Anon Krm 14^VIII

Hjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Hörð kom ríð á skjöldu;
nár fell niðr til jarðar
á Norðimbralandi.
Varat um eina óttu
öldum þörf at frýja
Hildar leiks, þar er hvassir
hjálmstofn bitu skjómar.
Benmána sá ek bresta;
brá því fira lífi.

Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Hörð ríð kom á skjöldu; nár fell niðr til jarðar á Norðimbralandi. Um eina óttu varat þörf at frýja öldum {leiks Hildar}, þar er hvassir skjómar bitu {hjálmstofn}. Ek sá {benmána} bresta; því brá lífi fira.

We hewed with the sword. A hard storm assailed shields; a corpse fell down to earth in Northumbria. Once, at daybreak there was no cause to reproach people over {the game of Hildr <valkyrie>} [BATTLE], where sharp shiners <swords> bit [many a] {helmet-peg} [HEAD]. I saw {wound-moons} [SHIELDS] break; men’s lives ceased as a result.

Mss: 1824b(80r), 147(108v), 6ˣ(88v) (Ragn); R702ˣ(30r-v), LR(211-212), R693ˣ(11r)

Readings: [1] Hjuggu vér með hjörvi: abbrev. as ‘Hiug. ver m h᷎.’ 1824b, abbrev. as ‘[…] v(’) m(’) h(’)’(?) 147, Hjuggum vér með hjörvi 6ˣ, LR, R693ˣ, abbrev. as ‘H v m h.’ R702ˣ    [2] Hörð kom: ‘h[…] (kom)’(?) 147, ‘hórd kom hórd kom’ R702ˣ;    ríð á skjöldu: ‘h(ri)[…] sk[…]lld[…]’(?) 147;    skjöldu: skjöldum LR    [3] nár (‘nar’): so R702ˣ, R693ˣ, ‘nęrr’ 1824b, ‘[…]ꜳ[…]’ 147, ‘nęr’ with ‘legam. nar’ in margin 6ˣ, ‘naer’ LR;    fell niðr til jarðar: ‘fell nidur til […]ar(d)ar’(?) 147    [4] Norðimbra‑: ‘Nordimbra’ with ‘Nordymbra’ in margin 6ˣ, ‘Nordhumra’ R702ˣ, LR, R693ˣ    [5] Varat um eina óttu: ‘var ad […]’ 147    [6] frýja: ‘(f[…]yia)’(?) 147, ‘frya’ 6ˣ, ‘flya’ R702ˣ, LR, ‘flÿa’ R693ˣ    [7] Hildar: ‘h[…]lldar’ 147;    leiks (‘l[...]iks’): so 147, leik all others;    hvassir: ‘hv(a)ssir’(?) 147    [8] ‑stofn: ‘[…]’ 147, stofn with comment in margin ‘stoinn pro stofn hefur hann sett’ 6ˣ, ‘‑tvn’ R702ˣ, ‘tun’ LR, ‘tvn’ R693ˣ;    bitu skjómar: ‘(b)it(u) […] omar’(?) 147    [9, 10] Benmána sá ek bresta brá því fira lífi: ‘[…] (sa) eg b(r)esta b[...] (fira lifi)’(?) 147, ‘Ręn mana sa ek bresta Bra þui fira life’ with ‘varat sem unga ekkio j aundvegi kyste’ at foot of page 6ˣ, vara sem unga ekkju í öndvegi kyssa R702ˣ, varat sem unga ekkju í öndvegi kyssa LR, R693ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 645, Skj BI, 652, Skald I, 318; Rafn 1826, 12-13, 123-5, Pfeiffer 1860, 125, CPB II, 342, FSNVÁ, I, 226-7, Wisén 1886-9, I, 64, Krm 1891, 226-7, Finnur Jónsson 1893b, 88, Finnur Jónsson 1905, 154-5; Ragn 1906-8, 188.

Notes: [All]: In 147 (108v, l. 1) ll. 9-10 of st. 1 (apart from the final word of l. 10) appear in abbreviated form between the present stanza and st. 13. — [2] ríð ‘storm’: The Old Norwegian spelling ríð, adopted in previous eds from Finnur Jónsson (1893b) onwards, is needed to avoid double alliteration in an even line. — [4] á Norðimbralandi ‘in Northumbria’: Meaning originally, as Townend (1998, 59) has shown, ‘the land of the people north of the Humber’, Norðimbraland refers here, somewhat loosely, to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, of which York was the capital (Haywood 2000, 213-14, cf. 135). It was in York, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, that the Great Army of the vikings who landed in East Anglia in 865 put to death in 866 the rival Northumbrian kings Osberht and Ælle (see ASC I, 68-9; cf. Garmonsway 1954, 68, n. 1 and Wormald 1982, 142-3), and the slaying of the latter king, known in Norse tradition as Ella, is presented in Krm (st. 27/5-8, cf. sts 24/5-6 and 26/2-10), in Ragn and RagnSon, as well as in Saxo’s account (where he is named Hella) as an act of vengeance by the sons of Ragnarr loðbrók for their father’s death at King (H)ella’s hands in a snake-pit.  Ælle is presented as king of England in the 1824b text of Ragn, but specifically as a king of Northumbria in RagnSon. Saxo’s location of Ragnarr’s death in Ireland appears to be based on a misreading by him of Humbros ‘Northumbrians’ as Hibernos ‘Irishmen’ (Saxo 2015 I, ix. 4. 38, 5. 1-5, pp. 660-5; cf. de Vries 1928d, 140; Rowe 2012, 100). — [5, 6-7] varat þörf at frýja öldum leiks Hildar ‘there was no cause to reproach people over the game of Hildr <valkyrie> [BATTLE]’: I.e. ‘to find fault with the way people fought’. Alone among the various mss 147 has here the gen. form leiks (‘l[…]iks’) which seems to be correct in the context. The verb frýja (cf. st. 5/2, above) in the sense ‘upbraid sby with the lack of sth.’ may take the dat. of the person upbraided and the gen. of the quality lacking, see LP: frýja 2. Most previous eds read leiks, presumably by emendation, since 147 appears to have been illegible to them; see Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 188). The present ed. adopts the reading leiks from that ms. — [5] varat ‘there was … no’: This is another example of the negative particle -at that early translators of Krm (notably Magnús Ólafsson in Worm 1636, 211) failed to notice. Cf. st. 13, Note to ll. 9-10 above. — [9-10]: As the Readings above indicate, R702ˣ and LR have, in place of these two lines as preserved in 1824b, 147, and 6ˣ (this last acknowledging the LR reading), what are printed as ll. 9-10 of st. 20 in the present edn. In common with earlier eds up to and including Wisén (1886-9), the present ed. here follows the text of 1824b, now with the added support of the fragmentary text of 147 (cf. Note to ll. 5, 6-7 above and cf. also Ragn 1906-08, 188, and Skj AI, 645). Subsequent eds (i.e. Finnur Jónsson 1893b; 1905; Skj B; Skald) have followed R702ˣ and LR in reproducing here the lines printed below as st. 20/9-10. The present ed. differs from the earlier group of eds, however, in adopting here the reading benmána acc. pl. (or sg.) ‘wound-moon(s) [SHIELD(S)]’, which seems to have the support of 1824b, as opposed to the reading böðmána acc. pl. (or sg.) ‘battle-moon(s) [SHIELD(S)]’ found in st. 20/9 as preserved in R702ˣ, LR , 6ˣ and 693ˣ; see the relevant Readings and Notes to st. 20 below.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
4. Worm, Ole. 1636. [RUNER] seu Danica Literatura Antiquissima, vulgò Gothica dicta luci reddita…. Amsterdam: J. Janson.
5. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 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. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
8. Wisén, Theodor, ed. 1886-9. Carmina Norrœnæ: Ex reliquiis vetustioris norrœnæ poësis selecta, recognita, commentariis et glossario instructa. 2 vols. Lund: Ohlsson.
9. Finnur Jónsson. 1893b. Carmina Norrœna: Rettet Tekst. Copenhagen: Nielsen & Lydiche.
10. ASC [Anglo-Saxon Chronicle] = Plummer, Charles and John Earle, eds. 1892-9. Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1952.
11. Townend, Matthew. 1998. English Place-Names in Skaldic Verse. English Place-Name Society extra ser. 1. Nottingham: English Place-Name Society.
12. Pfeiffer, Friedrich. 1860. Altnordisches Lesebuch. Leipzig: T. O. Weigel.
13. Wormald, C. P. 1982. ‘Viking Studies: Whence and Whither?’. In Farrell 1982, 128-53.
14. Vries, Jan de. 1928a. ‘Die westnordische Tradition der Sage von Ragnar Lodbrók’. ZDP 53, 257-302.
15. Ragn 1906-8 = Olsen 1906-8, 111-222.
16. Haywood, John. 2000. Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age. London: Thames & Hudson.
17. Finnur Jónsson. 1905. ‘Krákumál’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1905, 151-83.
18. Rowe, Elizabeth Ashman. 2012. Vikings in the West: The Legend of Ragnarr Loðbrók and his Sons. Studia Medievalia Septentrionalia 18. Vienna: Fassbaender.
19. Krm 1891 = 2nd edn (pp. 225-8) of Krm as ed. in Valdimar Ásmundarson 1885-9, I.
20. Saxo 2015 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2015. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes. Trans. Peter Fisher. Oxford Medieval Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
21. Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1826. Krakas Maal eller Kvad om Kong Ragnar Lodbroks Krigsbedrifter og Heltedød efter en gammel Skindbog og flere hidtil ubenyttede Haandskrifter med dansk, latinsk og fransk oversættelse, forskjellige Læsemaader, samt kritiske og philologiske Anmærkninger. Copenhagen: Jens Hostrup Schultz; London: John and Arthur Arch.
22. Garmonsway, G. N., trans. 1954. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Everyman’s Library 624. London: Dent.
23. LR = Worm 1636.
24. Internal references
25. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ragnars saga loðbrókar’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 616. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=81> (accessed 25 April 2024)
26. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ragnars sona þáttr’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 777. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=85> (accessed 25 April 2024)
27. Not published: do not cite (Rloð^VIII)
28. Rory McTurk 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Krákumál’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 706. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1020> (accessed 25 April 2024)
29. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 19 (Sigurðr ormr í auga, Lausavísa 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 663.