RvHbreiðm Hl 59^III

Haraldr kunni gný gerva
(gekk hilmis lið vekja)
— menn ruðu geir at gunni —
(gráp smíðaðra vápna)
— háði herr við prýði
hjǫrþing með dǫglingi,
hinns skyndi* byr branda —
bendags inn hárfagri.

Haraldr inn hárfagri kunni gerva {gný {bendags}}; lið hilmis gekk vekja {gráp smíðaðra vápna}; menn ruðu geir at gunni; herr háði {hjǫrþing} við prýði með dǫglingi, hinns skyndi* {byr branda}.

Haraldr inn hárfagri (‘the Fair-haired’) could create {clamour {of the wound-daylight}} [SWORD > BATTLE]; the troop of the ruler went to stir up {a hail-storm of forged weapons} [BATTLE]; men reddened the spear in battle; the army waged {sword-assemblies} [BATTLES] with honour alongside the leader, the one who hastened {the fair breeze of blades} [BATTLE].

Mss: papp25ˣ(37r), R683ˣ(131v)

Readings: [7] skyndi*: skyndir papp25ˣ, ‘scijndr’ R683ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 523, Skj BI, 501-2, Skald I, 246; Hl 1941, 28-9, 82.

Context: The heading is langlokum (‘Lang lokom’) ‘with late closures’ (cf. SnSt Ht 14). The metre is dróttkvætt, and it is characterised by the syntactic peculiarity that the clause beginning in l. 1 is concluded in l. 8. Otherwise attested in Old Norse poetry only in sts 59-60 of Hl and Ht 14.

Notes: [All]: Haraldr hárfagri ‘Fair-hair’ Hálfdanarson (Hhárf^I) was the consolidator of Norway (r. c. 860-932). The poem now begins to commemorate the (historical) kings of Norway. The topic of this and the next stanza is the famous battle of Hafrsfjorden (c. 885-90), after which the victorious Haraldr gained sovereignty over all of Norway (see HhárfHkr ch. 18, ÍF 26, 114-17; ÍF 29, 66-70; Þhorn Harkv 1-12^I; Þhorn Gldr^I; Anon Nkt 3-9^II). See also his Biography in SkP I. — [1, 8]: Repeated as st. 60/1, 8 below, which gives the impression that the poets consciously attempted to create the effect of a refrain reminiscent of the repetition of the first line in all of the stanzas of Anon Krm^VIII, Hjoggum vér með hjǫrvi ‘We struck with the sword’; see Holtsmark, Hl 1941, 133-4. — [5]: The line recalls Hskv Útdr 11/3^II. — [7] hinns ‘the one who’: Jón Helgason (Hl 1941) suggests the possible emendation to þeims ‘he who’, which is not necessary since the word in position 1 carries secondary stress in this type of line (Type XE3; see Gade 1995a, 85-7). — [7] skyndi* (3rd pers. sg. pret. indic.) ‘hastened’: Emended from skyndir (3rd pers. sg. pres. indic.) ‘hastens’ (‘scijndr’ R683ˣ) in keeping with all earlier eds. For the possible addition of the inorganic final <r>, see Note to st. 8/4. — [8] bendags ‘of the wound-daylight [SWORD]’: The spelling of this word in the mss, ‘Bændax’, shows that Rugman mistook the cpd for a pers. n.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
4. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
5. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
6. Hl 1941 = Jón Helgason and Anne Holtsmark, eds. 1941. Háttalykill enn forni. BA 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
7. SkP I = Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Ed. Diana Whaley. 2012.
8. Internal references
9. Russell Poole 2012, ‘(Biography of) Haraldr hárfagri Hálfdanarson’ 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. 67.
10. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Anonymous Poems, Nóregs konungatal 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. 763-4.
11. 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 27 April 2024)
12. Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘ Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1001. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1347> (accessed 27 April 2024)
13. Edith Marold with the assistance of Vivian Busch, Jana Krüger, Ann-Dörte Kyas and Katharina Seidel, translated from German by John Foulks 2012, ‘ Þorbjǫrn hornklofi, Glymdrápa’ 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. 73. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1435> (accessed 27 April 2024)
14. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Halldórr skvaldri, Útfarardrápa 11’ 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. 491-2.
15. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 12’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1116.
16. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 14’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1118.
17. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Þorbjǫrn hornklofi, Haraldskvæði (Hrafnsmál) 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. 94.