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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Sigv Víkv 2I

Judith Jesch (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Víkingarvísur 2’ 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. 536.

Sigvatr ÞórðarsonVíkingarvísur
123

Þar vas enn, es ǫnnur
Ôleifr — né svik fôlusk —
odda þing í eyddri
Eysýslu gekk heyja.
Sitt ôttu fjǫr fótum
— fár beið ór stað sára —
enn, þeirs undan runnu,
allvaldr, búendr gjalda.

Þar vas enn, es Ôleifr gekk heyja {ǫnnur þing odda} í eyddri Eysýslu; svik né fôlusk. Allvaldr, búendr, þeirs runnu undan, ôttu enn gjalda fótum fjǫr sitt; fár beið sára ór stað.

There it came about also that Óláfr proceeded to hold {other assemblies of weapon-points} [BATTLES] in destroyed Saaremaa; treachery was not hidden. Mighty ruler, the farmers who ran away had again their feet to thank [lit. to repay] for their lives; few stood waiting for wounds.

Mss: (222v), papp18ˣ(65v) (Hkr); Holm2(6r), R686ˣ(11r), J2ˣ(120r-v), 325VI(5vb), 73aˣ(18r), 78aˣ(17r), 68(5v), 61(79rb), 325V(7va), Bb(126ra), Flat(80ra), Tóm(95v) (ÓH)

Readings: [1] Þar: þat Holm2, R686ˣ, J2ˣ, 325VI, 73aˣ, 78aˣ, 68, 61, 325V, Bb, Flat, Tóm;    es (‘er’): so 325VI, 68, 61, 325V, Flat, Tóm, ok Kˣ, papp18ˣ, Holm2, R686ˣ, 73aˣ, 78aˣ, Bb, at J2ˣ;    ǫnnur: annat 325VI, 73aˣ, 78aˣ, unnut 61    [2] Ôleifr: Óláf R686ˣ, Óláfs 325V, ‘ola(f)e’(?) Bb;    fôlusk: fáluð J2ˣ, ‘falut’ 68, fôluzk Bb    [3] þing: hríð 61;    eyddri: auðri 61    [6] fár: frá papp18ˣ, fárir 325VI;    beið: leið 78aˣ;    ór: í J2ˣ, 78aˣ;    sára: so Holm2, R686ˣ, J2ˣ, 325VI, 73aˣ, 78aˣ, 68, 61, 325V, Bb, Flat, Tóm, om. Kˣ, sára added later papp18ˣ    [7] þeirs (‘þeir er’): þeir en 325VI, þeim 78aˣ    [8] ‑valdr: so papp18ˣ, Holm2, R686ˣ, J2ˣ, 78aˣ, 61, 325V, Bb, Tóm, ‑valds Kˣ, ‑valdi 325VI, 73aˣ, Flat, ‑vald 68;    búendr: bœndr 325VI, 73aˣ, 78aˣ, 61, 325V, Tóm, ‘bendr’ 68, ‘bondr’ Bb, fé Flat

Editions: Skj AI, 223, Skj BI, 213, Skald I, 111, NN §§1856, 2467, 2480A; Hkr 1893-1901, II, 11-12, IV, 107, ÍF 27, 10, Hkr 1991, I, 257 (ÓHHkr ch. 8); ÓH 1941, I, 39 (ch. 22), Flat 1860-8, II, 17; Fell 1981b, 110-11, Jón Skaptason 1983, 54, 220.

Context: The inhabitants of Eysýsla (Saaremaa) offer Óláfr a payment. When they come, ostensibly with the payment, he meets them with an armed force. It turns out that they too had arrived with weapons, and there is a battle.

Notes: [All]: Ótt Hfl 7 mentions the fleeing of the people of Eysýsla, after stating that Óláfr got tribute from the people of Gotland. — [1] þar vas enn, es ‘there it came about also that’: (a) The interpretation here (also that of Skj B and ÍF 27) rests on adopting the rel. conj. es ‘that’ (l. 1). This is found in mss from the three main classes of ÓH mss and is to be preferred to ok ‘and’ or possibly ‘also’ (= adv. auk), since the positioning of gekk ‘went, proceeded’ late in the clause (l. 4) shows that the clause is subordinate. (b) Fell (1981b) keeps the reading of her main ms. Holm2, Þat var enn ok ǫnnur ‘That was next and second’. (c) Kock (NN §§1856, 2467) eclectically chooses variants to make for smoother syntax and more logical meaning: Þat var enn, es annat… ‘It was further, that a second …’. The choice of sg. annat rather than pl. ǫnnur enables the battle-kenning þing odda to be taken as sg., which as Kock points out is preferable in the context of the poem as a whole, where each stanza tells of only one battle. — [2] svik né fôlusk ‘treachery was not hidden’: Svik is n. pl. This presumably refers to the duplicity of the inhabitants; see Context. — [3] eyddri ‘destroyed’: The fact that Óláfr goes to battle in a place that is described as ‘destroyed’ could simply anticipate the outcome, but together with enn ‘again’ in l. 7 it might rather suggest prior military activity in the place, and this is implied in Snorri’s prose, which refers to raiding before the pitched battle, though the exact sequence of events is not clear. The constraints of the metrical lines and the need, in Víkv, for a numbered sequence of decisive battles could well have led Sigvatr to simplify a more complex sequence of events. — [4] Eysýslu ‘Saaremaa’: Lit. ‘island-district’. The Estonian island known as Ösel in Swedish.  — [5-8]: ÓHLeg (1982, 42) echoes the metaphor of the farmers praising or thanking their feet for their lives, raising the possibility that it had access to more of the poem than it cites (see Introduction, above). — [6] beið ór stað ‘stood waiting for’: Lit. ‘waited for from [their] position, waited for in that place’. For this idiom, see Fritzner: bíða 1 and ONP: bíða A1, also Hávh Lv 11/4V (Háv 12). — [7] enn ‘again’: See Note to l. 3.

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. Fell, Christine E. 1981b. ‘Víkingarvísur’. In Dronke et al. 1981, 106-22.
  6. 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.
  7. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
  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 4to med varianter fra andre håndskrifter. 2 vols. Det norske historiske kildeskriftfond skrifter 53. Oslo: Dybwad.
  9. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
  10. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
  11. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
  12. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
  13. 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.
  14. Internal references
  15. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Óláfs saga helga (Legendary)’ 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=31> (accessed 28 March 2024)
  16. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Óláfs saga helga’ 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=53> (accessed 28 March 2024)
  17. (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 28 March 2024)
  18. Judith Jesch 2012, ‘ Sigvatr Þórðarson, Víkingarvísur’ 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. 532. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1360> (accessed 28 March 2024)
  19. Rolf Stavnem and Margaret Clunies Ross (eds) 2022, ‘Hávarðar saga Ísfirðings 12 (Hávarðr halti Ísfirðingr, Lausavísur 2-14 11)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 969.
  20. Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Óttarr svarti, Hǫfuðlausn 7’ 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. 749.
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