SnSt Ht 39^III

Ok hjaldrreifan hófu
hoddstiklanda miklir
— morðflýtir kná mœta
málmskúrar dyn — hjálmar,
hjaldrs þás hilmir foldar
hugdýrum gaf stýri
(ógnsvellir fær allan)
jarldóm (gǫfugr sóma).

Ok miklir hjálmar hófu {hjaldrreifan hoddstiklanda} – {morðflýtir} kná mœta {dyn málmskúrar} –, þás {hilmir foldar} gaf {hugdýrum stýri hjaldrs} jarldóm; {gǫfugr ógnsvellir} fær allan sóma.

And great helmets promoted {the battle-happy hoard-dispenser} [GENEROUS MAN = Skúli] – {the urger of battles} [WARRIOR] meets {the din of the metal-shower} [BATTLE] –, when {the lord of the land} [KING = Ingi] gave {the noble-minded controller of battle} [WARRIOR = Skúli] an earldom; {the glorious terror-increaser} [WARRIOR] obtains all honour.

Mss: R(48v), Tˣ(51r), W(144), U(53r) (SnE)

Readings: [1] hjaldr‑: so W, U, hjald‑ R, Tˣ    [4] hjálmar: hálmar Tˣ, U    [5] hilmir: corrected from ‘hilldmir’ U;    foldar: so all others, ‘folkar’(?) R    [6] ‑dýrum: ‘fo᷎rom’ Tˣ, ‘stærum’ W, ‘færvm’ U;    stýri: ‘sto᷎ri’ Tˣ, ‘færi’ W, ‘stæri’ U

Editions: Skj AII, 63, Skj BII, 71, Skald II, 40, NN §§1314; SnE 1848-87, I, 650-1, II, 389-90, III, 120-1, SnE 1879-81, I, 7, 78, II, 17, SnE 1931, 233, SnE 2007, 19; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 24-5.

Context: The dróttkvætt variant is called tiltekit ‘linked’ (see st. 15), and the term apparently refers to the fact that the two helmingar are linked syntactically, that is, the first clause in the second helmingr is dependent on the first clause of the first helmingr. The commentary is not quite clear, however, and it could be that ‘linked’ refers to the repetition of the word hjaldr- (l. 1) in l. 5 (hjaldrs).

Notes: [All]: In dróttkvætt stanzas it is not uncommon for the second helmingr to be syntactically dependent on the first helmingr, but syntactic dependency is never used systematically throughout a poem (see also SnE 2007, 79). — [All]: The heading in Tˣ is 31. — [All]: Just before he died, King Ingi Bárðarson (d. 21 April 1217) gave his half-brother Skúli the title of jarl. — [4] hjálmar (m. nom. pl.) ‘helmets’: Altered to hálmar ‘straws’ in R (R*). It is unclear what exactly is meant by ‘helmets’. Most likely it refers to helmeted warriors, and, if so, it is paralleled in Arn Hryn 9/5, 8^II Bað hjalma Peitu samnask til hverrar hǫmlu ‘He [Magnús] urged helmets from Poitou to rally at every rowing position’. See also Note to Arn Hryn 9/8^II. This could refer to distinguished warriors participating in the ceremony when Skúli was given the title of jarl. The variant hálmar ‘straws’ (Tˣ, U, R*) makes little sense, and Kock (NN §1314) suggests an original reading jálmar ‘noises, crashes’, which he takes as a heiti for ‘battle’. However, jálmr is only attested as a determinant or a base-word in battle-kennings, never as a heiti for ‘battle’ (LP: jalmr). — [5] foldar ‘of the land’: So all other mss. In R, the original <k> in ‘folkar’ (?) is difficult to establish with any certainty because the letter has been altered to <d> (R*).

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. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
7. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
8. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. SnE 1879-81 = Möbius, Theodor, ed. 1879-81. Hattatal Snorra Sturlusonar. 2 vols. Halle an de Saale: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
10. Internal references
11. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Hrynhenda, Magnússdrápa 9’ 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. 193-4.