Arn Frag 4^III

Bekks lá eldr ok axla
ulfliðs Dǫnum miðli;
ek sá armhrauð þakka
eitt Skônunga hônum.

{Eldr bekks} lá miðli ulfliðs ok axla Dǫnum; ek sá Skônunga þakka hônum eitt armhrauð.

{Fire of the stream} [GOLD] lay between the wrist and shoulders of the Danes; I saw the Skánungar thank him for one arm-ring.

Mss: 2368ˣ(93), 743ˣ(73r) (LaufE)

Readings: [2] Dǫnum: ‘daun̄’ 2368ˣ, 743ˣ    [3] armhrauð: arm 2368ˣ, ‘armraud’ 743ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 354, Skj BI, 326, Skald I, 165, NN §843; LaufE 1979, 348; Whaley 1998, 308-10.

Context: The helmingr is cited in a section of LaufE concerning terms for ‘gold’, here the kenning eldr bekks ‘fire of the stream’.

Notes: [All]: The fragment is preserved only in the Y branch of LaufE and in RE 1665(Ff) (copied from a LaufE Y ms. and not used in the present edn). The route by which it entered the tradition is unknown (LaufE 1979, 176). No poem by Arnórr in praise of a Danish ruler is specifically mentioned in the medieval sources. However, the Danish allusions in l. 2 (Dǫnum ‘Danes’) and l. 4 (Skônunga ‘Skánungar’) would tally with the fact that Skáldatal (SnE 1848-87, III, 258, 267) lists Arnórr among the poets who composed in honour of Knútr inn ríki (Cnut the Great), and the fragment may well praise Knútr’s generosity to his retainers. — [1-2] ulfliðs ok axla ‘the wrist and shoulders’: For a story attached to the cpd ulfliðr ‘wrist’, lit. ‘wolf-joint’, and apparently based on a folk etymology, see Note to Þul á hendi 1/7, which is the only other occurrence of the cpd in a metrical text. Plural axla ‘shoulders’ and sg. ulfliðs ‘wrist’ are a rather ill-assorted pair. Possibly ulfliðs was chosen in preference to gen. pl. ‑liða for metrical reasons. — [2] Dǫnum ‘the Danes’: The abbreviated form in both mss would normally be expanded to ‘daunn’, but this is meaningless, while ‘daunum’, i.e. Dǫnum (dat. pl.) ‘Danes’ would fit well in context. As well as supplying the necessary disyllable, this can be readily construed as a poss. dat. (cf. NS §100 Anm. 3). It is possible that the superscript nasal stroke represented <um> in an exemplar, or that the vowel <u> has been lost in transmission. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B; 1934a, 47) instead proposed emendation to grami (dat. sg.) ‘ruler’. — [3] armhrauð ‘arm-ring’: The cpd apparently forms a phrase with eitt ‘one’ and so must be n., and the context suggests that it must mean ‘arm-ring’, cf. armbaugr in Lok 13/1 (NK 99). Finnur Jónsson emends to armband (Skj B; 1934a, 47). The ms. spelling ‘raud’ could, however, represent ‑hrauð, cf. ON hrjóða and OE hrēodan ‘adorn’, both recorded solely or mainly as past participles. Kock (NN §843) assumes armhrauð to be cognate with OE earm(h)rēad f. ‘arm-ornament’ which occurs, also in a context of gift-giving, in Beowulf ll. 1193-4: wunden gold … earmrēade twā ‘twisted gold … two arm-ornaments’ (Beowulf 2008, 42, 368). Despite the difference of genders, the assumption of a cognate supplies an attractive solution here. — [4] Skônunga ‘the Skánungar’: The men of Skåne (ON Skáney, Skáni). This is best taken as acc. pl., object to sá ‘saw’ and subject to þakka ‘thank’. Skåne was a Danish province in the C11th, and the Skônungar are doubtless the Danir of l. 2; but it remains obscure why several men should thank hônum ‘him’ for the gift of a single arm-ring (eitt armhrauð).

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. 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.
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. LaufE 1979 = Faulkes, Anthony, ed. 1979. Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar (Laufás Edda). RSÁM 13. Vol. I of Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1977-9.
7. Whaley, Diana, ed. and trans. 1998. The Poetry of Arnórr jarlaskáld: An Edition and Study. Westfield Publications in Medieval Studies 8. Turnhout: Brepols.
8. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
9. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
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. Internal references
12. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Heiti á hendi 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 967.
13. Not published: do not cite ()
14. Not published: do not cite ()
15. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Laufás Edda’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=10928> (accessed 27 April 2024)
16. Not published: do not cite ()