Bersi Ólfl 2^I

Sveins raunir hefk sénar,
snart rekninga bjartar
þars svaltungur sungu,
— saman fórum vér — stórar.
Elgs munk eigi fylgja
út riðboða síðan
hæsts at hverjum kosti
hranna dýrra manni.

Hefk sénar stórar raunir Sveins, þars {bjartar svaltungur rekninga} sungu snart; vér fórum saman. Munk eigi síðan fylgja út dýrra manni, {riðboða {hæsts elgs hranna}}, at hverjum kosti.

I have seen the great trials of Sveinn, where {bright, cool tongues of swords} [SWORD BLADES] sang keenly; we advanced together. I will not afterwards follow on expeditions a more excellent man, {a riding offerer {of the tallest elk of the waves}} [SHIP > SEAFARER], in any case.

Mss: Kˣ(253r) (Hkr); Holm2(13r), R686ˣ(26r), J1ˣ(159v), J2ˣ(135v-136r), 325VI(11rb), 75a(1vb), 68(12r), 61(84vb), Holm4(5ra), 325V(16va), 325VII(5r), Bb(135va), Flat(83vb), Tóm(102v) (ll. 1-2, 6-8) (ÓH)

Readings: [1] raunir: ‘raunr’ or ‘rannr’ J1ˣ, raun 68;    hefk (‘hef ec’): hefði R686ˣ;    sénar: séna 68    [2] snart: svart 325VI, 75a;    rekninga: rækjandi 61, ‘rækinga’ 325V, 325VII, Flat, Tóm, ‘retningara’ Bb;    bjartar: so R686ˣ, J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 325VI, 75a, 61, Holm4, ‘kiartar’ Kˣ, ‘briartar’ Holm2, bjartir 68, hjarta 325V, 325VII, Flat, ‘biart(ir)’(?) Bb, ‘harta’ Tóm    [3] sval‑: snar‑ 325V;    ‑tungur: ‘‑tungro’ R686ˣ    [4] saman: so all others, sama Kˣ;    fórum (‘foro’): vru 61;    vér: vit J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 68, 61, Holm4, 325V, 325VII, Bb, Flat;    stórar: stórir Holm2, R686ˣ, 68, stórum J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 61, stóra Bb    [5] Elgs: ‘ægls’ J1ˣ;    munk (‘man ec’): mun J1ˣ, J2ˣ;    fylgja: ‘flylgia’ R686ˣ    [6] riðboða: ríðanda 325V;    rið‑: so Holm2, R686ˣ, J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 325VI, 75a, Holm4, Bb, hríð Kˣ, 68, 325VII, Flat, Tóm, skíðs 61    [7] hæsts: hests Kˣ, Holm4, helzt Holm2, 68, Bb, ‘h(ꜹ)st’(?) R686ˣ, hæst J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 325VI, 325VII, hest 75a, 325V, Flat, Tóm, heldr 61;    at: á J2ˣ, 68;    hverjum: ‘hveri(ui)’(?) J1ˣ, hvrum 68, hvru 61;    kosti: vildag 61    [8] manni: manna 325VII, Bb, Tóm

Editions: Skj AI, 276, Skj BI, 255, Skald I, 131, NN §§685, 686, 2008F; Hkr 1893-1901, II, 74, IV, 123-4, ÍF 27, 66, Hkr 1991, I, 295 (ÓHHkr ch. 50); Fms 4, 102, Fms 12, 80, ÓH 1941, I, 95-6 (ch. 40), Flat 1860-8, II, 45.

Context: This follows Ólfl 1 (see Context), with no intervening words.

Notes: [1] Sveins ‘of Sveinn’: Sveinn jarl Hákonarson (r. c. 1000-15); see Biography of Bersi above and ‘Ruler biographies’ in Introduction to this volume. — [3] þars ‘where’: This introduces the clause built around sungu ‘sang’ (so also Skald and NN §685). As the anacrusis to a Type C-line it belongs with the rest of the line (cf. Gade 1995a, 124), and hence it cannot be taken with the clause built around fórum ‘we advanced’ (as in Skj B and ÍF 27). — [4] vér ‘we’: The dual vit, found in several ÓH mss, is also grammatically acceptable, and would underline Bersi’s relationship with Sveinn. — [4] stórar ‘great’: This f. nom./acc. pl. adj. could alternatively qualify -tungur ‘tongues’ (l. 2) and hence the kenning for ‘sword-blades’. — [5-8]: The overall sense is clearly that the speaker will never campaign with a nobler lord (fylgja út dýrra manni), and there appears to be a man-kenning involving boða ‘offerer’ as a base-word (matching that in st. 1/6) and a ship-kenning formed from hranna ‘of waves’ plus elgs ‘elk’ (l. 5) or hests ‘horse’ (l. 7, Kˣ, Holm4). Beyond that the helmingr is problematic especially because of the presence in the majority readings of two animal terms, elg- ‘elk’ and hest- ‘horse’ (both largely guaranteed by the metre), and because the identity of hríð- or rið- in l. 6 is uncertain. (a) In the solution tentatively proposed above, the reading hæst ‘tallest, highest’ in l. 7 found in J, 325VI and 325VII is emended to gen. sg. hæsts (encouraged by hests in Kˣ and Holm4) and understood to qualiy elgs ‘of the elk’. ‘Rið-’ in most mss in l. 6 is taken as a verbal prefix meaning ‘riding’ or ‘swinging, swaying’ (cf. riðmarar ‘riding horses’ in a ship-kenning in Tindr Hákdr 1/7). Hence riðboða hæsts elgs hranna is ‘riding offerer of the tallest elk of the waves [SHIP > SEAFARER]’. Retaining -boða gives a dat. sg. governed by fylgja ‘follow’ in apposition to manni ‘man’. The rhyme of short vowel on long in rið- : síð- would be paralleled in Bersi 1/7 hapts : keyptak. (b) The overload of kenning elements can alternatively be resolved by assuming two separate kennings, and one way of doing this underlies Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson’s solution in ÍF 27, followed in Hkr 1991. He takes hests hranna ‘horse of the waves [SHIP]’ as an adverbial gen. of place, i.e. ‘on a ship, by ship’, expanding on út ‘out (on expeditions)’ (Bjarni cites NS §141; cf. also Poole 2004). Elgs is read as an Óðinn-heiti, for which Bjarni cites an interpretation of Egill St 15^V (Eg 86) and an interpretation of the present line in ÍF 2, 252 n. Hence Elgs hríðboða is ‘offerer of Óðinn’s storm [(lit. ‘Óðinn’s storm-offerer’) BATTLE > WARRIOR]’, taken in apposition to dýrra manni ‘a man more excellent’. The overall construal is thus Munk eigi fylgja út síðan hranna hests Elgs hríðboða, dýrra manni, which (replacing the kennings by their referents) would translate: ‘I will not afterwards follow on expeditions by ship a warrior, a man more excellent [than Sveinn]’. This has the advantage of requiring no emendation, but it does demand of the audience that they would apprehend elgs in an unusual sense and hranna hests in an unusual syntactic function. (c) Another construal also assumes two kennings but in a different configuration: hríðboði elgs read as boði elgs hríðar ‘offerer of the elk of the sea [SHIP > GENEROUS RULER]’ (paralleled in Anon Óldr 17/3), with emendation of boða to boði in order to supply an apostrophe, and with manni hests hranna ‘man of the horse of the waves’, hence ‘seafarer’ or ‘ship’s champion’, understood as the object of fylgja ‘follow’. This is the solution proposed by Kock in NN §686B, C. However, confidence in the latter construction depends on one’s confidence in Kock’s claimed parallels, and a bare manni seems stylistically more likely. Further, none of the numerous mss has boði, and although hríð can mean ‘sea’ (Þul Sjóvar 2/3^III; LP: hríð 4), it much more frequently refers to ‘storm’ or ‘(phase in a) battle’. (d) Finnur Jónsson in Skj B (developing an idea already mooted in Hkr 1893-1901, IV) makes two small emendations: of elgs to elds in l. 5, and of -boða to -boði in l. 6, to produce hranna hests elds hríðboði ‘offerer of the storm of the fire of the horse of the waves [(lit. ‘storm-offerer of the fire of the horse of the waves’) SHIP > SHIELD > BATTLE > WARRIOR]’. However, there are numerous objections to this, as noted by Kock (NN §686A): the emendation to elds is against all mss; it destroys a perfectly good rhyme; and it assumes that ‘fire of the ship’ can mean ‘shield’, something that Finnur himself presents with caution in LP: hríðboði. (e) Some of these problems are obviated by emending elgs instead to olgs ‘fire’ (LP, AEW: olgr; Þul Elds 3/1^III), hence hríðboða olgs hests hranna ‘offerer of the storm of the fire of the horse of the wave [(lit. ‘storm-offerer of the fire of the horse of the waves’) SHIP > SHIELD > BATTLE > WARRIOR]’.

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. 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. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
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. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
9. 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.
10. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
11. 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.
12. ÍF 2 = Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar. Ed. Sigurður Nordal. 1933.
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. Poole, Russell. 2004. ‘Adverbial Genitives in Skaldic Poetry’. MS 104, 115-31.
17. Internal references
18. (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 23 April 2024)
19. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Óláfs saga helga (in Heimskringla)’ 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=152> (accessed 23 April 2024)
20. Kate Heslop (ed.) 2012, ‘Anonymous Poems, Óláfs drápa Tryggvasonar 17’ 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. 1049.
21. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Elds heiti 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. 924.
22. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sjóvar heiti 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 835.
23. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2012, ‘Bersi Skáld-Torfuson, Flokkr about Óláfr helgi 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. 791.
24. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 86 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Sonatorrek 15)’ 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. 314.
25. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Tindr Hallkelsson, Hákonardrápa 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. 338.