Arn Þorfdr 9^II

Ulfs tuggu rauð eggjar,
eitt þars Torfnes heitir,
— ungr olli því þengill —
— þat vas mánadag — fránar.
Sungu þar, til þinga,
þunn fyr Ekkjal sunnan
sverð, es siklingr barðisk
snarr við Skotlands harra.

Fránar eggjar rauð {tuggu ulfs}, þars eitt heitir Torfnes; ungr þengill olli því; þat vas mánadag. Þunn sverð sungu þar fyr sunnan Ekkjal, es siklingr, snarr til þinga, barðisk við harra Skotlands.

Bright blades grew red {on the wolf’s mouthful} [CORPSE], at a place called Tarbatness (Torfnes); young, the ruler caused that; it was a Monday. Slender swords sang there south of the Oykell, as the princeling, swift into conflict, fought with Scotland’s lord.

Mss: 332ˣ(28), Flat(131rb), R702ˣ(37v-38r) (Orkn)

Readings: [1] tuggu: ‑tugga R702ˣ;    rauð: ‘ręd’ R702ˣ    [3] því: so Flat, R702ˣ, ‘þi’ 332ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 345, Skj BI, 317-18, Skald I, 161, NN §§830, 2495D; Flat 1860-8, II, 407, Orkn 1913-16, 50, ÍF 34, 50 (ch. 20); Whaley 1998, 236-8.

Context: In the land battle at Tarbatness (Torfnes), Þorfinnr and his men attack, and Karl’s Irish division is thrown into disarray. Karl then advances his standard against Þorfinnr in a grim struggle. He eventually flees, though some say that he fell.

Notes: [1] tuggu ulfs ‘on the wolf’s mouthful [CORPSE]’: Tugga f. ‘chew, chewed mouthful’ also occurs in three examples of tugga Munins ‘Muninn’s <raven’s> mouthful [CORPSE]’ (LP: tugga). The noun tuggu appears to be dat. here, and the use of rauð ‘reddened’ impersonal. There could alternatively be an understood pronominal subject, hence ‘[He] reddened bright blades’. (b) The variant tugga (R702ˣ) would be nom. sg., subject to rauð in tugga ulfs rauð fránar eggjar ‘the corpse reddened bright blades’; this is definitely the lectio facilior. — [2] Torfnes ‘Tarbatness’: The ON name Torfnes, lit. ‘Peat Headland’, must represent a false etymology of the Gaelic tairbeart ‘isthmus’, common in place-names. There is—and presumably was—no peat at Tarbatness (Munch 1852-63, I, ii, 856, n. 1). — [5, 8] snarr til þinga ‘swift into conflict’: (a) This translation assumes that þing is equivalent to the battle-heiti in phrases such as such as HaukrV Ísldr 19/3-4^IV (C12th) snarr til snerru ‘swift into battle’ or Eviðs Lv 2/2^V (C11th) fúss til snerru; the phrase qualifies siklingr ‘princeling’ (so Skj B). (b) An alternative, favoured by Kock (NN §830), is to take sungu þar til þinga þunn ... sverð (reordered as þunn sverð sungu þar til þinga) together as a bold image, ‘slender swords sang there in anticipation of conflict’. (c) If þing were understood not as ‘conflict’ but as ‘goods, booty’ one could construe siklingr barðisk til þinga við harra Skotlands ‘the princeling fought for goods/booty against Scotland’s lord’. — [6] Ekkjal ‘the Oykell’: The river Oykell flows into the Dornoch Firth. Ekkjall here refers especially to the Firth itself.

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. 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.
6. Whaley, Diana, ed. and trans. 1998. The Poetry of Arnórr jarlaskáld: An Edition and Study. Westfield Publications in Medieval Studies 8. Turnhout: Brepols.
7. 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.
8. ÍF 34 = Orkneyinga saga. Ed. Finnbogi Guðmundsson. 1965.
9. Munch, P. A. 1852-63. Det norske folks historie. 8 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Tønsberg.
10. Orkn 1913-16 = Sigurður Nordal, ed. 1913-16. Orkneyinga saga. SUGNL 40. Copenhagen: Møller.
11. Internal references
12. Colin Grant (ed.) 2022, ‘Heiðarvíga saga 10 (Eiríkr viðsjá, Lausavísur 2)’ 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. 998.
13. Not published: do not cite (HaukrV Ísldr 19^IV)