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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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ESk Lv 6II

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.

Einarr SkúlasonLausavísur
56

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 knarrarbringaknǫrr-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).

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  4. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
  5. Andersson, Theodore M. and Kari Ellen Gade, trans. 2000. Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157). Islandica 51. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
  6. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
  7. Falk, Hjalmar. 1912. Altnordisches Seewesen. Wörter und Sachen 4. Heidelberg: Winter.
  8. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
  9. Finnur Jónsson. 1907. ‘Tilnavne i den islandske oldlitteratur’. ÅNOH, 161-381.
  10. Mork 1867 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1867. Morkinskinna: Pergamentsbog fra første halvdel af det trettende aarhundrede. Indeholdende en af de ældste optegnelser af norske kongesagaer. Oslo: Bentzen.
  11. Internal references
  12. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Hrynhenda, Magnússdrápa 10’ 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. 195-6.
  13. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Bǫlverkr Arnórsson, Drápa about Haraldr harðráði 2’ 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. 288-9.
  14. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Haraldr harðráði Sigurðarson, Gamanvísur 2’ 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. 36-7.
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