Sigv Víkv 5^I

Víg vannt, hlenna hneigir,
hjǫlmum grimmt it fimmta
— þolðu hlýr fyr hári
hríð Kinnlimasíðu —,
þás við rausn at ræsis
reið herr ofan skeiðum,
enn í gegn at gunni
gekk hilmis lið rekkum.

{Hneigir hlenna}, vannt it fimmta víg, grimmt hjǫlmum — hlýr þolðu hríð fyr hári Kinnlimasíðu —, þás herr reið ofan við rausn at skeiðum ræsis, enn lið hilmis gekk í gegn rekkum at gunni.

{Oppressor of thieves} [JUST RULER = Óláfr], you won the fifth battle, dangerous to helmets — the bows suffered a storm off high Kinnlimasíða —, when the army rode down magnificently to the ruler’s warships and the leader’s troop advanced against warriors in battle.

Mss: Kˣ(224r) (Hkr); Holm2(6v), R686ˣ(11v), J2ˣ(121r), 325VI(6ra), 73aˣ(18v-19r), 78aˣ(17v), 68(5v), 61(79va), 325V(8ra), Bb(126rb), Flat(80ra), Tóm(96r) (ÓH)

Readings: [1] hneigir: ‘h(n)ęgir’(?) Bb    [2] hjǫlmum: hǫlðum 61    [3] þolðu: þolðut 61, ‘þorldu’ Bb;    fyr: á Holm2, R686ˣ, J2ˣ, 68, 325V, Bb, Flat, Tóm;    hári: hára 325V    [4] ‑síðu: ‘sudu’ Tóm    [5] þás (‘þa er’): þar er Holm2, R686ˣ, 68, 325V, Bb, Flat, Tóm, þat er J2ˣ;    at: so Holm2, R686ˣ, J2ˣ, 325VI, 73aˣ, 78aˣ, 68, 61, 325V, Bb, Tóm, at corrected from ok Kˣ, er Flat;    ræsis: ‘ræsizt’ Tóm    [6] reið: reiðr 325VI, 73aˣ, reiði 78aˣ, réð 325V;    herr: hverr 68, ferð 325V, Flat, Tóm;    ofan: ófám 325V;    skeiðum: sverðum 325V, skeiðu Flat    [7] gunni: grunni 73aˣ, ‘gunn’ Bb, gumnum Tóm    [8] hilmis: ‘hilms’ 78aˣ;    rekkum: rekkinn Bb

Editions: Skj AI, 224, Skj BI, 214, Skald I, 111; Hkr 1893-1901, II, 14-15, IV, 108, ÍF 27, 13, Hkr 1991, I, 259 (ÓHHkr ch. 11); ÓH 1941, I, 41 (ch. 22), Flat 1860-8, II, 18; Fell 1981b, 113-14, Jón Skaptason 1983, 57, 222.

Context: Having sailed to Frísland (Frisia) and waited out a storm, Óláfr goes ashore with his troop and the inhabitants ride down to meet them in battle.

Notes: [3, 4] hári Kinnlimasíðu ‘high Kinnlimasíða’: This is usually explained as Kennemerland, a coastal district in North Holland, with steep sand-dunes (Samplonius 1998, 93). Despite this, it is hard to imagine any Norwegian or Icelander describing anything in the Netherlands as ‘high’, or depicting the local army riding ‘down’ to the ships (l. 6). There are also philological difficulties; for further discussion, see Jesch (2001a, 82-3). — [7] enn ‘and’: The conj. en(n) ‘and, but’, rather than the adv. ‘again, further’, is indicated by the word order in ll. 7-8. Most eds including Skj B and ÍF 27 print the conj. in the form en, but enn is a possible form of the conj., produces a better rhyme with gunn- than en, and is the reading of all mss but Bb. 

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. Fell, Christine E. 1981b. ‘Víkingarvísur’. In Dronke et al. 1981, 106-22.
5. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
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. 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. Samplonius, Kees. 1998. ‘Friesland en de Vikingetijd: de ring van Senja en de Vierentwintig Landrechten’. It Beaken 60, 89-101.
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)