Sigv ErfÓl 16^I

Mildr fann gǫrst, hvé galdrar,
gramr sjalfr, meginrammir
fjǫlkunnigra Finna
fullstórum barg Þóri,
þás hyrsendir Hundi
húna golli búnu
— slætt réð sízt at bíta —
sverði laust of herðar.

Mildr gramr fann gǫrst sjalfr, hvé meginrammir galdrar fjǫlkunnigra Finna barg fullstórum Þóri, þás {{húna hyr}sendir} laust sverði búnu golli of herðar Hundi; slætt réð sízt at bíta.

The gracious prince discovered most clearly himself how the mightily strong spells of the magic-skilled Saami saved the very powerful Þórir when {the sender {of the fire of the mast-tops}} [(lit. ‘fire-sender of the mast-tops’) GOLD > GENEROUS MAN = Óláfr] struck with the sword adorned with gold across the shoulders of Hundr (‘Dog’); the blunt one succeeded least in biting.

Mss: Kˣ(470v-471r) (Hkr); Holm2(68r), J2ˣ(226v-227r), 321ˣ(256), 73aˣ(201v), Holm4(63va), 61(125va), 325V(81ra), 325VII(38r), Flat(124vb), Tóm(156r) (ÓH)

Readings: [1] fann: veit J2ˣ;    gǫrst: mest Tóm    [2] gramr: grams Flat;    sjalfr: ‘siafr’ Holm2, silfurs Flat, silfr‑ Tóm;    ‑rammir: ‑rammar 61, Tóm    [5] hyrsendir Hundi: með Hundi harðar 321ˣ;    ‑sendir: ‑sendi Flat    [6] búnu: búin 321ˣ, búna 61    [8] laust: ‘luzt’ 73aˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 261, Skj BI, 242-3, Skald I, 125, NN §663; Hkr 1893-1901, II, 492, IV, 169-70, ÍF 27, 383-4, Hkr 1991, II, 532-3 (ÓHHkr ch. 228); ÓH 1941, I, 573 (ch. 226), Flat 1860-8, II, 356; Jón Skaptason 1983, 171, 306.

Context: Óláfr strikes Þórir hundr (‘Dog’; see Note to l. 4 below) on the shoulders but his sword does not ‘bite’, and it seems as if dust rises from the reindeer skin he is wearing.

Notes: [4, 5] fullstórum Þóri; Hundi ‘the very powerful Þórir; Hundr (“Dog”)’: Þórir hundr (‘Dog’) Þórisson, originally a lendr maðr ‘landed man, district chieftain’ of Óláfr, became a follower of King Knútr, who gave him the Finnferð, the job of travelling to collect tax from the Saami (ÍF 27, 306). While on one of these expeditions, he acquired twelve reindeer skins which were impervious to weapons and soon after led a naval expedition from the north to defend the country from Óláfr, coming from the east (ÍF 27, 345). Þórir is one of two or three attackers accused of having been directly responsible for Óláfr’s death (ÍF 27, 385; Fidjestøl 1987). It is not clear whether fullstórum ‘very powerful’ refers to Þórir’s size or his significance, though the latter is more likely as Snorri calls him ríkastr maðr ‘the most powerful man’ in northern Norway (ÍF 27, 177). Kock (NN §663) accepts that fullstórum could be an adj. referring to Þórir, but notes the possibility that it could rather be an adv. modifying barg ‘saved’, meaning ‘fully’ or ‘strongly’. — [4] barg ‘saved’: The fact that this sg. verb is predicated to a pl. subject galdrar ‘spells’ in l. 1 is probably explained by the distance between the two (Hkr 1893-1901, IV; cf. NS §66 Anm. 3). — [6] húna ‘of the mast-tops’: The húnn was a strengthened area at the top of the mast through which the halyards passed and on which the shrouds could rest. As Finnur Jónsson points out (Hkr 1893-1901, IV), the kenning is unusual and rather depends on the assumption that such mast-tops were gilded. This stanza seems to be the only definite evidence that these were gilded, however; there is a possible but not certain instance in Arn Hryn 10/7-8^II (see Note and Jesch 2001a, 160-2). — [7] slætt ‘the blunt one’: The king’s magnificent sword has presumably been blunted by the Saami magic. — [7] sízt ‘least’: This is doubtless an instance of litotes: the sword did not bite at all.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
5. 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.
6. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
7. 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.
8. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
9. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
10. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
11. 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.
12. Fidjestøl, Bjarne. 1987. ‘Legenda om Tore Hund’. In Hagland et al. 1987, 38-51.
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 20 April 2024)
15. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Hrynhenda, Magnússdrápa 10’ 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. 195-6.