Arn Þorfdr 18^II

Margr vas millum borga
— mildingr þrǫng at hildi —
horna blôstr, þars hristisk
hugsterks jǫfurs merki.
Vætr brá, ’s vígljóst þótti,
vargsteypis her greypum,
(skulfu jôrn, en ulfar)
uggs (morginhræ tuggu).

Margr blôstr horna vas millum borga, þars merki hugsterks jǫfurs hristisk; mildingr þrǫng at hildi. Vætr uggs brá greypum her {vargsteypis}, [e]s þótti vígljóst; jôrn skulfu, en ulfar tuggu morginhræ.

Many a blast of horns sounded between the defences, where the banner of the stout-hearted hero waved; the bountiful one stormed into battle. Not a trace of fear seized the grim troop {of the thief-feller} [JUST RULER = Þorfinnr], once it seemed light enough for battle; iron blades quivered, and wolves chewed morning-carrion.

Mss: R702ˣ(38v) (Orkn)

Readings: [5] Vætr: vátr R702ˣ    [8] morgin‑: morgun R702ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 347, Skj BI, 319-20, Skald I, 162, NN §833; Orkn 1913-16, 65 n., ÍF 34, 62 n. 1 (ch. 24); Whaley 1998, 255-7.

Context: The st. follows sts 16 and 17 directly.

Notes: [5] vætr ‘not a trace’: The emendation, first proposed by Gudbrand Vigfusson (Orkn 1887, 43 n. 12), is necessary since vátr ‘wet’ could make no sense in the helmingr. — [8] morginhræ ‘morning carrion’: A unique cpd playing on morgunverðr, -matr ‘morning meal, breakfast’ is assumed here, cf. Þþyn Lv l. 3^IV (c. 955), where the carrion-greedy raven demands its morginbrð ‘morning flesh’; cf. also the macabre application of the culinary bráðla steikðan ‘swiftly roasted’ to corpses in Arn Magndr 8/5. (b) Morgin could alternatively be read as an acc. of time ‘in the morning, by morning’ (so Finnbogi Guðmundsson in ÍF 34), cf. fríamorgin ‘on Friday morning’ in st. 13, and margan morgin ‘(on) many a morning’, Sigv Vestv 1/1-2^I. This could qualify any or all of the four clauses in the helmingr, though the best solution semantically, of construing it with [e]s þótti vígljóst ‘once it seemed light enough for battle’ (l. 5), entails a problematic division of l. 8 into parts of three clauses. (c) Kock suggested that uggs morginn is a unitary phrase meaning ‘morning of terror’, a contrasting expression to feginsmorginn ‘morning of joy’ in ESk Sigdr I 3/8. However, while fegin(s) is based on an adj. and very commonly figures in cpd expressions, uggs is a noun and is not otherwise recorded in this role. (d) Finnur Jónsson, in Skj B, emended morgun/morgin to -inn and vigljóst in l. 5 to -ljóss in order to obtain es morginn þótti vígljóss ‘when the morning seemed light enough for fighting’. But the problem of the partitioning of l. 8, mentioned under alternative (b) above, arises again and the emendation is not strictly necessary.

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. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
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. ÍF 34 = Orkneyinga saga. Ed. Finnbogi Guðmundsson. 1965.
7. Orkn 1913-16 = Sigurður Nordal, ed. 1913-16. Orkneyinga saga. SUGNL 40. Copenhagen: Møller.
8. Orkn 1887 = Gudbrand Vigfusson 1887-94, I.
9. Internal references
11. Not published: do not cite (Þþyn Lv^IV)
12. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Magnússdrápa 8’ 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. 217.
13. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Sigurðardrápa I 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, p. 540.
14. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Vestrfararvísur 1’ 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. 617.