Sturl Hákfl 5^II

Ríkr gaf hlenna hneykir
herþrungit Ribbungum
ógnar skýs í Ósló
eitt kveld meginsveitum.
Mildr kom heimskum hauldum
hervígs á glapstígu;
kendu langt í landi
Laufvíkingar ríkis.

{Ríkr hneykir hlenna} gaf Ribbungum eitt herþrungit kveld í Ósló meginsveitum {skýs ógnar}. Mildr hervígs kom heimskum hauldum á glapstígu; Laufvíkingar kendu ríkis langt í landi.

{The powerful repressor of robbers} [JUST RULER = Hákon] gave the Ribbungar one very oppressive evening in Oslo with the main forces {of the cloud of terror} [SHIELD]. The one generous with battle forced the foolish men onto pernicious paths; the Forest-vikings [= the Ribbungar] felt the power far into the land.

Mss: 81a(89ra), Flat(171vb), E(158r) (ll. 1-4), F(98va) (ll. 1-4), 42ˣ(122r) (ll. 1-4, 7-8) (Hák)

Readings: [1] hneykir: hneigir E    [3] ógnar skýs: yss gerðiz Flat    [4] kveld: slag Flat    [5] Mildr kom heimskum hauldum: so Flat, mildum kom hauldu harða 81a    [6] ‑vígs: so Flat, vígt 81a    [7] kendu: kendi Flat, 42ˣ;    langt: langs Flat, ‘lans’ 42ˣ    [8] ‑víkingar: víkinga Flat

Editions: Skj AII, 125-6, Skj BII, 133, Skald II, 71, NN §§1365, 1366, 1936C, E, 1997; Hák 1910-86, 422, Flat 1860-8, III, 78, E 1916, 537, F 1871, 456.

Context: During the summer of 1225, Hákon sailed from Bergen to Oslo to attack the Ribbungar. On 13 September, he and his troops entered Oslo, and the Ribbungar attempted to escape but were forced back by a contingent of Hákon’s army. Battle ensued, and more than twenty Ribbungar fell. The rest sought shelter in the churches.

Notes: [All]: The second helmingr is transmitted in 81a and Flat only (and ll. 7-8 in 42ˣ), which accounts for the change in the order of mss in the critical apparatus. — [1-4]: (a) In the present edn skýs ógnar ‘of the cloud of terror’ (i.e. ‘of the shield’) (l. 3; so E, F, 42ˣ, 81a) is taken as a qualifier for meginsveitum ‘with the main forces’ (l. 4). For comparable constructions, see herdróttum svanteigar ‘war-bands of the swan-field’ (Sturl Hrafn 11/6, 8), herskatnar vegs ‘war-men of honour’ (Hrafn 13/7, 8), sveit sverða ‘company of swords’ (Hrafn 17/2, 3), virðar hrings ‘men of the sword’ (Hrafn 18/2, 4). The Flat variant, yss gerðiz ‘tumult erupted’, is unmetrical because position 4 in an E3 l. cannot be occupied by a prep. (here: í ‘in’; see Gade 1995a, 76, 82-5). Both Skj B and Skald adopt the Flat variants yss gerðiz ‘tumult erupted’ (l. 3) and slag ‘battle’ (l. 4). Both also silently emend Ribbungum (dat. pl.) (l. 2) to Ribbunga (gen. pl.) against all mss and construe it with meginsveitum ‘the main forces of the Ribbungar’. (b) Skj B gives the following reading: Ríkr hlenna hneykir gaf meginsveitum Ribbunga eitt slag þrungit í Óslu; yss gerðiz her translated as Den mægtige røverstraffer gav Ribbungernes hovedskarer et slemt nederlag i Oslo; der opstod tummel i hæren ‘The powerful punisher of robbers gave the main forces of the Ribbungar a serious defeat in Oslo; tumult erupted in the army’. (c) Kock (NN §1365) follows Skj B but objects correctly to Finnur’s separation of her lit.‘army’ and þrungit ‘oppressive’. Instead, he takes her- as an intensifier, an interpretation which has been adopted in the present edn. — [7] langt ‘far’: An adv. denoting spatial extension. If the Flat variant, langs (m. or n. gen. sg.), is adopted (so Skj B), it is an adj. qualifying ríkis (langs ríkis ‘enduring power’). — [8] Laufvíkingar ‘the Forest-vikings [= the Ribbungar]’: Lit. ‘Leaf-vikings’. Taken (with Kock, Skald and NN §§1366, 1997) as a derogatory term for the Ribbungar; i.e. outlaws who live in the forest. This interpretation is strengthened by the fact that ll. 5-8 of the present st. bear strong resemblance to Sturl Hákkv 6/5-8: ok þar stökk lið Grýtlinga á glapstíg ‘and there the force of the Grýtlingar [= the Ribbungar] fled on a pernicious path’. That helmingr describes an earlier battle in Oslo (in 1221) against the Ribbungar, and it contains the phrase á glapstíg ‘on a pernicious path’ (l. 8; cf. á glapstígu ‘onto pernicious paths’ (l. 6 above)) as well as the derogatory label Grýtlingar lit. ‘Gravelings’ (i.e. outlaws who hide among cliffs or rocks or live in caves), which parallels Laufvíkingar ‘Forest-vikings’ in the present st. Skj B treats lauf ‘leaf’ as a separate word but marks it as untranslatable. In LP: lauf, lauf is taken with ríkis ‘power’: magtens løv (eller frugt) ‘the leaf (or fruit) of power’, which makes little sense.

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. 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. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
7. 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.
8. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
9. E 1916 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1916. Eirspennill: AM 47 fol. Nóregs konunga sǫgur: Magnús góði – Hákon gamli. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske historiske kildeskriftskommission.
10. Hák 1910-86 = Kjær, Albert and Ludvig Holm-Olsen, eds. 1910-86. Det Arnamagnæanske haandskrift 81a fol. (Skálholtsbók yngsta) indeholdende Sverris saga, Bǫglungasǫgur, Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar. Oslo: Den norske historiske kildeskriftkommission and Kjeldeskriftfondet.
11. Internal references
12. Not published: do not cite (GrHj Lv 1^IV)
13. Not published: do not cite (GrHj Lv 2^IV)
14. Not published: do not cite (GrHj Lv 3^IV)
15. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, Hákonarkviða 6’ 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. 703-4.
16. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, Hrafnsmál 11’ 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, p. 736.