Ótt Hfl 1^I

Hlýð, manngǫfugr, minni
myrkblás, þvít kannk yrkja;
finnum yðr ok annan,
allvaldr, konung fallinn.
Þat telk, garms ok Gauta
glaðnistanda misstak,
dǫglings verk at dýrka,
dýrr þengill, mitt lengi.

Hlýð, manngǫfugr, minni myrkblás, þvít kannk yrkja; finnum yðr, allvaldr, ok annan fallinn konung. Þat telk mitt at dýrka verk dǫglings lengi, dýrr þengill, ok misstak {glaðnistanda {garms Gauta}}.

Listen, noble with your retinue, to the recollection of the dark black one [Óttarr], because I know how to compose; we [I] come to you, mighty ruler, and another worthy king. I reckon it my [task] to glorify the work of the prince for a long time, precious ruler, and I have lost {the glad feeder {of the hound of Gauti <= Óðinn>}} [WOLF > WARRIOR = Óláfr Eiríksson].

Mss: Tóm(122r) (ÓH); NRA52(3r) (ÓHÆ, l. 1); DG8(91r) (ÓHLeg, l. 1); 761bˣ(268r)

Readings: [1] Hlýð manngǫfugr: ‘[…]fogr’ NRA52    [2] ‑blás: ‘‑bals’ Tóm, 761bˣ;    þvít (‘þviat’): því 761bˣ    [3] finnum: ‘f̣æ̣ṛịṃ’ 761bˣ    [5] garms: grams Tóm, 761bˣ    [6] ‑nistanda: ‘sistanda’ Tóm, 761bˣ    [8] mitt: mik Tóm, 761bˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 290, Skj BI, 268, Skald I, 137, NN §§721-3, 2988E; ÓH 1941, II, 702; ÓHÆ 1893, 7; ÓHLeg 1922, 57, ÓHLeg 1982, 132-3.

Context: The stanza is quoted (whole or first line only) in the context of the head-ransom story derived from Styrmir (see Introduction).

Notes: [All]: Tóm introduces the stanza with the explanation that Óttarr began reciting the drápa he had composed about the king, ok er þetta upp haf ‘and this is the beginning’ (ÓH 1941, II, 702). The technical term upphaf ‘beginning’ suggests that the Tóm author regarded this stanza (and presumably st. 2 as well) as integral to the poem, and not a semi-independent introductory verse in the way that, for example, Sigv Lv 2 leads into Sigv Víkv, and Ótt Lv 2 may have led into Ótt Knútdr. — [All]: Readings from 761bˣ are included here since Tóm has the only complete text, and although the 761bˣ readings correspond closely to those of Tóm, they are not identical, so that it cannot be certain that there was not another source. — [1-2]: These lines echo the first two lines of Sigv Lv 2, the lausavísa with which Sigvatr supposedly sought service with Óláfr Haraldsson: Hlýð mínum brag, meiðir | myrkblás, þvít kannk yrkja ‘Listen to my poetry, destroyer of the dark black (steed of awnings [SHIP > WARRIOR]), because I know how to compose’ (the ship-kenning appears in Sigvatr’s l. 4). Finnur Jónsson assumes that l. 2 is simply a mistaken scribal duplication of Sigvatr’s line (and hence he does not print a l. 2 in Skj B), but, as noted below, Kock argues that Óttarr, at the start of his own poem seeking service with Óláfr, is deliberately recalling and wittily re-using Sigvatr’s call for a hearing (see also Fidjestøl 1982, 214-5); this includes the opening Hlýð ‘Listen’. Skj B suggests minni is part of the poss. pron. minn (qualifying a f. noun such as drápu in the putative lost l. 2). Kock (NN §721), however, takes minni as the noun ‘memory, recollection’, and this solution is adopted here, not least because, as Rainford (1995, 62) points out, Sigvatr uses minni in a similar sense in Víkv 1/6. — [1] manngǫfugr ‘noble with your retinue’: The adj., which probably refers to Óláfr’s capacity for inspiring loyalty, is here taken as quasi-substantival. It could alternatively be construed as qualifying allvaldr ‘mighty ruler’ (l. 4). — [2] myrkblás ‘dark black one’: The emendation is justifiable on the basis of the reading of Sigv Lv 2/2, and because the only ms. witness is the often unreliable Tóm. Kock’s attractive suggestion (NN §721) is that Óttarr is here referring to himself, with myrkblár as an onomastic play on his nickname svarti ‘black’; he cites as parallels examples such as naðrstunga ‘adder-tongue’ for (Gunnlaugr) ormstunga ‘Serpent-tongue’ and húnn ‘cub’ for Bersi ‘bear’ (on onomastic play see further Frank 1970). Óttarr is dexterously adapting Sigvatr’s line even as he reproduces it: in Sigvatr’s stanza myrkblár qualifies part of a ship-kenning (see Note ad loc.). — [2] kannk ‘I know how to’: Tóm reads ek kann ‘I know how to’, with typical scribal addition of a pron. subject producing a hypermetric line. The present edn, with Skald, normalises to kannk, but the original reading could have been 3rd pers. sg. kann, which would be suitable in the light of Óttarr’s apparent 3rd-pers. reference to himself in myrkblás ‘of the dark black one’ (cf. Note above). — [3-4]: The lines seem to be saying something about Óttarr’s move from the service of the deceased Óláfr Eiríksson to that of Óláfr Haraldsson, but the most obvious rendering of them, ‘we come to you, lord, and another fallen king’, would be difficult to account for, and the sense tentatively assumed here remains contextually puzzling. (a) In the translation above, fallinn is taken primarily in the sense of ‘worthy’, which is attested in prose texts (see CVC: falla B. II. 2), although normally as part of a gen. construction fallinn til e-s or just fallinn e-s ‘worthy of (being) something’. Annan is taken in its general sense ‘another’, since Skáldatal records Óttarr’s prior service of Sveinn tjúguskegg ‘Fork-beard’ Haraldsson, and (in ms. U only) Ǫnundr Óláfsson, as well as of Óláfr Eiríksson (SnE 1848-87, III, 252, 258, 260, 267). For the audience of these lines there may have been a studied ambiguity between ‘another fallen king’ and ‘another worthy king’, hingeing on Óttarr’s movement from the one Óláfr to the other. (b) Rainford (1995, 62) also adopts the translation ‘worthy’, and takes annan as the ordinal ‘second’, hence ‘we come to you as (our) second lord, worthy sovereign’, but in construing fallinn as nom. sg. qualifying allvaldr ‘mighty ruler’ she assumes contorted syntax in l. 8. (c) Kock (NN §722) keeps the more obvious sense of fallinn as ‘fallen’, takes it as acc. sg. qualifying konung ‘king’ and suggests emending ok to fyr: ‘we find you, lord, in place of another, fallen king’. This gives excellent sense, but does require emendation. (d) Following his belief that there is a missing l. 2, Finnur declares these lines to be unintelligible as they stand, and offers no interpretation in Skj B. — [5-8]: These are very difficult lines, for which considerable emendation may be needed. All previous commentators agree in reading nistanda ‘feeder’ for ms. ‘sistanda’ as base-word of a warrior-kenning. Parallels elsewhere in the later skaldic corpus include ESk Geisl 25/6^VII nistandi ulfs ‘feeder of the wolf’ and Gkǫrt Lv 1/5^IV valnistandi ‘hawk-feeder’. Most eds emend ms. grams ‘of the king’, and it is reasonable to think that scribes may have erroneously assumed a phrase grams Gauta ‘king of the Gautar’, but there are varying views about the best emendation, and about the interpretation of glað-. (a) Skj B takes glað as ‘horse’ (cf. LP: glaðr 1), and emends ms. grams ‘of the king’ to gífrs ‘of the giantess’ to produce a kenning gífrs glaðnistandi ‘feeder of the horse of the giantess [(lit. horse-feeder of the giantess) WOLF > WARRIOR]’. However, this entails a very complex word order in ll. 5-8: Telk þat lengi mitt verk at dýrka gífrs glaðnistanda, dýr [sic] þengill, síz mistak dǫglings Gauta ‘I reckon it for a long time my work to glorify the feeder of the horse of the giantess, excellent lord, since I have lost the prince of the Gautar’. (b) Kock (NN §723), followed here, argues that ms. grams should be garms ‘of the dog’, that Gauta is not the ethnic name but rather the Óðinn-name (i.e. gen. sg. of Gauti rather than gen. pl. of Gautar), and that glað has its more usual sense ‘glad’ rather than ‘horse’. Another kenning in which ‘wolf’ is referred to as the dog of Óðinn is HHund I 13/7 grey Viðris (NK 132). Under this interpretation garms ... mis(s)tak (ll. 5-6) forms a coordinate clause. The interaction of the two clauses expresses well both Óttarr’s grief for Óláfr Eiríksson and his hopes for new service with Óláfr Haraldsson. (c) Rainford (1995, 63) suggests a middle course in which Garmr might simply be taken as a heiti for ‘wolf’ (cf., perhaps, Mánagarmr ‘moon-hound’ referring to a wolf in SnE 2005, 14; see Note to Gsind Hákdr 8/8). Hence the kenning would be glaðnistandi Garms ‘glad feeder of the Garmr [WARRIOR]’. In favour of this would be Einarr Skúlason’s kenning nistandi ulfs ‘feeder of the wolf’ in Geisl 25/6^VII, a poem explicitly indebted to Óttarr’s poem on Óláfr Haraldsson (see Geisl 12^VII), which may indicate that Einarr took Óttarr’s example to be nistandi Garms. The addition of Gauta ‘of the Gautar’ to the warrior-kenning to produce a reference to Óláfr Eiríksson, King of the Swedes, would be appropriate, but such constructions are unusual. — [5] ok ‘and’: To clarify the syntax of the helmingr Finnur Jónsson (Skj B), Kock (Skald) and Rainford (1995, 62) all emend ok to síz ‘since’ (‘since I lost …’), but this does not seem necessary. — [7] dýrka ‘glorify’: The verb dýrka takes the acc., so its two possible objects are -nistanda ‘feeder’ (as proposed by Skj B) or verk ‘work’ (as proposed by Skald and followed here). Verk is thus to be understood twice: the king’s ongoing verk as a ruler supplies the material for the poet’s verk of praise, and Óttarr’s syntax nicely recognises this with the closing words of the stanza (mitt ‘my’ (by emendation); lengi ‘for a long time’). — [8] mitt ‘my’: There seems no grammatically acceptable way of retaining ms. mik, and all eds emend to mitt.

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. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
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. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
8. Fidjestøl, Bjarne. 1982. Det norrøne fyrstediktet. Universitet i Bergen Nordisk institutts skriftserie 11. Øvre Ervik: Alvheim & Eide.
9. Frank, Roberta. 1970. ‘Onomastic Play in Kormakr’s Verse: The Name Steingerðr’. MS 3, 7-30.
10. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
11. ÓH 1941 = Johnsen, Oscar Albert and Jón Helgason, eds. 1941. Saga Óláfs konungs hins helga: Den store saga om Olav den hellige efter pergamenthåndskrift i Kungliga biblioteket i Stockholm nr. 2 4^to med varianter fra andre håndskrifter. 2 vols. Det norske historiske kildeskriftfond skrifter 53. Oslo: Dybwad.
12. ÓHLeg 1982 = Heinrichs, Anne et al., eds and trans. 1982. Olafs saga hins helga: Die ‘Legendarische Saga’ über Olaf den Heiligen (Hs. Delagard. saml. nr. 8^II). Heidelberg: Winter.
13. ÓHLeg 1922 = Johnsen, Oscar Albert, ed. 1922. Olafs saga hins helga efter pergamenthåndskrift i Uppsala Universitetsbibliotek, Delagardieske samling nr. 8^II. Det norske historiske kildeskriftfond skrifter 47. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
14. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
15. ÓHÆ 1893 = Storm, Gustav, ed. 1893. Otte brudstykker af den ældste saga om Olav den Hellige. Det norske historiske kildeskriftfonds skrifter 25. Christiana (Oslo): Grøndahl.
16. Rainford, Jessica. 1995. ‘Óláfr Haraldsson, King and Saint of Norway, and the Development of Skaldic Style (ca.1015-ca.1153)’. D. Phil. thesis. University of Oxford.
17. Internal references
18. Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘(Biography of) Einarr Skúlason’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 140.
19. Matthew Townend 2012, ‘ Óttarr svarti, Knútsdrápa’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 767. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1341> (accessed 26 April 2024)
20. Judith Jesch 2012, ‘ Sigvatr Þórðarson, Víkingarvísur’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 532. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1360> (accessed 26 April 2024)
21. Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Geisli 12’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 17.
22. Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Geisli 25’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 27.
23. Not published: do not cite (Gkǫrt Lv 1^IV)
24. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Guthormr sindri, Hákonardrápa 8’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 168.
25. Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Óttarr svarti, Lausavísur 2’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 786.
26. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Víkingarvísur 1’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 534.
27. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Lausavísur 2’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 701.
28. Not published: do not cite ()