Sturl Frag 1^III

This fragment (Sturl Frag 1), edited by Valgerður Erna Þorvaldsdóttir, is in hrynhent metre and has therefore usually been considered a part of Sturla Þórðarson’s poem Hrynhenda (Sturl Hryn^II; c. 1263), composed in honour of the Norwegian king Hákon Hákonarson (Fidjestøl 1982, 163-4). Most earlier editors (Skj; Skald) have placed it at the end of that poem since it is impossible to determine where it belongs, or whether it does indeed belong there, since it is not preserved in Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar like the twenty-one stanzas one can safely attribute to Hryn. The couplet is not included in Konráð Gíslason’s edition of the poem although he believed it must have been a part of Hryn (Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 69). The fragment, which describes ships at sea, is found only in the Y redaction of LaufE. It is preserved in mss 2368ˣ (main ms.) and 743ˣ, and it is attributed to Sturla Þórðarson in both mss. The couplet was copied from a LaufE ms. in RE 1665(Hh3), which has no independent value.

Rísa tóku langir laukar
lindar álfs við gymi sjálfan.

Langir laukar {álfs lindar} tóku rísa við sjálfan gymi.

The long masts {of the shield’s elf} [WARRIOR] began to rise against the sea itself.

Mss: 2368ˣ(112), 743ˣ(86v) (LaufE)

Editions: Skj AII, 108, Skj BII, 118, Skald II, 63, NN §2287; SnE 1848-87, II, 628; LaufE 1979, 371.

Context: The couplet is cited among several other stanzas to illustrate kennings for ‘man’ with a mythical base-word, here, álfr lindar ‘the shield’s elf’.

Notes: [1] laukar ‘masts’: Lit. ‘leeks’. The long, thin masts have the same shape as leeks. The phrase laukar tóku rísa ‘masts began to rise’ likely describes the mast on a ship being raised, i.e. brought into vertical position (cf. SnSt Ht 77/5-6). — [2] lindar ‘of the shield’s’: Lind means ‘linden wood’ or ‘linden tree’. Jesch (2001a, 134) suggests that lind could mean ‘ship’, especially in poetry set in a nautical context, but the word usually denotes a shield or spear made of linden wood (see Note to SnSt Ht 9/2). — [2] gymi ‘the sea’: This could be taken either as the common noun gymir (m. sg.), which is a heiti for ‘sea’, or as the name Gymir, one of the names for the sea-giant Ægir (for the meaning of that name, see Note to Þul Jǫtna I 1/8). Both make perfect sense in the present context, but the former has been adopted here. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) assigns the phrase við sjálfan gymi ‘against the sea itself’ to a clause from the no longer extant two lines of the half-stanza. That cannot be ascertained, and the couplet makes syntactic and semantic sense as it stands (see NN §2287).

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. LaufE 1979 = Faulkes, Anthony, ed. 1979. Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar (Laufás Edda). RSÁM 13. Vol. I of Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1977-9.
7. Fidjestøl, Bjarne. 1982. Det norrøne fyrstediktet. Universitet i Bergen Nordisk institutts skriftserie 11. Øvre Ervik: Alvheim & Eide.
8. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
9. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
10. Internal references
11. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=33> (accessed 4 May 2024)
12. Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘(Biography of) Sturla Þórðarson’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 392.
13. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Jǫtna heiti I 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 707.
14. Valgerður Erna Þorvaldsdóttir 2009, ‘ Sturla Þórðarson, Hrynhenda’ 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. 676-98. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1398> (accessed 4 May 2024)
15. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 77’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1188.
16. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 9’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1114.
17. Valgerður Erna Þorvaldsdóttir (ed.) 2017, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, Fragments 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 392.
18. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Laufás Edda’ 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=10928> (accessed 4 May 2024)