Judith Jesch (ed.) 2009, ‘Hallr Þórarinsson breiðmaga, Lausavísa 1’ 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. 610-11.
Sendak son þinn, Ragna,
— sǫnn koma môl fyr bragna —
— hans vas hôlig iðja —
hirðvistar mér biðja.
Hafa kvezk hodda rýrir,
hinns mestum veg stýrir,
— neitti grúpans granna —
gnótt vígligri manna.
Sendak son þinn, Ragna, biðja mér hirðvistar; sǫnn môl koma fyr bragna; iðja hans vas hôlig. {Rýrir hodda}, hinns stýrir mestum veg, kvezk hafa gnótt vígligri manna; neitti granna grúpans.
I sent your son, Ragna, to request residence at court for me; true tales come before men; his attempt was noble. {The diminisher of hoards} [GENEROUS MAN = Rǫgnvaldr], who possesses very great honour, said that he had plenty of men more warlike; he refused the neighbour of the sausage [= Icelander].
Mss: Flat(138vb), R702ˣ(42r) (Orkn)
Readings: [2] môl: om. R702ˣ; fyr: apparently corrected from ‘þvi’ R702ˣ [3] hôlig: haglig R702ˣ [4] hirðvistar: so R702ˣ, ‘hiruistar’ Flat [6] mestum: so R702ˣ, hæstum Flat [7] neitti: neitti hann Flat, nítti hann R702ˣ; grúpans: gildum R702ˣ; granna: so R702ˣ, ‘grana’ Flat
Editions: Skj AI, 528, Skj BI, 508-9, Skald I, 249; Flat 1860-8, II, 468, Orkn 1887, 139-40, Orkn 1913-16, 204, ÍF 34, 183-4 (ch. 81), Bibire 1988, 228.
Context: Arrived
in Orkney, Hallr stayed on
Notes: [All]: Ragna subsequently persuaded Rǫgnvaldr to accept Hallr by wearing an extraordinary headdress (see Rv Lv 6), and later Rǫgnvaldr and Hallr composed Háttalykill (RvHbreiðm HlIII) together. — [All]: Like the otherwise unrelated Árm Lv 3, this st. is in the hexasyllabic variant of in minzta runhenda (SnSt Ht 88III, SnE 1999, 35-6). RvHbreiðm Hl 21III appears to be in the same metre; there are several other examples of runhent metre in that poem, though not all composed in hexasyllabic ll. — [6] mestum ‘very great’: Most eds (all except Orkn 1887, 139-40) adopt the variant mestum. Although hæstum ‘very high, higher’ (so Flat) means virtually the same thing, it results in two alliterating staves in an even l. — [7] neitti ‘he refused’: The pron. hann, which results in an unmetrical heptasyllabic l., has been removed as a part of the process of normalisation. — [7] granna grúpans ‘the neighbour of the sausage [= Icelander]’: The interpretation of this as a term for ‘Icelander’ was first published in ÍF 34, 183-4, on the basis of a suggestion by Stefán Karlsson. ModIcel. grjúpan does not appear to be recorded in any other medieval texts, but the derogatory association of Icelanders with sausages (ON mǫrbjúga ‘suet sausage’, cf. mǫrlandi ‘suet-lander’, mǫrbyskup ‘suet-bishop’) is well attested in, for instance, an anecdote from the miracles of S. Þorlákr, which takes place in King’s Lynn in Norfolk (ÍF 16, 227).
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