Arn Hryn 17^II

Eigi létuð, jǫfra bági,
yðru nafni mannkyn hafna;
hvártki flýrðu, hlenna þreytir,
hyr né malm í broddi styrjar.
Hlunna es, sem rǫðull renni,
reiðar búningr, upp í heiði,
— hrósak því, es herskip glæsir
hlenna dolgr — eða vitar brenni.

{Bági jǫfra}, létuð eigi mannkyn hafna nafni yðru; {þreytir hlenna}, flýrðu hvártki hyr né malm í broddi styrjar. Búningr {reiðar hlunna} es, sem rǫðull renni upp í heiði, eða vitar brenni; hrósak því, es {dolgr hlenna} glæsir herskip.

{Subduer of princes} [RULER], you did not allow the race of men to neglect your name; {destroyer of thieves} [JUST RULER], you flee neither fire nor steel in the forefront of battle. The array {of the chariot of rollers} [SHIP] is as though the sun were racing up in the bright sky, or beacons flaring; I praise the way that {the foe of thieves} [JUST RULER] adorns his warships.

Mss: Mork(5v) (Mork); Flat(196ra) (Flat); H(33r), Hr(24ra) (H-Hr)

Readings: [1] bági: bægi Flat    [2] mann‑: so Flat, H, man‑ Mork, Hr    [4] hyr né malm: ‘hyrr næmenn’ Flat    [5] es (‘er’): ‘ess’ Flat    [8] vitar: ‘uíta’ Flat

Editions: Skj AI, 337, Skj BI, 310, Skald I, 157-8; Mork 1928-32, 117, Andersson and Gade 2000, 166-7, 475 (MH); Flat 1860-8, III, 322 (MH); Fms 6, 197 (HSig ch. 24), Fms 12, 148; Whaley 1998, 176-8.

Context: As for sts 3 and 16. In Mork and Flat, st. 17 follows st. 16 without interruption. In H-Hr, it is introduced as evidence for Magnús’s sailing.

Notes: [2] mannkyn ‘race of men’: The translation preserves the full value of both elements, but the context would also admit of the sense ‘men, people’, as also would Arn Hardr 9/7. Hofmann (1955, 102) suggested that the development of meaning from ‘the human race’ to ‘(a limited number of) people, men’ in the ON word points to OE influence, and this seems possible, especially in view of the extreme rarity of mannkyn in the early poetry (see further Whaley 1998, 177-8). — [3] þreytir ‘destroyer’: The reading is agreed by all mss and yields good sense, but fails to provide the necessary skothending, which is out of line with Arnórr’s usual exactitude in this respect, and that of his contemporaries. Emendation to the near-synonymous rýrir was proposed by Konráð Gíslason, 1877, 56 and adopted in Whaley 1998, 177 but, in accord with the conservative policy of this edn, is not adopted here. — [7] glæsir ‘adorns’: The verb is construed here as 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic., predicate to dolgr hlenna ‘foe of thieves’. It could alternatively be 2nd pers. pres. sg. indic., in which case þú ‘you’ is the understood subject and dolgr hlenna (l. 8) an apostrophe.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
5. Whaley, Diana, ed. and trans. 1998. The Poetry of Arnórr jarlaskáld: An Edition and Study. Westfield Publications in Medieval Studies 8. Turnhout: Brepols.
6. 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.
7. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
8. Hofmann, Dietrich. 1955. Nordisch-englische Lehnbeziehungen der Wikingerzeit. BA 14. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
9. Internal references
10. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Flateyjarbók’ 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=44> (accessed 26 April 2024)
11. (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 26 April 2024)
12. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Morkinskinna’ 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=87> (accessed 26 April 2024)
13. (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 26 April 2024)
14. (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 26 April 2024)
15. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Haraldsdrápa 9’ 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. 270-1.