Arn Magndr 2^II

Þing bauð út inn ungi
eggrjóðandi þjóðum;
fim bar hirð til hǫmlu
hervæðr ara bræðis.
Salt skar húfi héltum
hraustr þjóðkonungr austan;
bôru brimlogs rýri
brún veðr at Sigtúnum.

{Inn ungi eggrjóðandi} bauð þjóðum út þing; fim hirð {bræðis ara} bar {hervæðr} til hǫmlu. Hraustr þjóðkonungr skar salt héltum húfi austan; brún veðr bôru {rýri {brimlogs}} at Sigtúnum.

{The young blade-reddener} [WARRIOR] summoned men to the assembly; lively, the troop {of the feeder of the eagle} [WARRIOR] went in {war-garb} [ARMOUR] to the rowing positions. The valiant mighty king clove the salt with rime-spread hull from the east; sharp gales bore {the diminisher {of surf-fire}} [GOLD > GENEROUS MAN] towards Sigtuna (Sigtúnir).

Mss: Kˣ(494r), 39(12ra), F(37ra), E(3r), J2ˣ(239r) (Hkr); Holm2(73r), 972ˣ(578va), 325VI(41ra), 73aˣ(213r), Holm4(68va), 325VII(41r), 325V(87vb-88ra), 61(129va), Bb(205ra), Tóm(160r) (ÓH); Hr(3vb) (H-Hr); Flat(189va) (Flat); R(38r) (ll. 5-8), Tˣ(40r) (ll. 5-8), A(13r) (ll. 5-8), C(7v) (ll. 5-6) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Þing: Þings 61    [2] ‑rjóðandi: ‑ríðandi 39;    þjóðum: so 39, F, E, J2ˣ, Holm2, 972ˣ, 325VI, 73aˣ, Holm4, 325VII, 325V, 61, Bb, Hr, Flat, þjóðu Kˣ, þjóðar Tóm    [3] fim: fimm F, fimt 61, Tóm;    hirð: herr 39, hríð 61, Tóm;    til hǫmlu: í hǫmlu 39, í hǫmlur F, 325VI, Bb, Hr, Flat, at hǫmlu E, J2ˣ    [4] ‑væðr: ‑veðr 39, J2ˣ, 325VI, Bb, ‑væðs Holm4, ‑næðr 325V, ræðr Tóm, ‑veðrs Flat;    ara: ‘aara’ 61;    bræðis: ‘bræðir’ Hr, ‘bredía’ Flat    [5] húfi: húmi 61;    héltum: so E, J2ˣ, 73aˣ, R, helltum Kˣ, 39, F, Holm2, 325VI, Holm4, 325VII, 61, Bb, Tóm, Flat, Tˣ, A, C, ‘heilltvm’ 325V, ‘huelltum’ Hr    [6] austan: flaustum 325VI    [7] brim‑: bein‑ or beim‑ Flat;    ‑logs: ‑log 39, ‑laugs 325V, logns Bb;    rýri: hlýri Bb    [8] brún: so 39, F, E, J2ˣ, Holm2, 972ˣ, 325VI, 73aˣ, Holm4, 325VII, 325V, 61, Bb, Flat, R, Tˣ, A, brim Kˣ, Tóm;    at: af Flat

Editions: Skj AI, 338-9, Skj BI, 312, Skald I, 158, NN §3082; Hkr 1893-1901, III, 4, ÍF 28, 4, Hkr 1991, 557-8 (Mgóð ch. 1), F 1871, 168, E 1916, 7; ÓH 1941, I, 614 (ch. 252); Fms 6, 22 (Mgóð ch. 10), Fms 12, 126; Flat 1860-8, III, 263, Andersson and Gade 2000, 99, 466 (MH); SnE 1848-87, I, 498-9, II, 450, 599, SnE 1931, 175, SnE 1998, I, 94; Whaley 1998, 184-7.

Context: In the kings’ sagas (Hkr, ÓH, H-Hr and Flat), Magnús continues his journey in the spring to Sweden. In SnE, Snorri includes the second helmingr in a long sequence of skaldic quotations illustrating heiti for ‘sea’, in this case salt.

Notes: [1, 2] bauð þjóðum út þing ‘summoned men to the assembly’: Þjóðum, the reading of most mss though not of Kˣ, gives an unusual but comprehensible construction, which seems to be blended from two common patterns: (i) bauð út ... þjóðum, corresponding to bjóða út liði/leiðangri/sveitum ‘call up troops’, and (ii) bauð þing ‘ordered an assembly’ corresponding to bjóða e-t ‘order, command sth.’, as in Arn Hardr 10/1 uppgǫngu bauð yngvi ‘the prince ordered the advance ashore’. Þing ‘assembly’ usually refers to a legal assembly, but the slightly transferred sense of a military muster is suggested by the poetic context here (cf. Notes to Arn Hryn 5/7 and st. 9/2). — [3] til hǫmlu ‘to the rowing positions’: The gen. sg. hǫmlu stands for pl. here. For the sense of hamla, see Note to Arn Hryn 9/5. — [4] bræðis ara ‘of the feeder of the eagle [WARRIOR]’: Ara is taken here as gen. sg., but gen. pl. is also possible, hence ‘feeder of eagles’. — [5] héltum ‘rime-spread’: The majority of ms. readings would point to helltum (m. dat. sg. p. p. from hella) ‘poured out’; but there is sufficient support for the p. p. of héla ‘cover with rime or hoar-frost’, and cf. hélug bǫrð ‘rime-spread prows’ in Arn Hryn 11/4; cf. also EGils Selv 18/3^IV. — [8] brún veðr ‘sharp gales’: The vowel of the majority variant brún is established by the full rhyme with ‑tún-. (a) Brúnn has been taken by some scholars as an adj. meaning ‘sharp, prominent, direct’, derived from brún f. ‘sharp edge’ and interchangeable with the i-mutated adj. brýnn (see Fms 12, 126; Konráð Gíslason 1866, 282-3; Finnur Jónsson in Skj B and LP); cf. other pairs with and without i-mutation such as the f. nouns bón/bœn ‘prayer’, sjón/sýn ‘sight’ or cpd adjectives in ‑lægr beside the simplex lágr ‘low’. Brúnn in Sigv ErfÓl 14/8^I, which also rhymes with ‑tún-, qualifies hjǫrr ‘sword’, so that it could well mean ‘sharp’ (so ÍF 27, 381 n.), and in two C13th sts, SnSt Ht 50/4^III and Sturl Hrafn 20/2, it describes a weapon and again may mean ‘sharp’ (cited by Dal, 1938, 221). The postulated phrase brún veðr ‘sharp gales’ in the present st. is also semantically plausible. Brýnn is applied to a wind (byrr) in HSt Rst 15/3, 4^I, and in FGT 1972a, 222. A final point in favour of the present interpretation is that Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, describing the same voyage, speaks of a ‘raging gale’ (ótt veðr, ÞjóðA Magnfl 2/6). (b) Brúnn ‘dark-brown, black’ is used in skaldic poetry to describe blood or, in SnSt Ht 3/4^III, a ship. There is no other case in recorded ON where the epithet qualifies ‘wind’ or ‘weather’, although it might be a possible description if foam or clouds were darkening the air. (c) Brimveðr ‘surf-gales’ (so Kˣ) would give good sense, but it fails to provide a rhyme with -tún-, and is very much a minority reading. It is presumably a dittography of brim(logs) in l. 7.

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. 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.
5. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. Whaley, Diana, ed. and trans. 1998. The Poetry of Arnórr jarlaskáld: An Edition and Study. Westfield Publications in Medieval Studies 8. Turnhout: Brepols.
10. FGT 1972a = Hreinn Benediktsson, ed. 1972. The First Grammatical Treatise. University of Iceland Publications in Linguistics 1. Reykjavík: Institute of Nordic Linguistics.
11. 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.
12. ÓH 1941 = Johnsen, Oscar Albert and Jón Helgason, eds. 1941. Saga Óláfs konungs hins helga: Den store saga om Olav den hellige efter pergamenthåndskrift i Kungliga biblioteket i Stockholm nr. 2 4^to med varianter fra andre håndskrifter. 2 vols. Det norske historiske kildeskriftfond skrifter 53. Oslo: Dybwad.
13. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
14. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
15. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
16. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
17. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
18. E 1916 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1916. Eirspennill: AM 47 fol. Nóregs konunga sǫgur: Magnús góði – Hákon gamli. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske historiske kildeskriftskommission.
19. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
20. Konráð Gíslason. 1866a. ‘Forandringer af “qvantitet” i oldnordisk-islandsk’. ÅNOH, 242-305.
21. Internal references
22. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
23. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Heimskringla’ 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=4> (accessed 19 April 2024)
24. (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 19 April 2024)
25. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Óláfs saga helga’ 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=53> (accessed 19 April 2024)
26. (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 19 April 2024)
27. (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 19 April 2024)
28. Diana Whaley 2009, ‘(Biography of) Þjóðólfr Arnórsson’ 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. 57-176.
29. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Haraldsdrápa 10’ 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. 271.
30. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Hrynhenda, Magnússdrápa 11’ 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. 196-7.
31. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Hrynhenda, Magnússdrápa 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. 189-90.
32. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Hrynhenda, Magnússdrápa 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. 193-4.
33. Not published: do not cite (EGils Selv 18^IV)
34. Rolf Stavnem (ed.) 2012, ‘Hallar-Steinn, Rekstefja 15’ 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. 913.
35. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ara heiti’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 949. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3240> (accessed 19 April 2024)
36. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Erfidrápa Óláfs helga 14’ 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. 681.
37. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1107.
38. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 50’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1159.
39. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, Hrafnsmál 20’ 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. 744-5.
40. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Magnússflokkr 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, pp. 65-6.