SnSt Ht 52^III

Sær skjǫldungs niðr skúrum;
skǫpt darraðar lyptask;
hrindr gunnfana grundar
glygg of frœknum tiggja.
Geisa vé fyr vísa;
veðr stǫng at hlym Gungnis;
styrk eru mót und merkjum
málms of ítran hilmi.

{Niðr skjǫldungs} sær skúrum; skǫpt darraðar lyptask; glygg hrindr gunnfana of {frœknum tiggja grundar}. Vé geisa fyr vísa; stǫng veðr at {hlym Gungnis}; {mót málms} eru styrk und merkjum of ítran hilmi.

{The sovereign’s kinsman} [= Skúli] sows showers [of missiles]; the shafts of the standard are lifted; the strong wind presses against the battle-banner above {the bold lord of the land} [RULER]. Pennants rush before the prince; the standard-pole advances towards {the crash of Gungnir <spear>} [BATTLE]; {meetings of metal} [BATTLES] are mighty beneath the banners around the glorious leader.

Mss: Tˣ(52r), R(49v-50r), W(146), U(54v) (SnE)

Readings: [3] ‑fana: fara U    [4] glygg: ‘gl[…]’ R, glugg U;    of: af R, W, um U;    frœknum: ‘fræ[…]’ R    [5] Geisa vé fyr vísa: ‘geisa[…]’ R    [6] veðr stǫng: ‘[…]’ R;    hlym: hlyn U    [7] und: fyr W    [8] málms of ítran: hjálms vin ítrum U

Editions: Skj AII, 66, Skj BII, 75, Skald II, 42, NN §§1205C, 1316, 2181; SnE 1848-87, I, 664-5, II, 394, III, 124, SnE 1879-81, I, 9, 80, II, 21, SnE 1931, 237, SnE 2007, 24; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 31.

Context: The dróttkvætt variant is skothendr háttr ‘the half-rhymed form’, and it is characterised by skothending rather than aðalhending in the even lines.

Notes: [All]: Ms. R is partly damaged, and Tˣ is the main ms. The heading in Tˣ is Nú er skothendr háttr. 44 ‘Now comes the half-rhymed form. 44’. The variant is quite common in informal poetry. — [1] niðr ‘kinsman’: Niðr usually means ‘descendant’. Skúli, the half-brother of King Ingi Bárðarson, was not of royal lineage, except that his great-great-great-grandmother was Ingiríðr, the sister of Óláfr Haraldsson (S. Óláfr) and Haraldr harðráði ‘Hard-rule’ Sigurðarson. Niðr is, however, also attested in the meaning ‘kinsman, relative’ (Fritzner: niðr 1; LP: niðr 1). An alternative would be to take niðr as an adv. ‘down’ in an impersonal verb-adv. collocation with sær ‘sows’: sær niðr skúrum skjǫldungs ‘the lord’s showers are sown down’ (see SnE 1848-87, III and SnE 2007, 136). — [2] darraðar ‘of the standard’: Dǫrruðr can mean either ‘spear’ or ‘standard’ (see Holtsmark 1939, Poole 1991, 125-31 and the literature cited there). In the present context the meaning ‘standard’ is preferable because the imagery of standards, banners and pennants occurs in both helmingar. Skj B takes darraðar with skúrum ‘showers’ (l. 1): Darraðar skúrum skjǫldungs sær niðr translated as Fyrstens spydbyger falder ned ‘The lord’s spear-showers fall down’. Konráð Gíslason (1895-7) also connects skúrum with darraðar, but he takes niðr as a noun rather than as an adv.: skjǫldungs niðr sær darraðar skúrum ‘the lord’s relative sows showers of spears’. Both of these interpretations are less preferable from the point of view of word order because they result in an awkward tripartite line (l. 2). — [4] tiggja ‘lord’: The later form tiggja (rather than tyggja) is warranted by the internal rhyme, since tyggja (so Skj B) would form aðalhending with glygg ‘the strong wind’. Skúli is referred to as frækn tiggi grundar ‘the bold lord of the land’ (ll. 3, 4) as regent of Norway during Hákon’s minority. — [6] Gungnis ‘of Gungnir <spear>’: This was a spear belonging to Óðinn in Old Norse myth (see Note to Þul Spjóts l. 8).

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. 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. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
8. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
9. Holtsmark, Anne. 1939. ‘Vefr Darraðar’. MM, 74-96.
10. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
11. Poole, Russell. 1991. Viking Poems on War and Peace: A Study in Skaldic Narrative. Toronto Medieval Texts and Translations 8. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.
12. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
13. SnE 1879-81 = Möbius, Theodor, ed. 1879-81. Hattatal Snorra Sturlusonar. 2 vols. Halle an de Saale: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
14. Internal references
15. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Spjóts heiti’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 816. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3197> (accessed 26 April 2024)