Mark Eirdr 29^II

Andar krafði út í lǫndum
alls stýrandi konung snjallan;
elli beiðat ofvægr stillir;
aldar stríð es fregit víða.
Síðan harma siklings dauða
snjallir menn of heimsbyggð alla;
drúpir herr at dolga steypi
dyggvan; þat tér verǫld hryggva.

{Stýrandi alls} krafði snjallan konung andar út í lǫndum; ofvægr stillir beiðat elli; stríð aldar es fregit víða. Síðan harma snjallir menn of alla heimsbyggð dauða siklings; herr drúpir at {dyggvan steypi dolga}; þat tér hryggva verǫld.

{The commander of all} [= God] claimed the spirit from the wise king out in [far-off] lands; the powerful prince did not wait for old age; the grief of men is heard of far and wide. Afterwards wise men all over the inhabited world lament the death of the sovereign; people bow down in grief for {the virtuous destroyer of enemies} [JUST RULER]; that saddens the world.

Mss: JÓ(170), 873ˣ(56r), 180b(31v), 20b II(3va) (ll. 1-3) (Knýtl)

Readings: [3] elli beiðat ofvægr stillir: ‘elli beið at of væ[…]’ 20b II;    beiðat: beiðir 180b    [4] aldar stríð es fregit víða: aldr stríð er þat fregit víða JÓ, 873ˣ, aldr stríð er fregit er víða 180b    [7] herr: heimr 180b;    at dolga: en dolgum 180b;    steypi: ‘stypir’ 180b    [8] dyggvan: ‘dyggan’ 180b;    þat tér: þótti 180b

Editions: Skj AI, 451, Skj BI, 419-20, Skald I, 207-8, NN §3104; JÓ 1741, 170-1,  ÍF 35, 238 (ch. 81).

Context: The st. is cited following the account of Eiríkr’s death in Cyprus, on his way from Constantinople to Jerusalem.

Notes: [All]: Eiríkr died in the city of Paphos (Knýtl: Basta) in Cyprus (10 July 1103), and he was buried there according to Knýtl. See also Saxo (2005, II, 12, 7, 6, pp. 82-3) and Abbot Nikulás’s Leiðarvísir (AÍ I, 20), where Paphos is called ‘Beffa’. In the C12th and C13th, Paphos was an important staging post for pilgrims to the Holy Land. See also Kedar and Westergaard-Nielsen 1978-9, 197-9, 203-4. — [1] stýrandi alls ‘the commander of all [= God]’: Kennings for ‘God’ of this type are otherwise found only in later religious poetry, the first attestation being fifty years later in ESk Geisl^VII (see LP: allr 2). — [4] stríð aldar ‘the grief of men’: All mss have aldrstríð ‘life-grief’, and the l. could be construed syntactically, following JÓ and 873ˣ, as þat aldrstríð es fregit víða ‘that life-grief is heard of far and wide’ or þat es aldrstríð, fregit viða ‘that is life-grief, heard of far and wide’. However, metrically such a l. is very unwieldy (a l. of Type E that is otherwise not used by Markús) and the cpd aldrstríð is unattested. The present emendation follows earlier eds.

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. AÍ = Kålund, Kristian and Natanael Beckman. 1908-18. Alfræði íslenzk: Islandsk encyklopædisk litteratur. 3 vols. SUGNL 37, 41 and 45. Copenhagen: Møller.
5. Kedar, Benjamin, and Christian Westergaard-Nielsen. 1978-9. ‘Icelanders in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Twelfth-Century Account’. MS 11, 193-211.
6. ÍF 35 = Danakonunga sǫgur. Ed. Bjarni Guðnason. 1982.
7. JÓ 1741 = Jón Ólafsson, ed. 1741. Æfi dana-konunga eda Knytlinga saga: Historia Cnutidarum regum Daniæ. Copenhagen: [n. p.].
8. Internal references
9. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Knýtlinga saga’ 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=19> (accessed 25 April 2024)
10. Martin Chase 2007, ‘ Einarr Skúlason, Geisli’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 5-65. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1144> (accessed 25 April 2024)