Anon (MH) 1^II

Nú fara heim í húmi
herkunn fyr lǫg sunnan
daprar skeiðr með dauðan
dýrnenninn gram þenna.
Ǫld hefr illa haldit;
esa stríðvana síðan;
hulit hafa hirðmenn skylja
hǫfuð, þess’s fremstr vas jǫfra.

Nú fara daprar skeiðr heim í húmi sunnan fyr herkunn lǫg með þenna dauðan, dýrnenninn gram. Ǫld hefr haldit illa; esa stríðvana síðan; hirðmenn skylja, þess’s vas fremstr jǫfra, hafa hulit hǫfuð.

Now the gloomy warships sail home in the dusk from the south past well-known law-districts with this dead, most enterprising ruler. People have been sorely grieved; there will be no lack of sorrow later; the retainers of that lord, who was the foremost of princes, have covered their heads.

Mss: H(41r), Hr(29va) (H-Hr); Flat(197rb) (Flat)

Readings: [3] með: fyrir Flat    [4] þenna: þennan Flat    [6] ‑vana: ‘‑uada’ Flat    [8] þess’s (‘þess er’): so Flat, þat er H, Hr;    fremstr: so Flat, fremst H, Hr;    vas (‘var’): er Flat

Editions: Skj AI, 425, Skj BI, 395, Skald I, 195-6, NN §§908, 1147, 2787; Fms 6, 236 (HSig ch. 41); Flat 1860-8, III, 334, Mork 1928-32, 147, Andersson and Gade 2000, 186, 475 (MH).

Context: The retainers bring the body of Magnús inn góði Óláfsson back to Norway after his death in Denmark (on 25 October 1047).

Notes: [All]: For Magnús’s death and the grief of his men, see also Anon Nkt 34-5, ÞjóðA Lv 1 and Okík Magn 2-3. — [1-5]: The present edn follows NN §908. The w. o. of the Skj B version is very garbled. Finnur emends skeiðr ‘warships’ (l. 3) to veðrs (n. gen. sg.) ‘of the wind’ and gives the following reading: nú fara kunn veðrs dýr heim í húmi með þenna nenninn gram dauðan; her daprar fyr sunnan lǫg ‘now the familiar animals of the wind (i.e. ships) sail home in the dusk with this powerful dead king; people grieve south of the sea’. — [2] sunnan fyr herkunn lǫg ‘from the south past well-known law-districts’: This could also be construed as fyr sunnan herkunn lǫg ‘south of well-known law-districts (see Okík Magn 1/8). Lǫg (n. acc. pl.) is taken here in the meaning ‘law-districts’ (so NN §908) rather than lǫg (m. acc. sg.) ‘sea’ (so Skj B). The latter word cannot be reconciled with the attributive adj. herkunn (n. nom. or acc. pl.) ‘well-known’ (rather than herkunnan m. acc. sg.), and for the same reason herkunn cannot qualify gram (m. acc. sg.) ‘ruler’ (l. 4). For lǫg ‘law-districts’ see also Gísl Magnkv 2/8, 17/6 and Anon Nkt 19/2. — [3] daprar ‘gloomy’: This adj. (‘gloomy, mournful’) also occurs in Okík Magn 3/8. — [7] skylja (m. gen. sg.) ‘of that lord’: This noun could technically modify hǫfuð ‘head(s)’ (l. 8): hirðmenn hafa hulit hǫfuð skylja, þess’s fremstr vas jǫfra ‘the retainers have covered the head of the lord, who was the foremost of princes’ (ll. 7-8; so NN §§1147, 2787, citing Beowulf ll. 445b-46a and notes; Beowulf 2008, 143). However, that construction is highly unlikely from a metrical point of view, because enjambement on a non-alliterating noun (skylja ‘of the lord’) and an alliterating noun (hǫfuð ‘head’) is avoided in dróttkvætt poetry (see Gade 1995a, 202-05). For the custom of covering one’s head in grief at the death of a ruler, see Sv (ÍF 30, 148): En hverju gegnir þetta er allir menn drepa niðr hǫfði eða bera klæði yfir hǫfuð sér ‘But of what avail is this, that all men hang their head or pull clothes over their heads’. See also Sigv Berv 12/5-8 and Egill Lv 16/5-8^V). The H-Hr variant (hirðmenn skylja hafa hulit hǫfuð, þats fremst vas jǫfra ‘the retainers of the lord have covered the head, which was the foremost of princes’) must be an attempt at syntactic simplification.

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. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. Andersson, Theodore M. and Kari Ellen Gade, trans. 2000. Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157). Islandica 51. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
7. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
8. 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.
9. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
10. Beowulf 2008 = Fulk, Robert D., Robert E. Bjork and John D. Niles, eds. 2008. Klaeber’s Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg. 4th rev. edn of Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed. Fr. Klaeber. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.
11. ÍF 30 = Sverris saga. Ed. Þorleifur Hauksson. 2007.
12. Internal references
13. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Sverris 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=2> (accessed 25 April 2024)
14. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Hulda-Hrokkinskinna’ 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=84> (accessed 25 April 2024)
15. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Haralds saga Sigurðssonar’ 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=142> (accessed 25 April 2024)
16. Kari Ellen Gade 2009, ‘(Biography of) Magnús inn góði Óláfsson’ 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. 5-7.
17. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Magnúss saga góða ok Haralds harðráða’ 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=147> (accessed 25 April 2024)
18. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Anonymous Poems, Nóregs konungatal 19’ 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. 774.
19. 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.
20. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 23 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Lausavísur 16)’ 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. 210.
21. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Gísl Illugason, Erfikvæði about Magnús berfœttr 2’ 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. 418.
22. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Oddr kíkinaskáld, Poem about Magnús góði 1’ 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. 32.
23. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Oddr kíkinaskáld, Poem about Magnús góði 2’ 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. 33.
24. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Oddr kíkinaskáld, Poem about Magnús góði 3’ 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. 33-4.
25. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Bersǫglisvísur 12’ 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. 23-4.
26. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Lausavísur 1’ 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. 165.
27. Not published: do not cite ()