Sigv Austv 11^I

Jór rinnr aptanskœru
allsvangr gǫtur langar;
vǫll kná hófr til hallar
— hǫfum lítinn dag — slíta.
Nús, þats blakkr of bekki
berr mik Dǫnum ferri;
fákr laust drengs í díki
— dœgr mœtask nú — fœti.

Allsvangr jór rinnr langar gǫtur aptanskœru; hófr kná slíta vǫll til hallar; hǫfum lítinn dag. Nús, þats blakkr berr mik of bekki ferri Dǫnum; fákr drengs laust fœti í díki; dœgr mœtask nú.

[My] famished steed runs on the long tracks in the twilight; the hoof can tear the ground on the way to the hall; we have little daylight. Now it is that [my] dark mount carries me over streams far from the Danes; the good fellow’s [my] charger struck with its foot [stumbled] in a ditch; night and day meet now.

Mss: Holm2(17v), 325V(22vb), R686ˣ(35v), 972ˣ(123va), 325VI(15vb), 75a(8ra), 73aˣ(46v), 78aˣ(45v-46r), 68(16v), 61(88va), Holm4(9ra), 75c(9v), 325VII(8v), Flat(85va), Tóm(106v) (ÓH); Kˣ(272r), Bb(143va) (Hkr)

Readings: [1] rinnr (‘renn’): rinnir 78aˣ;    ‑skœru: ‘skioro’ R686ˣ, ‑skœrur 73aˣ, 78aˣ, 61, Holm4, ‘skætu’ Tóm    [2] ‑svangr: ‑strangr 73aˣ    [3] vǫll kná: ‘uollka’ corrected from ‘uollkar’ R686ˣ;    hófr: hóf 325VI, 75a, 78aˣ, ‘ho᷎fr’ 73aˣ    [4] lítinn: so 325V, 325VI, 75a, 73aˣ, 78aˣ, 68, 61, Holm4, 75c, 325VII, Flat, Kˣ, lítin Holm2, 972ˣ, Tóm, Bb, ‘litt[…]’ R686ˣ    [5] þats (‘þat er’): þat 325VI, 78aˣ, Tóm;    blakkr: ‘blakr’ R686ˣ;    of: enn Tóm;    bekki: bleki R686ˣ, ‘bælki’ Tóm    [6] berr: ‘berer’ R686ˣ, bar 78aˣ;    ferri: fœrri 75c    [7] fákr: corrected from ‘fakar’ R686ˣ;    laust: lystr Holm4    [8] nú: svá 325VI, 78aˣ, hér Holm4

Editions: Skj AI, 236, Skj BI, 223, Skald I, 116, NN §1861; Fms 4, 136, Fms 12, 82, ÓH 1941, I, 136 (ch. 53), Flat 1860-8, II, 58; Hkr 1777-1826, II, 82, VI, 81-2, Hkr 1868, 274 (ÓHHkr ch. 70), Hkr 1893-1901, II, 114, ÍF 27, 93-4, Hkr 1991, I, 315 (ÓHHkr ch. 71); Ternström 1871, 10-11, 40-1, Jón Skaptason 1983, 92, 241.

Context: As for sts 9-10, though it is now evening.

Notes: [3] vǫll : hallar: Frank (1978, 74) points out the rhyme of ǫ with a in this odd line, where skothending is expected, though ǫ : a and ô : á occur elsewhere in the poem as aðalhendingar (see the Note to st. 3/8). However, aðalhending in place of skothending is by no means rare in Sigvatr’s works: Höskuldur Þráinsson (1970, 25-7) identifies fifty-four examples, exclusive of fourteen examples of a : ǫ . — [3] til hallar ‘to the hall’: The phrase is here taken with slíta vǫll ‘tear the ground’ in ll. 3-4, as by Kock (NN §1861, followed by ÍF 27; Hkr 1991), which produces simpler word order. It could alternatively be connected with gǫtur ‘ways’ in l. 2, as in Skj B.  — [6] ferri Dǫnum ‘farther from Danes’: There is no universally agreed explanation for this phrase. Beckman (1923, 331, but cf. Beckman 1934, 212-13) explains it as meaning ‘along the way from the Danes’, i.e. after passing Stora Hov, Sigvatr took the road from Lödöse and Halland, which was then Danish territory. Barði Guðmundsson (1927, 549-50) supposes that Sigvatr composed this stanza on the return journey from Västergötland, which, he argues, was then under Danish control. Sahlgren (1927-8, I, 187-8; similarly Turville-Petre, 1976, 80) suggests that the import of the remark is that the political situation of the day was such that it would have been dangerous for Sigvatr to travel anywhere near Danish territory. Schreiner (1927-9c, 42-3) imagines that an earlier phase of the journey took Sigvatr sailing through Øresund, with Danish territory on both sides. The eds of Hkr 1991 suggest that Sigvatr may have had in mind that the Swedes and their king would turn out to be more effective opponents to King Óláfr than the Danes had been. Frank (1978, 74) interprets the phrase to mean ‘inland’, i.e. ‘away from the seaboard which was largely Danish territory’. See also Toll (1925, 157-8). — [7, 8] fákr drengs laust fœti í díki ‘the good fellow’s [my] charger struck with its foot [stumbled] in a ditch’: Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) supposes that díki refers to a brook (bækken). To the horse’s stumbling, Frank (1978, 73) cites parallels in the sagas that bear connotations of bad luck and fate. The use of drengr ‘good fellow, warrior’ is probably ironic or mock-heroic here; cf. Note to st. 5/2. — [8] dœgr mœtask nú ‘night and day meet now’: Edqvist (1943, 69) suggests this may mean not simply that it is now twilight but that now morning and evening twilight meet, with the implication that it is now midsummer (since he supposes the journey to have begun in the spring). Dœgr, here pl., more strictly refers to a period of either twelve or twenty-four hours.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. Frank, Roberta. 1978. Old Norse Court Poetry: The Dróttkvætt Stanza. Islandica 42. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
10. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
11. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
12. Jón Skaptason. 1983. ‘Material for an Edition and Translation of the Poems of Sigvat Þórðarson, skáld’. Ph.D. thesis. State University of New York at Stony Brook. DAI 44: 3681A.
13. Sahlgren, Jöran. 1927-8. Eddica et Scaldica. Fornvästnordiska studier I-II. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
14. Barði Guðmundsson. 1927. ‘Gøtalands politiske stilling fra 950 til 1050’. HT(N) 27, 533-72.
15. Beckman, Nat. 1923. ‘Til Sigvats Austrfararvísur’. ANF 39, 321-32.
16. Beckman, Nat. 1934. ‘Ytterligare om Sigvats Austrfararvísur’. ANF 50, 197-217.
17. Edqvist, Torgny. 1943. ‘De geografiska problemen i Sigvat Tordssons Austrfararvísur’. NoB 31, 62-71.
18. Schreiner, Johan. 1927-9c. ‘Olav den hellige og nabolandene’. HT(N) 28 (5 ser. 7), 22-76.
19. Ternström, Alfred. 1871. Om skalden Sighvat Thordsson och tolkning af hans Austrfararvísur, Vestrfararvísur och Knútsdrápa. Lund: Ohlsson.
20. Toll, Hans. 1925. ‘Form och innehåll uti “Austrfararvisur”’. Edda 23, 155-8.
21. Höskuldur Þráinsson. 1970. ‘Hendingar í dróttkvæðum hætti hjá Sighvati Þórðarsyni’. Mímir 9, 9-29.
22. Hkr 1777-1826 = Schöning, Gerhard et al., eds. 1777-1826. Heimskringla edr Noregs konunga-sögor. 6 vols. Copenhagen: Stein.
23. Hkr 1868 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1868. Heimskringla eller Norges kongesagaer af Snorre Sturlassøn. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger & Christie.
24. Internal references
25. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Óláfs saga helga (in Heimskringla)’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=152> (accessed 24 April 2024)