Hallvarðr Frag 1^VIII (Frið 20)

The following five stanzas relate to the saga narrative of Friðþjófr’s arrival in Orkney and his reception there by the jarl and his entourage.

Er á skála         skjól at sitja
vestrvíkingi,         sem vera inni.
Eru hraustari,         þeir er hlunngota,
drengir, ausa         í drifaveðri.

Er skjól á skála, sem vera inni, vestrvíkingi at sitja. Drengir, þeir er ausa {hlunngota} í drifaveðri, eru hraustari.

There is shelter from the hall, as a place of refuge inside, for the viking on a westward expedition to sit. Those men who bale {the roller-steed} [SHIP] in the storm of seaspray, are braver.

Mss: 510(93v), 568ˣ(101r), 27ˣ(135v) (Frið)

Readings: [1] Er á skála: so 27ˣ, Er at skála 510, ‘[…] at skal’ 568ˣ    [2] skjól: so 27ˣ, ‘skól’ 510, ‘skio’ 568ˣ;    sitja: drekka 568ˣ, 27ˣ    [3] vestrvíkingi: so 27ˣ, vestrvíkingar 510, ‘[…]stur vykingur’ 568ˣ    [4] sem vera inni: so 568ˣ, 27ˣ, sem váru inni 510    [5] Eru: þó eru 568ˣ, 27ˣ    [6] er: ‘ed’ 568ˣ;    ‑gota: so 568ˣ, 27ˣ, ‘‑geta’ 510    [7] ausa: ‘[…]sa’ 568ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 274, Skj BII, 296, Skald II, 156, NN §3288; Falk 1890, 78, Frið 1893, 48, 74, Frið 1914, 18; Edd. Min. 100.

Context: Friðþjófr and his men find themselves in the Orkney islands, near the residence of Angantýr jarl. In the B recension only this place is said to be Effja, modern Evie on Mainland. The place is not named in the A recension. The jarl’s watchman is called Hallvarðr and he recites the following three stanzas (Frið 20, 21 and 22) in quick succession, telling what he sees.

Notes: [All]: This fornyrðislag stanza is only in the A recension mss. The first helmingr is difficult and the sense of l. 4 not entirely clear. Most eds, except for Wenz (Frið 1914, 18), emend l. 1 to Erat á skala ‘There is not in the hall’, but this is not necessary to achieve sense. The stanza contrasts the anticipated comfort of Friðþjófr and his men drinking in the shelter of the hall (where the speaker himself is) with the hard conditions of the men baling Elliði. — [2] at sitja ‘to sit’: Ms. 510 has this reading, against the other mss’ at drekka ‘to drink’. Both are possible though sitja may fit better with vera in the sense ‘a place of refuge’ (l. 4). — [3] vestrvíkingi ‘for the viking on a westward expedition’: With LP: vestrvíkingr, assumed to refer to a man who is a viking (here Friðþjófr) rather than a viking expedition (vestrvíking, f.). — [4] sem vera inni ‘as a place of refuge inside’: The sense and syntax of this line is not clear. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B), the only ed. to offer a translation of it, writes som der inde ‘like in that place’, but the role of vera is not then explicit. It is possible that vera is not here the inf. of the verb ‘be’ but the noun vera ‘existence, place of refuge’, as in Hávm 26/3 (NK 21) ef hann á sér í vá vero ‘if he [the foolish man] has a place of refuge for himself in the corner’. That is how it has been tentatively interpreted here. — [6] hlunngota ‘the roller-steed [SHIP]’: Cf. ÞjóðA Frag 1/6^II. — [8] í drifaveðri ‘in the storm of sea-spray’: The same line is at Frið 18/4, Frið 21/4 and Ǫrv 86/4.

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. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
7. Frið 1893 = Larsson, Ludvig, ed. 1893b. Sagan ock rimorna om Friðþiófr hinn frækni. SUGNL 22. Copenhagen: Malmström.
8. Frið 1914 = Wenz, Gustaf, ed. 1914. Die Friðþjófssaga in ihrer Überlieferung untersucht und der ältesten Fassung kritisch herausgegeben. Halle: Niemeyer.
9. Falk, Hjalmar. 1890. ‘Om Friðþjófs saga’. ANF 6, 60-102.
10. Internal references
11. Not published: do not cite ()
12. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Fragments 1’ 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. 159.
13. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna 18 (Friðþjófr Þorsteinsson, Lausavísur 16)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 215.
14. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna 20 (Hallvarðr, verses 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 217.
15. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna 21 (Hallvarðr, verses 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 218.
16. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 86 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Ævidrápa 16)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 900.