Bjbp Jóms 42^I

Ok með fjǫrnis fálu
fór Þorketill leira,
þá er menbroti mælti
mansǫng of Gná hringa.
Gerðisk hann at hǫggva
hauklyndan son Áka;
Vagn gat heldr at hánum
heiptǫrr vegit fyrri.

Ok Þorketill leira fór með {fálu fjǫrnis}, þá er {menbroti} mælti mansǫng of {Gná hringa}. Hann gerðisk at hǫggva {hauklyndan son Áka}; heiptǫrr Vagn gat heldr vegit at hánum fyrri.

And Þorkell leira (‘Clay’) advanced with {the giantess of the helmet} [AXE], when {the neck-ring-breaker} [GENEROUS MAN = Vagn] spoke a love-song about {the Gná <goddess> of rings} [WOMAN = Ingibjǫrg]. He [Þorkell] made to strike {the hawk-tempered son of Áki} [= Vagn]; strife-keen Vagn managed instead to slay him first.

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

Readings: [1] með fjǫrnis: ‘[...]’ 54    [2] fór: fór þá Bb;    Þorketill: Þorkell 54, Þorkel Bb    [3] mælti: ‘[...]’ 54    [4] man‑: ‘[…]’ 54;    of: ‘[...]’ 54    [6] ‑lyndan: ‑lundan 54, Bb;    Áka: ‘[...]’ 54    [8] heiptǫrr: heiptar Bb;    fyrri: ‘þ[…]’ 54, þeiri Bb

Editions: Skj AII, 9, Skj BII, 9, Skald II, 6; Fms 1, 181, Fms 12, 45, ÓT 1958-2000, I, 198 (ch. 90), Ólafur Halldórsson 2000, 32, 83-4; Fms 11, 175, Jvs 1879, 118-19.

Context:

Þorkell leira is displeased when Sigurðr, the handsome and bold natural son of Búi, is granted his life by Eiríkr jarl. He states that Vagn Ákason will not come away alive and charges at him with his axe but is tripped by Bjǫrn inn brezki ‘the British’. Vagn gets hold of Þorkell’s axe and strikes Þorkell a death-blow.

Notes: [All]: On the text of sts 41-5, see Note to st. 41 [All]. — [All]: The verse-form fjórðungalok ‘couplets’ closure’ is used here (cf. Note to st. 2 [All]), though the clause in ll. 3-4 is subordinate to ll. 1-2. — [2] Þorketill ‘Þorkell’: The uncontracted form of the pers. n. works metrically; the contracted form Þorkel(l) is used in Bb, where the additional adv. þá ‘then’ completes the required count of six syllables, and in 54, which is metrically deficient. — [4] mansǫng ‘a love-song’: This is an important attestation of the generic term for the kind of love-poetry whose composition and circulation was banned in Iceland according to Grágás (Grg Ib, 184). The term also occurs in Anon Mhkv 20/3^III and is one of the important features shared by the two poems (see Introduction). For discussion of the term and genre, see Marold (2007). — [4] Gná hringa ‘the Gná <goddess> of rings [WOMAN = Ingibjǫrg]’: Daughter of Þorkell leira; see Note to st. 14/5. — [6] hauklyndan ‘hawk-tempered’: Used of Vagn also in st. 8/8, and see Note.

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. Grg = Grágás.
5. ÓT 1958-2000 = Ólafur Halldórsson, ed. 1958-2000. Saga Óláfs Tryggvasonar en mesta. 3 vols. EA A 1-3. Copenhagen: Munksgaard (Reitzel).
6. Jvs 1879 = Petersens, Carl af, ed. 1879. Jómsvíkinga saga (efter Cod. AM. 510, 4:to) samt Jómsvíkinga drápa. Lund: Gleerup.
7. Ólafur Halldórsson. 2000a. Danish Kings and the Jomsvikings in the Greatest Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason. London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
8. Marold, Edith. 2007. ‘Mansǫngr – A Phantom Genre?’. In Quinn et al. 2007, 239-62.
9. Internal references
10. Matthew Townend 2012, ‘(Biography of) Vagn Ákason’ 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. 365.
11. Roberta Frank (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Málsháttakvæði 20’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1234.
12. Not published: do not cite ()