Skúli Svǫlðr 3^III

Mundit efst, þars undir
árflogni gafk sárar,
Hlǫkk í hundraðsflokki
hvítinga mik líta.

{Hlǫkk hvítinga} mundit líta mik efst í hundraðsflokki, þars gafk árflogni sárar undir.

{The Hlǫkk <valkyrie> of drinking-horns} [WOMAN] would not see me rearmost in a force of a hundred, where I offered severe wounds to the raven.

Mss: R(38r), Tˣ(39v), U(40v), A(14r), B(6v), 744ˣ(45r), C(7r) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Mundit: Myndit Tˣ, Mundi U, ‘My᷎nd[…]’ B, ‘Mýnd . .’ 744ˣ;    efst: ‘o᷎fst’ Tˣ, opt U, helzt A, ‘[…]’ B, ‘ef . .’ 744ˣ;    þars (‘þar er’): ‘[…]er’ B, ‘þar er’ 744ˣ;    undir: mildir B    [2] ‑flogni: ‑flogin U;    sárar: sára U

Editions: Skj AI, 306, Skj BI, 283, Skald I, 145, NN §2012; SnE 1848-87, I, 490-1, II, 353, 457, 544, 597, III, 101, SnE 1931, 172, SnE 1998, I, 91; Konráð Gíslason 1892, 32.

Context: This helmingr is the last in a series of five verse quotations exemplifying raven-heiti in Skm (SnE), here árflognir (lit. ‘early flier’).

Notes: [1-2] þars gafk árflogni sárar undir ‘where I offered severe wounds to the raven’: The sense here is that Skúli gave nourishment to the raven in the form of the blood and flesh of the men whom he wounded and killed at the battle. — [2] árflogni ‘to the raven’: The raven-heiti árflognir ‘early-flier’ is also attested in Þul Hrafns 2/4 and in GSúrs Lv 31/2^V (Gísl 34). In the latter instance, ár- also forms aðalhending with sár-. — [3] í hundraðsflokki ‘in a force of a hundred’: For this military term, see Note to ÞjóðA Magnfl 7/1^II. In what is possibly an echo of the present half-stanza, Þjóðólfr Arnórsson (c. 1045) depicts King Magnús inn góði ‘the Good’ Óláfsson of Norway as framast manna í hundraðsflokki ‘foremost of the men in a force of a hundred’ at the battle against the Wends at Lyrskovshede in 1043. — [4] hvítinga ‘of drinking-horns’: A particular drinking-horn is called Hvítingr (lit. ‘white one’) in Þorsteins þáttr bœjarmagns (Fms 3, 189), but hvítingr is common as a horn-heiti (LP: hvítingr 2).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
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. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
8. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. Konráð Gíslason, ed. 1892a. Udvalg af oldnordiske skjaldekvad, med anmærkninger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
10. Internal references
11. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
12. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 24 April 2024)
13. Diana Whaley 2009, ‘(Biography of) Þjóðólfr Arnórsson’ 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. 57-176.
14. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Hrafns heiti 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 946.
15. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2022, ‘Gísla saga Súrssonar 34 (Gísli Súrsson, Lausavísur 31)’ 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. 606.
16. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Magnússflokkr 7’ 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. 72-3.