫgum: A Twelfth-Century Synoptic History of the Kings of Norway. 2nd edn. Viking Society for Northern Research Text Series 10. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
8. Kuhn, Hans (1899). 1936b. ‘Zu Ernst Albin Kocks Notationes Norrœnæ: Kritik der §§2501-10’. BGDSL 60, 133-60.
9. Internal references
10. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Anonymous Poems, Nóregs konungatal 16’ 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. 772.