Mberf Lv 6^II

Mberf Lv 6 is recorded in Mberf in Mork (Mork) and H, Hr (H-Hr). It was also added by Árni Magnússon in the left margin of 128v of AM 301 4°ˣ (301ˣ) (Fsk). The variants show that ÁM cannot have copied the st. from any of the extant mss in which it is found (Mork, H, Hr).

Hvat skulum heimfǫr kvitta?
Hugrs minn í Dyflinni,
enn til Kaupangs kvinna
kømkat austr í hausti.
Unik, þvít eigi synjar
ingjan gamansþinga;
œrskan veldr, þvít írskum
annk betr an mér svanna.

Hvat skulum kvitta heimfǫr? Minn hugrs í Dyflinni, enn kømkat austr til kvinna Kaupangs í hausti. Unik, þvít ingjan synjar eigi gamansþinga; œrskan veldr, þvít annk írskum svanna betr an mér.

Why should we talk of the journey home? My heart is in Dublin, and I shall not return east to the women of Trondheim this autumn. I am content, because the girl does not deny me meetings of pleasure; youth causes [it], for I love the Irish woman better than myself.

Mss: Mork(24v) (Mork); H(93r-v), Hr(63vb) (H-Hr); 301ˣ(128v) (Fsk)

Readings: [1] Hvat: Hvatt Hr;    skulum: þarf 301ˣ    [2] Dyflinni: dyflinn H, Hr    [4] kømkat (‘kem ek eigi’): so H, ‘kom ec eigi’ Mork, ‘kem eigi’ Hr, ‘keym ec eigi’ 301ˣ;    austr í hausti: ‘austi’ Hr    [5] eigi synjar: ‘endr...komom.’ 301ˣ    [6] ingjan gamansþinga: ‘ægileif und ... ægio’ 301ˣ;    gamansþinga: gamanþinga H, Hr    [7] œrskan: so H, 301ˣ, ‘orscan’ Mork, ‘æska’ Hr;    veldr: so all others, veld ek Mork;    þvít (‘þvi at’): því er H, 301ˣ    [8] an mér: ‘emer’ 301ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 433, Skj BI, 403, Skald 199; Mork 1867, 154, Mork 1928-32, 334, Andersson and Gade 2000, 311, 488 (Mberf); Fms 7, 70 (Mberf ch. 36); ÍF 29, 313-14 (ch. 85).

Notes: [3] enn ‘and’: The w. o. shows that this must be the conjunction en ‘and’, rendered as enn when stressed fully. Skj B (and Skald?) takes it as the adv. enn ‘again’, but that interpretation violates the w. o. of an independent cl. (the finite verb then comes in syntactic position 3). — [3] Kaupangs ‘of Trondheim’: See Note to Steinn Óldr 7/2. — [6] ingjan ‘girl’: The ON version of OIr. ingen ‘girl, daughter’. The identity of this Irish woman is unknown, but she could have been the mother of Magnús’s son, Haraldr gilli(-kristr) ‘Servant (of Christ)’, who later returned to Norway and ousted his nephew, Magnús inn blindi ‘the Blind’ Sigurðarson, from the throne. — [7] œrskan veldr ‘youth causes [it]’: I.e. his youthful infatuation causes him to be content. The reference to Magnús’s youth is somewhat exaggerated, because he was close to thirty years old when he was killed in Ulster in 1103 (see ÍF 28, 237).

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. 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.
6. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
7. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
8. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
9. 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.
10. Internal references
11. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Fagrskinna’ 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=56> (accessed 25 April 2024)
12. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Hulda-Hrokkinskinna’ 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=84> (accessed 25 April 2024)
13. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Morkinskinna’ 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=87> (accessed 25 April 2024)
14. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Magnúss saga berfœtts’ 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=144> (accessed 25 April 2024)
15. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Magnús berfœttr Óláfsson, 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, p. 390.
16. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Steinn Herdísarson, Óláfsdrápa 7’ 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. 373-4.