Hharð Lv 11^II

Hlautk af hrauðung skjóta
hlýri, mær in skýra;
súð gekk feld á flœði
framm; vas þat fyr skǫmmu.
Enn fyr England sunnan
óð borð und mér norðan;
ristin skalf í rǫstum
rǫng; en þat vas lǫngu.

Hlautk skjóta hlýri af hrauðung, in skýra mær; feld súð gekk framm á flœði; þat vas fyr skǫmmu. Enn fyr sunnan England óð borð und mér norðan; ristin rǫng skalf í rǫstum; en þat vas lǫngu.

I got to push the prow away from the empty fleet, bright lady; the jointed ship went forth on the ocean; that was recently. And, south of England, the planking advanced beneath me from the north; the carved frame shook in the currents; but that was long ago.

Mss: Mork(17r) (Mork); Flat(202ra) (Flat); H(70r), Hr(50vb) (H-Hr); F(54vb) (ll. 5-8)

Readings: [1] af: á Flat    [3] súð: suðr Flat    [4] vas þat (‘var þat’): en þat var Hr    [5] Enn: ok Flat    [6] borð: hestr F;    und mér: ‘uimer’ Flat;    norðan: festa F    [7] ristin: ristan Hr;    skalf: skal Flat, skafl Hr;    í rǫstum: með rausnum Flat, í rostu F    [8] en þat vas (‘en þat var’): var þat fyr Flat, en þat var fyr Hr

Editions: Skj AI, 360, Skj BI, 331, Skald I, 167, NN §§847B, 2026; Mork 1867, 102, Mork 1928-32, 249, Andersson and Gade 2000, 254, 480 (MH); Flat 1860-8, III, 378 (MH); Fms 6, 387 (HSig ch. 108); F 1871, 256 (HSig).

Context: As Lv 10 above.

Notes: [1] hrauðung ‘empty fleet’: The translation is conjectural. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) translates af hrauðung as skyndsomt ‘in haste’ or (LP: hrauðung) as skynding ‘haste’. Kock connects the word with OE hrēodan ‘adorn, cover’ and translates it as ‘boat house’ (NN §847B). Hrauðung must be derived from hrjóða (strong verb class 2) whose most common meaning is ‘empty, clear out’. LP: hrauðung adds: ordet betyder vel egl. ‘rydning’ ‘the literal meaning of the word is most likely “clearing”’. The phrase hrjóða skip ‘clear a ship by killing or driving away the crew’ is especially common in both prose and poetry (see Fritzner: hrjóða 1; LP: hrjóða 1). Because three of the six sts recited in this episode describe Haraldr’s recent campaigns in Denmark in the first helmingar, it is reasonable to assume that this half-st. also refers to his naval battles against the Danes (see, e.g., ÞjóðA Sex 17; see also Jesch 2001a, 211 and n. 33). Hrauðungr is otherwise recorded as the name of a sea-king, a giant, and a legendary person (LP: Hrauðungr), and hrauð is a heiti for a coat of mail and a ship (SnE 1998, I, 123, 128, II, 317). — [2] hlýri ‘prow’: Lit. ‘the curve of a ship-side towards the prow’ (see Falk 1912, 52; Jesch 2001a, 147). — [2] in skýra mær ‘bright lady’: No woman is present in the episode, and it is unclear whom Haraldr is addressing. For skaldic apostrophes to fictitious women, see also Úlfr Lv and Note to Hharð Gamv 3/1. Kock (NN §2026) emends mær to meir ‘more’ as an intensifier to framm ‘forth, forwards’ (l. 4) and takes in skýra ‘bright, clear’ as a qualifier to súð ‘ship-side’ (l. 3). Skj B treats both mær (taken as the adj. ‘splendid’) and in skýra as adjectives qualifying súð: in skýra, mær súð ‘the shining, splendid ship’ (det blanke, herlige skib). — [3] súð ‘ship’: Lit. ‘ship-side’: Used here as pars pro toto for ‘ship’. See Note to Hharð Gamv 2/2. — [5-8]: For this helmingr, see also Anon (HSig) 4/5-8. — [7, 8] ristin rǫng ‘carved frame’: Rǫng (pl. rengr) was a cross-piece that held together the bottom-boards in a ship (see Falk 1912, 46-7; Jesch 2001a, 151). See also Kali Lv 1/3.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
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. 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.
8. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
9. Falk, Hjalmar. 1912. Altnordisches Seewesen. Wörter und Sachen 4. Heidelberg: Winter.
10. 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.
11. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
12. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
13. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
14. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
15. 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.
16. Internal references
17. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Haralds saga Sigurðssonar’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=142> (accessed 19 April 2024)
18. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Magnúss saga góða ok Haralds harðráða’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=147> (accessed 19 April 2024)
20. Kari Ellen Gade and Diana Whaley (eds) 2009, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Haralds saga Sigurðarsonar 4’ 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. 818.
21. Kari Ellen Gade 2009, ‘ Úlfr stallari Óspaksson, Lausavísa’ 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. 348-9. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1491> (accessed 19 April 2024)
22. 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.
23. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Kali Sæbjarnarson, 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. 393-4.
24. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Sexstefja 17’ 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. 130-1.
25. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Haraldr harðráði Sigurðarson, Gamanvísur 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. 38.