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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Hbreiðm Lv 1II

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.

Hallr Þórarinsson breiðmagaLausavísa1

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 North Ronaldsay at first, but not enjoying himself there he asked his host Þorsteinn Rǫgnuson to help get him a place at Rǫgnvaldr’s court. The st. is spoken by Hallr on their return to North Ronaldsay in response to a question from Þorsteinn’s mother Ragna about their journey.

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).

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  3. Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
  4. ÍF 34 = Orkneyinga saga. Ed. Finnbogi Guðmundsson. 1965.
  5. ÍF 15-17 = Biskupa sögur. Ed. Sigurgeir Steingrímsson, Ólafur Halldórsson and Peter G. Foote (15), Ásdís Egilsdóttir (16), Guðrún Ása Grímsdóttir (17). 1998-2003.
  6. SnE 1999 = Snorri Sturluson. 1999. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. Rpt. with addenda and corrigenda. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  7. Orkn 1913-16 = Sigurður Nordal, ed. 1913-16. Orkneyinga saga. SUGNL 40. Copenhagen: Møller.
  8. Bibire, Paul. 1988. ‘The Poetry of Earl Rǫgnvaldr’s Court’. In Crawford 1988, 208-40.
  9. Orkn 1887 = Gudbrand Vigfusson 1887-94, I.
  10. Internal references
  11. Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘ Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1001. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1347> (accessed 29 March 2024)
  12. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2009, ‘Ármóðr, Lausavísur 3’ 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, p. 622.
  13. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2009, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl Kali Kolsson, 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. 581-2.
  14. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 21’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1029.
  15. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 88’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1198.
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