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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Skúli Svǫlðr 4III

Kate Heslop (ed.) 2017, ‘Skúli Þorsteinsson, Poem about Svǫlðr 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 364.

Skúli ÞorsteinssonPoem about Svǫlðr
345

Þás ræfrvita Reifnis
rauðk fyr Svǫlð til auðar;
herfylgins bark Hǫlga
haugþak saman baugum.

Þás rauðk {{Reifnis ræfr}vita} fyr Svǫlð til auðar; bark saman {haugþak herfylgins Hǫlga} baugum.

When I reddened {the beacon {of the roof of Reifnir <sea-king>}} [(lit. ‘roof-beacon of Reifnir’) SHIELD > SWORD] off Svolder for riches; I gathered together {barrow-thatch of host-accompanying Hǫlgi <legendary king>} [GOLD] with rings.

Mss: R(32v), Tˣ(34r), W(75), U(31r), A(10r), B(3v), C(4r) (SnE)

Readings: [1] ‑vita: ‘vica’ Tˣ    [2] rauðk (‘rꜹð ec’): rauð C;    fyr Svǫlð til auðar: ‘[…]’ U;    Svǫlð: Svǫlðr A, B, C    [3] her‑: om. C;    ‑fylgins: so Tˣ, W, A, B, fylgnis R, U, C;    bark (‘bar ek’): so Tˣ, W, U, A, B, bað ek R, haug ok C    [4] ‑þak: so U, A, B, C, ‑þǫk R, Tˣ, W;    saman: so U, A, B, C, sama R, Tˣ, W;    baugum: ‘[…]’ U, bauga C

Editions: Skj AI, 306, Skj BI, 284, Skald I, 145, NN §§2264, 2836; SnE 1848-87, I, 400-1, II, 321, 432, 516, 581, III, 68, SnE 1931, 143, SnE 1998, I, 60.

Context: This helmingr is cited in Skm’s discussion of kennings for ‘gold’, presumably to exemplify the kenning haugþak Hǫlga ‘barrow-thatch of Hǫlgi’.

Notes: [1-2]: The first, subordinate clause in this half-stanza must have depended syntactically on a clause that was a part of the previous, now-lost helmingr. — [2] fyr Svǫlð ‘off Svolder’: See Note to st. 2/7 above. — [3-4] haugþak herfylgins Hǫlga ‘barrow-thatch of host-accompanying Hǫlgi <legendary king> [GOLD]’: Hǫlgi was a legendary king of Hålogaland in northern Norway and father of Þorgerðr Hǫlgabrúðr (see SnE 1998, I, 60 and Note to Þul Trollkvenna 2/8). While Þorgerðr appears elsewhere as an object of pagan worship (Simek 1993, 326-7; Guðrún Nordal 2001, 49), almost all our information on Hǫlgi is in this stanza and its introductory prose, where Snorri describes how his grave-mound comprised a layer of offerings (blótféit) of gold or silver, and a layer of dirt and gravel (cf. also Þhorn Harkv 14/4I and ÞorlJ ch. 7, ÍF 9, 226). — [4] baugum ‘with rings’: Dat. is taken here as indicating ‘accompanying circumstances’ (cf. Heusler 1967, 116), but the usage is unusual. An alternative would be to read sama ‘befit, suit’ (R, , W) for saman in l. 4 and construe bark haugþak herfylgins Hǫlga sama baugum ‘I carried the barrow-thatch of host-accompanying Hǫlgi <legendary king> [GOLD] to befit rings’, but it is difficult to find parallels for either the combination bera + inf. or sama with dat. rei; nor is it entirely clear what the phrase would mean. Other solutions proposed by previous eds are taking C’s bauga (gen. pl.) as part of the shield-kenning (Wood 1964, 183), giving the pleonastic Reifnis bauga ræfrviti ‘beacon of Reifnir’s rings’ roof’ [SHIELD > SWORD]; or taking baugum as ‘with shields’, i.e. ‘by means of fighting’ (NN §2264), although baugr is not used as a shield-heiti elsewhere in early poetry (LP: baugr 4).

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. 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.
  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. 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.
  6. Guðrún Nordal. 2001. Tools of Literacy: The Role of Skaldic Verse in Icelandic Textual Culture of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.
  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. ÍF 9 = Eyfirðinga sǫgur. Ed. Jónas Kristjánsson. 1956.
  10. Heusler, Andreas. 1967. Altisländisches Elementarbuch. 7th, unrev. edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
  11. Simek, Rudolf. 1993. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Trans. Angela Hall. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
  12. Wood, Cecil. 1964. ‘Skúli Þorsteinsson’. SS 36, 175-88.
  13. Internal references
  14. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Þorleifs þáttr jarlaskálds’ 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=50> (accessed 28 March 2024)
  15. (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 28 March 2024)
  16. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Trollkvenna 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. 725.
  17. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Þorbjǫrn hornklofi, Haraldskvæði (Hrafnsmál) 14’ 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. 108.
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