Bjbp Jóms 41^I

Þar lét Eirekr ǫndu
átján þegar týna
(heldr frágum þá þverra)
þegna (lið fyr Vagni).
Mæltu hraustar hetjur
— haukligt var þat fíkjum —
— þau hafa þjóðir uppi —
þróttarorð með fyrðum.

Eirekr lét þegar átján þegna týna ǫndu þar; frágum lið þá heldr þverra fyr Vagni. Hraustar hetjur mæltu þróttarorð með fyrðum; þat var fíkjum haukligt; þjóðir hafa þau uppi.

Eiríkr immediately had eighteen retainers lose their lives there; we [I] have heard that the troop then diminished rather for Vagn. Bold heroes spoke forceful words to men; that was extremely hawk-like; people remember them.

Mss: 61(20va), 54(17ra), Bb(27rb) (ÓT)

Readings: [4] þegna: ógnar 54, Bb

Editions: Skj AII, 9, Skj BII, 9, Skald II, 6; Fms 1, 180, Fms 12, 45, ÓT 1958-2000, I, 196-7 (ch. 90), Ólafur Halldórsson 2000, 32, 83; Fms 11, 174-5, Jvs 1879, 118-19.

Context: The defeated Vagn and his men are bound by the Norwegians when they come ashore, with a single rope binding all their feet together as they sit on a log. Þorkell leira approaches Vagn and mocks him for his vow that he would kill Þorkell; Þorkell wields an axe and strikes at the Jómsvíkingar one by one. Eighteen, though not Vagn, are put to death in this way, each of them speaking bold words before dying.

Notes: [All]: R does not preserve sts 41-5; the text here is from 61, as the best ÓT ms. The edn of the poem in Fms 11 and Jvs 1879 is also completed by using the ÓT text. — [6] haukligt ‘hawk-like’: The vows of the Jómsvíkingar are described as haukligar ‘hawk-like’ in st. 11/5; cf. also hauklyndr ‘hawk-tempered’, used of Vagn in st. 8/8, and see Note. — [7] þau ‘them’: The pron. is n. acc. pl., referring to þróttarorð ‘forceful words’. — [8] þróttarorð ‘forceful words’: Lit. ‘words of power, endurance’. The recurrence of this combination suggests it is best treated as a cpd: see Note to Hfr ErfÓl 3/8.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. ÓT 1958-2000 = Ólafur Halldórsson, ed. 1958-2000. Saga Óláfs Tryggvasonar en mesta. 3 vols. EA A 1-3. Copenhagen: Munksgaard (Reitzel).
5. Jvs 1879 = Petersens, Carl af, ed. 1879. Jómsvíkinga saga (efter Cod. AM. 510, 4:to) samt Jómsvíkinga drápa. Lund: Gleerup.
6. Ólafur Halldórsson. 2000a. Danish Kings and the Jomsvikings in the Greatest Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason. London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
7. Internal references
8. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta’ 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=60> (accessed 26 April 2024)
9. Kate Heslop (ed.) 2012, ‘Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Erfidrápa Óláfs Tryggvasonar 3’ 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. 405.