Rv Lv 21^II

Skalkak hryggr í hreggi,
Hlín, meðan strengr ok lína
svǫrðr fyr snekkju barði,
svalteigar, brestr eigi.
Því réðk hvítri heita
hǫrskorð, es fórk norðan,
— vindr berr snart at sundi
súðmar — konu prúðri.

Skalkak hryggr í hreggi, {Hlín {svalteigar}}, meðan strengr ok lína, svǫrðr fyr barði snekkju, brestr eigi. Því réðk heita {hvítri hǫrskorð}, prúðri konu, es fórk norðan; vindr berr {súðmar} snart at sundi.

I shall not be upset in the storm, {Hlín <goddess> {of the cool plot}} [SEA > WOMAN], as long as the rope and the line, the hawser before the craft’s prow, does not break. That is what I promised {to the pale linen-prop} [WOMAN], the splendid woman, when I headed from the north; the wind carries {the plank-horse} [SHIP] briskly towards the strait.

Mss: Flat(140rb), R702ˣ(47v) (Orkn)

Readings: [1] Skalkak (‘skalka ek’): so R702ˣ, skal ek ei Flat    [3] svǫrðr: suðr Flat, ‘svirdur’ R702ˣ;    snekkju: so R702ˣ, ‘suediu’ Flat    [4] sval‑: sal R702ˣ    [5] Því réðk (‘þui red ek’): so R702ˣ, ‘beint nam ek’ Flat;    hvítri: hvít at R702ˣ    [8] ‑mar: ‘manz’ R702ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 509-10, Skj BI, 483-4, Skald I, 237, NN §978; Flat 1860-8, II, 482, Orkn 1887, 167-8, Orkn 1913-16, 243, ÍF 34, 219-20 (ch. 87), Bibire 1988, 234-5.

Context: Sailing down the west coast of Spain, the crusaders suffer a storm, during which they spend three days at anchor, fearing that their ships will be wrecked.

Notes: [2, 4] Hlín svalteigar ‘Hlín <goddess> of the cool plot [SEA > WOMAN]’: Svalteigr ‘cool plot’ is very clearly a kenning for ‘sea’, albeit an unusual one, since the determinant would normally be a noun referring to an attribute of the sea such as a sea-king, sea-creature or waves (Meissner 92-8). Bibire 1988 links this with hreggi ‘storm’ in l. 1 and leaves the goddess-name Hlín isolated as a heiti for ‘woman’; such half-kennings are uncharacteristic of Rǫgnvaldr. Skj B solves the problem by emending Hlín to a verb hvínn (3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of hvína ‘squeak’) and construing the cl. differently (svǫrðr hvínn ‘the hawser squeaks’). The interpretation here follows ÍF 34: while the woman-kenning Hlín svalteigar ‘goddess of the cool plot (of ground)’ is unparalleled, it appears to belong to a type identified by Meissner in which a word for ‘fire, light’ has been omitted and which eventually becomes a recognised type (Meissner 419). It is possible that at some stage in its textual history the st. may have become irretrievably corrupted by association with a woman-kenning such as Hlín valteigar ‘goddess of the falcon-plot (arm)’, which is of a common type (cf. LP: Hlín), but is impossible here since it would not provide the requisite alliteration. — [2-3] strengr ok lína, svǫrðr fyr barði snekkju ‘the rope and the line, the hawser before the craft’s prow’: All of these refer to the anchor-rope. — [3] svǫrðr ‘the hawser’: This reading is found in 762ˣ (Skj A), but is presumably the scribe’s conjecture rather than a variant, since this ms. is a copy of 702ˣ. — [7] at sundi ‘towards the strait’: Judging from the prose context, this refers to the Straits of Gibraltar (cf. also Oddi Lv 3).

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. 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. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. ÍF 34 = Orkneyinga saga. Ed. Finnbogi Guðmundsson. 1965.
10. Orkn 1913-16 = Sigurður Nordal, ed. 1913-16. Orkneyinga saga. SUGNL 40. Copenhagen: Møller.
11. Bibire, Paul. 1988. ‘The Poetry of Earl Rǫgnvaldr’s Court’. In Crawford 1988, 208-40.
12. Orkn 1887 = Gudbrand Vigfusson 1887-94, I.
13. Internal references
14. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2009, ‘Oddi inn litli Glúmsson, Lausavísur 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, pp. 616-17.