Sigv Vestv 4^I

Átti jarl at sætta
allframr búendr gamla
ok, þeirs optast tóku,
Ôleif, at því máli.
Þeir hafa fyrr af fári
— framts Eireks kyn — meira
hǫfðum keypt an heiptir
Hôkun saman mundi.

Allframr jarl átti at sætta gamla búendr, þeirs optast tóku at því máli, ok Ôleif. Þeir hafa fyrr keypt hǫfðum af fári, meira an Hôkun mundi saman heiptir; {kyn Eireks} [e]s framt.

The most excellent jarl was to reconcile the old farmers, who most often brought up that matter, and Óláfr. They have previously dealt in heads out of rage, to a greater degree than Hákon was able to cancel out the animosities; {Eiríkr’s kin} [= Hákon] is outstanding.

Mss: Kˣ(406v) (Hkr); Holm2(51r), 972ˣ(369va), 321ˣ(181), 68(49r), Holm4(45rb), 61(111rb), 325V(57rb), Bb(180vb), Flat(114vb), Tóm(137v) (ÓH)

Readings: [2] búendr: bændr 972ˣ, 61, Tóm, ‘bv̄’ 68    [3] ok: enn 321ˣ;    þeirs (‘þeir er’): þá er Holm4, Tóm, þat er 325V;    optast: optar 61, Bb, Flat    [4] at: af 68, 61, 325V;    því máli: þeim málum Tóm    [5] Þeir: því 61;    fyrr: fyrir Flat;    af fári: af Bb, enn færi Tóm    [6] framts (‘framt er’): framr er Bb, fram er Flat, framt Tóm, framit er Tóm    [7] hǫfðum: hǫppum 68, hǫfðu 61, Bb, Flat, hverfðu Tóm;    keypt: ‘kept’ 325V;    an (‘en’): so Holm2, Holm4, Bb, Flat, enn Kˣ, 321ˣ, 68, 61, Tóm, er 325V;    heiptir: heptir 321ˣ    [8] mundi: so 972ˣ, myndi Kˣ, Holm2, 325V, ‘m̄de’ 68, Holm4, bundit Bb, Flat, Tóm

Editions: Skj AI, 242, Skj BI, 227, Skald I, 118, NN §633; Hkr 1893-1901, II, 352, IV, 144, ÍF 27, 273, Hkr 1991, II, 451 (ÓHHkr ch. 146); ÓH 1941, I, 427 (ch. 136), Flat 1860-8, II, 277; Jón Skaptason 1983, 107, 250-1.

Context: The stanza is cited shortly after st. 3, but seemingly not as evidence for the same military expedition; see Introduction to this poem.

Notes: [All]: The stanza eludes definite interpretation, but is assumed here to refer to animosities between Óláfr and the farmers, which Hákon jarl (in the first helmingr) intended to, or was expected to, resolve, but which (in the second helmingr) have gone too far to be resolved. Thus Sigvatr may be making excuses for his friend Hákon (see Introduction). This appears to be the implication of the stanza, although there is no evidence of such an attempt at reconciliation (as noted in ÍF 27 and Jón Skaptason 1983, 250) or of good relations between Hákon and Óláfr. Nor is it clear what the matter (því máli, l. 4) brought up by the old farmers was, and the second helmingr, which might explain it, is particularly difficult to construe (see Note to ll. 5-8). — [3] þeirs (m. nom. pl.) ‘who’: The acc. pl. variant þás would be grammatically more straightforward, as the pron. refers back to the acc. pl. búendr ‘farmers’. However, the reading of the main ms. is retained since a rel. pron. can take the case appropriate to the rel. clause, although this is rare (NS §260). — [5-8]: On the overall interpretation of this helmingr, see Note to [All] above. Finnur Jónsson (Hkr 1893-1901, IV, 144; LP: kaupa) failed to make full sense of it, and the interpretation presented here develops that of Kock in NN §633 (as do ÍF 27 and Jón Skaptason 1983). The key points in Kock’s interpretation are the following. En(n) in l. 7 is taken as normalised an, hence meira an, lit. ‘more than, to a greater degree than’. Keypt (l. 7), lit. ‘bought, traded, bargained’ (inf. kaupa), belongs with hǫfðum ‘heads’, meaning that the sides indulged in reciprocal killings, and supplies the understood inf. kaupa to complete the auxiliary verb mundi ‘was able’ (l. 8). It is assumed here that þeir ‘they’ refers back to the farmers and Óláfr, and that meira modifies keypt hǫfðum ‘deal in heads’, contrasted with kaupa saman heiptir which means something like ‘cancel out animosities’, based on the idea of ‘exchange’ that is implicit in the verb. Kaupa saman ‘to have dealings, exchange’ is attested in HHj 3/7 (NK 141). Although there are no parallels for it taking an object (here heiptir ‘animosities’) there is a certain similarity with the expression rœkja heiptir manna ‘carry out the animosities of men’ (Þorm Þorgdr 7/3-4^V (Fbr 10)). Unlike Kock, both ÍF 27 and Jón Skaptason (1983) take meira with af fári ‘out of rage’ and Jón adds the suggestion that þeir refers back to Hákon and Óláfr, who are both mentioned in the previous helmingr, resulting in his translation ‘They [Hákon and Óláfr] have traded heads [killed each other’s men] with too much violence for Hákon now to bring about reconciliation’. — [6] kyn Eireks ‘Eiríkr’s kin [= Hákon]’: This could be a general laudatory reference to the jarls of Hlaðir but is more likely to be a circumlocution for Eiríkr’s son Hákon, who seems very much to be the focus of this stanza (see LP: kyn 2). — [8] mundi ‘was able’: This form, rather than the majority form myndi, is required to provide the rhyme on -un.

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. 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.
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. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
7. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
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 25 April 2024)
15. Not published: do not cite ()
16. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2022, ‘Fóstbrœðra saga 10 (Þormóðr Kolbrúnarskáld, Þorgeirsdrápa 7)’ 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. 499.