Vagn Lv 1^I

Sigvaldi hefr setta
sjalfa oss und kylfu,
en fárhugaðr fnauði
fór heim til Danmarkar.
Hyggr í faðm at falla
fljótt vinkonu sinni,
en fyr borð it breiða
Búi gekk með hugrekki.

Sigvaldi hefr setta oss sjalfa und kylfu, en fárhugaðr fnauði fór heim til Danmarkar. Hyggr at falla fljótt í faðm vinkonu sinni, en Búi gekk fyr it breiða borð með hugrekki.

Sigvaldi has put us ourselves under the cosh, but the little-hearted coward has gone home to Denmark. He thinks to fall swiftly into the embrace of his lady-friend, but Búi has gone over the broad gunwale with courage.

Mss: 291(36v), 7(37v), Flat(25vb), 510(63r) (Jvs)

Readings: [1] hefr: hefir svá 510;    setta: ‘sett⸜d⸝a’ Flat    [2] oss: so 7, Flat, 510, ‘os’ 291;    und: við Flat    [3] en: og 510;    fárhugaðr: fáfróðigr Flat, fáhróðigr 510;    fnauði: flœði 7, flýði Flat, 510    [4] heim: so 7, Flat, ‘⸜heim⸝ aptr’ 291;    ‑markar: ‑merkr Flat, 510    [5] Hyggr: ‘hygzt’ 510    [6] vin‑: so Flat, und 291, ǫrr 7, nú 510    [8] gekk: so 7, Flat, ‘gegc’ 291;    ‑rekki: ‑reiði 510

Editions: Skj AI, 185-6, Skj BI, 175, Skald I, 93; Jvs 1879, 86, Jvs 1882, 118, Jvs 1962, 37-8, Jvs 1969, 188, 216, Flat 1860-8, I, 194

Context: At a point in the battle of Hjǫrungavágr (Liavågen) when the division and defeat of the Jómsvíkingar has become apparent, and victory looks assured for the Norwegian jarls Hákon Sigurðarson and his son Eiríkr, Sigvaldi, leader of the Jómsvíkingar, flees and (in 291) calls for others to flee too. Vagn speaks the stanza (in 291 as a direct response to Sigvaldi).

Notes: [1] Sigvaldi: The son of Strút-Haraldr of Selund (Zealand), and leader of the Jómsvíkingar after the death of Pálna-Tóki. — [2] und kylfu ‘under the cosh’: LP: kylfa assumes an idiom setja e-n und kylfu ‘to place sby under a club’, hence ‘to put in danger’, cf. ModE under the cosh ‘under pressure or threat’, and this would fit the situation here, where Sigvaldi and Vagn are comrades. — [3] fnauði ‘coward’: A word restricted to poetry, and recorded also in Anon (Mberf) 5/5^II. Fnauði is clearly the lectio difficilior compared to the readings in Flat and 7. — [5-8]: The second helmingr sets up a familiar skaldic contrast between the coward at home with a woman, and the brave man in battle (cf., e.g., Vígf Lv, Anon Liðs 3). — [6] vinkonu ‘of his lady-friend’: Only the Flat reading gives good sense here. The cpd vinkona is also recorded in Hjalmþ Lv 3/6^VIII (HjǪ 5). The reading for the first syllable in ms. 7, ǫrr ‘swift (man)’, may be an attempt to supply a m. nom. sg. adj. to function as the subject of hyggr ‘thinks’, which otherwise is understood as fnauði ‘the coward’ in l. 3. — [7] borð ‘gunwale’: The sg. ‘plank, planking’ is used here in a collective sense to refer to the ship’s hull (Jesch 2001a, 140). — [8] Búi: According to Jvs, the son of Véseti of Bornholm, and uncle of Vagn. The preceding prose of Jvs (1962, 37) records that Búi shouted ‘Fyrir borð allir Búa liðar’, ‘Overboard all Búi’s men’ and leapt off the ship with his treasure-chests.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. 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.
4. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
5. Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
6. Jvs 1879 = Petersens, Carl af, ed. 1879. Jómsvíkinga saga (efter Cod. AM. 510, 4:to) samt Jómsvíkinga drápa. Lund: Gleerup.
7. Jvs 1882 = Petersens, Carl af, ed. 1882. Jómsvíkinga saga efter Arnamagnæanska handskriften No. 291 4:to i diplomatariskt aftryck. SUGNL 7. Copenhagen: Berling.
8. Jvs 1962 = Blake, N. F., ed. and trans. 1962. The Saga of the Jomsvikings. London etc.: Nelson.
9. Jvs 1969 = Ólafur Halldórsson, ed. 1969a. Jómsvíkinga saga. AM 291 4to. Reykjavík: Prentsmiðja Jóns Helgasonar HF.
10. Internal references
11. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Jómsvíkinga saga’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=51> (accessed 20 April 2024)
12. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Magnúss saga berfœtts 5’ 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, pp. 832-3.
13. Diana Whaley 2012, ‘ Vígfúss Víga-Glúmsson, Lausavísa’ 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. 364. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1500> (accessed 20 April 2024)
14. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Anonymous Poems, Liðsmannaflokkr 3’ 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. 1019.
15. Richard L. Harris (ed.) 2017, ‘Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis 5 (Hjálmþér Ingason, Lausavísur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 497.