Sigv ErfÓl 14^I

Rauð í rekka blóði
rǫnd með gumna hǫndum
dreyrugt sverð, þars dýran
drótt þjóðkonung sótti.
Auk at ísarnleiki
Innþrœndum lét finnask
rœkinn gramr í reikar
rauðbrúnan hjǫr túnum.

Dreyrugt sverð rauð rǫnd með hǫndum gumna í blóði rekka, þars drótt sótti dýran þjóðkonung. Auk rœkinn gramr lét rauðbrúnan hjǫr finnask í {túnum reikar} Innþrœndum at {ísarnleiki}.

Gory sword reddened shield, along with the hands of men, in the blood of warriors, where the troop attacked the glorious mighty king. And the capable prince caused the red-brown sword to be found in {the homefields of the hair-parting} [HEAD] of Innþrœndir in {the iron-play} [BATTLE].

Mss: Kˣ(469v) (Hkr); Holm2(67v), J2ˣ(226r), 321ˣ(254), 73aˣ(201r) (ll. 1-4), Holm4(63rb), 61(125rb), 325V(80va), 325VII(38r), Flat(124va-b), Tóm(155v) (ÓH)

Readings: [3] dreyrugt: so 73aˣ, 325VII, dreyrug Kˣ, Holm2, J2ˣ, 321ˣ, Holm4, 61, 325V, Flat, Tóm;    þars (‘þar er’): þá er 73aˣ, 325V, fyrir 325VII;    dýran: dyggvan 73aˣ, 325V, dýrum 61    [4] ‑konung: ‑konungr 61, Tóm;    sótti: sóttu 325V    [5] Auk: ok Holm2, J2ˣ, 321ˣ, Holm4, 325V, ‘ott’ 61, 325VII, Tóm;    ísarn‑: so Holm2, jarna‑ Kˣ, J2ˣ, Holm4, 61, 325VII, Flat, Tóm, í sár 325V    [6] Innþrœndum: innþrœndir Flat;    lét: sókn Flat;    finnask: stinna Flat    [7] rœkinn: rekinn var 61, Flat, Tóm;    gramr: ‘grarr’ Flat, grár Tóm    [8] ‑brúnan: brúnum Tóm;    túnum: túni 321ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 260-1, Skj BI, 242, Skald I, 125, NN §§620, 661, 2988C; Hkr 1893-1901, II, 490, IV, 168, ÍF 27, 381, Hkr 1991, II, 531 (ÓHHkr ch. 226); ÓH 1941, I, 571 (ch. 224), Flat 1860-8, II, 355; Jón Skaptason 1983, 169, 304.

Context: The fighting gets fiercer and the king presses forward in the hand-to-hand fighting.

Notes: [1-3]: (a) Dreyrugt sverð ‘gory sword’, although the reading of only two mss, is adopted here (as in Skj B, Skald and Jón Skaptason 1983) to provide a subject for the sg. verb rauð. (b) The majority reading dreyrug sverð is retained in ÍF 27 (followed by Hkr 1991), and taken as acc. pl., while rauð is assumed to be impersonal. This leads to the syntactically awkward Rauð rǫnd með hǫndum gumna, dreyrug sverð ‘One reddened the shield, along with the hands of men, (and) gory swords’. — [2] með hǫndum gumna ‘along with the hands of men’: Here (with Kock, NN §§661, 2988C, and ÍF 27), með is taken in the sense ‘together with’. Finnur Jónsson in Skj B suggested a sg. sense for the pl. gumna ‘of men’, hence ‘(sword) in the man’s hands’. — [5-8]: It is possible to construe the helmingr in two ways, depending on the interpretation of rauð (l. 8). (a) Rauð could form part of a cpd adj. rauðbrúnan (m. acc. sg.) ‘red-brown’ (so Skj B, Skald and this edn), cf. rauðljóss, lit. ‘red-light’, in Hallv Knútdr 4/1^III (-brúnn is unlikely to mean ‘sharp’; see Note to Arn Magndr 2/8^II). In this case ll. 5-8 constitute a single clause. (b) Rauð could be the pret. verb ‘reddened’, with gramr ‘prince’ as its understood subject (so ÍF 27). However, this interpretation presents difficulties in ll. 6-7, requiring lét ‘caused’ to take a dat. object (Innþrœndum ‘Innþrœndir’) and leaving the role of finnask ‘be found’ unclear. — [5] auk at ísarnleiki ‘and ... in the iron-play [BATTLE]’: The same phrase is found (only) in Þjóð Haustl 14/5, where the fight is a mythic one between the god Þórr and the giant Hrungnir. Given the further resemblance to Haustl (see Note to ll. 7, 8 below), Sigvatr’s stanza may consciously or unconsciously recall Haustl. — [7] rœkinn ‘capable’: Apart from this instance, the adj. (apparently the p. p. of an unrecorded strong verb) is attested only in various compounds (LP: rœkinn) and the meaning is not entirely clear, though it may be related to the weak verb rœkja ‘to take care’. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) takes rœkinn with at ísarnleiki ‘in iron-play [BATTLE]’, hence ‘capable in battle’, but the prepositional phrase is more naturally taken with lét finnask ‘caused to be found’ (cf. NN §620). — [7, 8] túnum reikar ‘the homefields of the parting [HEAD]’: The pl. túnum might suggest ‘hair’ as the referent of this kenning, but the context and skaldic parallels (Meissner 127) rather suggest ‘head’. Compare the similar hneigihlíðum hárs ‘inclined slopes of the hair [HEAD]’ in Þjóð Haustl 20/1-2^III: in both cases the head is assaulted by a weapon (a whetstone in Haustl) described as rauðr ‘red’. Sigvatr’s kenning continues the preoccupation with hair in recounting Óláfr’s punitive actions against his enemies; cf. st. 4/5, 8, st. 6/2, 3, 4 and Notes.

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. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. 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.
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. 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. Internal references
14. (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)
15. Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Haustlǫng’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 431. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1438> (accessed 24 April 2024)
16. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Magnússdrápa 2’ 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. 209-10.
17. Matthew Townend (ed.) 2017, ‘Hallvarðr háreksblesi, Knútsdrápa 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 235.
18. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Haustlǫng 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. 453.
19. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Haustlǫng 20’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 461.