Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Lausavísur 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 573-4.
Hola bôru rístr hlýrum
hreystisprund at sundi
(blæss élreki of ási)
Útsteins (vefi þrútna).
Varla heldr und vildra
víkmarr á jarðríki
— breiðr viðr brimsgang súðum
barmr — lyptingar farmi.
Hreystisprund rístr hola bôru hlýrum at sundi Útsteins; {élreki} blæss þrútna vefi of ási. Varla heldr {víkmarr} á jarðríki und vildra farmi lyptingar; breiðr barmr viðr brimsgang súðum.
The spirited woman carves the hollow billow with the bow toward the straits of Utsteinen; {the storm-chaser} [WIND] fills the swollen sails above the sprit. There is hardly another {bay-steed} [SHIP] on earth that sails beneath a more precious burden of the deck; the broad rim gains surf-speed for the ship-boards.
Mss: Mork(36r) (Mork)
Readings: [7] viðr: við added in the right margin Mork
Editions: Skj AI, 484, Skj BI, 456, Skald I, 224, NN §3108; Mork 1867, 228, Mork 1928-32, 448, Andersson and Gade 2000, 394, 495 (Hsona).
Context: King Eysteinn Haraldsson challenges Einarr to compose a st. about the wife of Páll Skoptason, Ragnhildr, who is sailing on a ship out of the bay of Bergen. According to the bet, Einarr must complete the st. before the ship sails past Holmen. In return, Einarr stipulates that King Eysteinn and his retainers must each memorise one l. of the st. Einarr wins the bet, because the others can only remember the first and the last l.
Notes: [4] Útsteins ‘of Utsteinen’: Located near Haugesund in Boknafjorden, Hordaland, Norway. This is a good distance south of Bergen; hence there is a discrepancy between the information given in the prose and in the poetry. — [7, 8] breiðr barmr ‘the broad rim’: I.e. the upper strakes in the ship-side, but cf. ModIcel. barmur ‘bosom’, ModNorw. barm ‘breast’ (see AEW: barmr 1). It is tempting to take this wording as an intended pun on the physical attributes of the ‘precious burden’ of the ship. See such fem. nicknames as knarrarbringa ‘knǫrr-breasted’, i.e. ‘with breasts like the prow of a ship’ (Finnur Jónsson 1907, 214-15). However, barmr is not attested in the meaning ‘bosom, breast’ until after the Reformation (see Jesch 2001a, 141 n. 43). See also Note to Bǫlv Hardr 2/8. — [7] viðr (3rd pers. sg. pres. indic.) ‘gains’: Við ‘with’ (added in right margin of the ms.) leaves the cl. without a verb. — [7] súðum ‘for the ship-boards’: See Note to Hharð Gamv 2/2. — [8] lyptingar ‘of the deck’: See Note to Arn Hryn 10/1. — [8] lyptingar ‘of the deck’: Lypting was the raised deck in the back of a ship (see Falk 1912, 49, 82, 84; Jesch 2001a, 153).
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