Eskál Vell 31^I

Valfǫllum hlóð vǫllu
(varð ragna konr gagni)
hríðar ôss (at hrósa)
— hlaut Óðinn val — Fróða.
Hver sé if, nema jǫfra
ættrýri goð stýra?
Rammaukin kveðk ríki
rǫgn Hôkunar magna.

{Ôss {hríðar Fróða}} hlóð vǫllu valfǫllum; {konr ragna} varð at hrósa gagni; Óðinn hlaut val. Hver if sé, nema goð stýra {{jǫfra ætt}rýri}? Kveðk rammaukin rǫgn magna ríki Hôkunar.

{The god {of the storm of Fróði <sea-king>}} [BATTLE > WARRIOR] piled up the fields with the slain; {the descendant of the gods} [= Hákon jarl] could boast of victory; Óðinn was allotted the slain. What doubt might there be that the gods guide {the destroyer {of the kin of princes}} [(lit. ‘kin-destroyer of princes’) PRINCES > RULER = Hákon jarl]? I declare that the exceedingly powerful gods increase the might of Hákon.

Mss: Kˣ(149r-v), F(24vb), J1ˣ(88r), J2ˣ(82v) (Hkr); FskBˣ(22r), FskAˣ(86) (Fsk, ll. 1-4); R(36v), Tˣ(38v), U(36r), A(12v), C(6r) (SnE, ll. 7-8)

Readings: [2] ragna: rǫgna Kˣ, F, J1ˣ, J2ˣ, ‘rogna’ FskBˣ, FskAˣ    [3] hríðar: hirðar F, hildar FskAˣ    [4] hlaut: ‘haut’ FskBˣ    [7] kveðk (‘qveþ æc’): kvað ek C;    ríki: runnu J1ˣ    [8] magna: magni U

Editions: Skj AI, 130, Skj BI, 123, Skald I, 69, NN §§409, 1805, 1854B, 2247C; Hkr 1893-1901, I, 304-5, IV, 83-4, ÍF 26, 262, Hkr 1991, I, 175-6 (ÓTHkr ch. 27), F 1871, 113; Fsk 1902-3, 78 (ch. 15), ÍF 29, 119 (ch. 17); SnE 1848-87, I, 470, II, 340, 447, 591, SnE 1931, 166, SnE 1998, I, 85.

Context: See Context to st. 29. SnE (Skm) cites ll. 7-8 to illustrate how the gods can be called rǫgn.

Notes: [1-4]: Kock (NN §409) construes ôss hríðar Fróða ‘the god of the storm of Fróði <sea-king> [BATTLE > WARRIOR]’ in the subordinate clause in apposition to konr ragna ‘the descendant of the gods’ (l. 2) in order to simplify the syntactic structure of the helmingr. However, the main clause then lacks a subject (cf. Reichardt 1928, 113-14 n. 92). — [2] ragna ‘of the gods’: All mss have rǫgna, the analogical gen. pl. form based on nom. pl. rǫgn, a variant of regin (ANG §362 Anm. 2). However, normalisation to the etymological form ragna is likely to be appropriate for a C10th text, and produces a more exact aðalhending here (Marold 1992, 709). — [2] konr ragna ‘the descendant of the gods [= Hákon jarl]’: It was presumably Hákon jarl’s policy to emphasise the divine lineage of his house; cf., e.g., Eyv Hál 1/5, 8. It can be doubted whether konr ragna can be interpreted as a kenning because in that case it would mean ‘god’. There is a similar kenning niðr Yggs ‘descendant of Yggr <= Óðinn>’ [= Hákon jarl] in st. 19/8 (see Note), but it differs from konr ragna in having an individual ancestor for the determinant, as do the kennings ôttungr Týs ‘descendant of Týr <god>’ (Þjóð Yt 14/3) and ôttungr Freys ‘descendant of Freyr <god>’ (Þjóð Yt 16/7), both denoting ‘Swedish king’. In any case konr ragna can be interpreted as an assertion of the divine descent of the ruler. — [3, 4] hríðar Fróða ‘of the storm of Fróði [BATTLE]’: Fróði is the name of several Danish legendary kings (see Notes to st. 17/2 and Þjóð Yt 1/2). It appears in some kennings as the name of a sea-king (Hár Lv 2/7; cf. LP: Fróði 1; Þul Sækonunga 1/1^III). — [5-8]: Fidjestøl (1982, 187) regards these lines as the poem’s stef and compares it to that of Bandadrápa (Edáð Banddr 9). — [5-6] jǫfra ættrýri ‘the destroyer of the kin of princes [(lit. ‘kin-destroyer of princes’) PRINCES > RULER = Hákon jarl]’: Among the kennings for ‘king, ruler’ is a group which portrays the ruler as the oppressor or destroyer of hersar, jarlar, jǫfrar, harrar or hertogar (various ranks of chieftain or ruler). According to Meissner 359-60 these kennings stem from battles or confrontations with political opponents within a particular country’s hierarchy. By contrast Hkr 1991 interprets the kenning as konungs bani ‘regicide’, presumably with regard to the killing of Haraldr gráfeldr, though Hákon did not carry this out himself (similarly Vell 1865, 90; Hkr 1893-1901, IV). — [7, 8] rammaukin rǫgn ‘the exceedingly powerful gods’: The strict sense of rammaukin is ‘grown with respect to power’, i.e. made powerful. Possibly the phrase alludes to Hákon jarl’s reintroducing the heathen cult; cf. st. 14.

References

1. Bibliography
2. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
6. 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.
7. Fidjestøl, Bjarne. 1982. Det norrøne fyrstediktet. Universitet i Bergen Nordisk institutts skriftserie 11. Øvre Ervik: Alvheim & Eide.
8. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
9. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
10. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
11. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
12. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
13. Fsk 1902-3 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1902-3. Fagrskinna: Nóregs kononga tal. SUGNL 30. Copenhagen: Møller.
14. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
15. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
16. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
17. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1928. Studien zu den Skalden des 9. und 10. Jahrhunderts. Palaestra 159. Leipzig: Mayer & Müller.
18. Marold, Edith. 1992. ‘Die Skaldendichtung als Quelle der Religionsgeschichte’. In Beck et al. 1992, 685-719.
19. Vell 1865 = Freudenthal, Axel Olof. 1865. Einar Skålaglams Vellekla / öfversatt och förklarad af Axel Olof Freudenthal. Helsingfors: Frenckell.
20. Internal references
21. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
22. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 25 April 2024)
23. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sækonunga heiti 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 678.
24. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Eyjólfr dáðaskáld, Bandadrápa 9’ 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. 468.
25. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Eyvindr skáldaspillir Finnsson, Háleygjatal 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. 197.
26. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2012, ‘Hárekr í Þjóttu, Lausavísur 2’ 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. 810.
27. Edith Marold (ed.) 2012, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Ynglingatal 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. 9.
28. Edith Marold (ed.) 2012, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Ynglingatal 14’ 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. 31.
29. Edith Marold (ed.) 2012, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Ynglingatal 16’ 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. 36.