StarkSt Vík 25^VIII (Gautr 33)

Mér gaf Víkarr         valamálm,
hring inn rauða,         er ek á hendi ber,
mér þrímerking,         en ek Þrumu honum;
fylgða ek fylki         fimtán sumur.

Víkarr gaf mér valamálm, hring inn rauða, er ek ber á hendi, mér þrímerking, en ek [gaf] honum Þrumu; ek fylgða fylki fimtán sumur.

Víkarr gave me costly metal, the red [gold] ring, which I wear on my arm, [a ring] three marks in weight for me, and I [gave] him Tromøy; I followed the ruler for fifteen summers.

Mss: 590b-cˣ(5v) (Gautr)

Editions: Skj AII, 327, Skj BII, 347, Skald II, 187; FSN 3, 31, Gautr 1900, 28, FSGJ 4, 28; Edd. Min. 42.

Context: The prose narrative concludes its account of the conflict between Friðþjófr and Víkarr with the latter dominant. The beginning of the Gjafa-Refs þáttr is then woven into the narrative, which introduces its protagonists, Neri (already sketchily present) and Refr, while keeping sight of King Víkarr and his champion Starkaðr. It tells that their friendship was strengthened with mutual gift-giving: Víkarr gave Starkaðr a gold bracelet of three marks’ weight and Starkaðr reciprocated by giving Víkarr the island of Tromøy (Þruma), which King Haraldr of Agder had once given his father Stórvirkr. This stanza is then cited (in 590b-cˣ alone) as evidence that Starkaðr stayed with Víkarr for fifteen summers sem hann segir ‘as he says’.

Notes: [All]: The metre of this stanza is fornyrðislag, but l. 2 is hypometrical. — [2] valamálm ‘costly metal’: The same cpd occurs in Hyndl 9/2. The first element, vala-, may derive from the gen. pl. of Valir ‘Celtic southerners, French people’, in the sense ‘exotic, foreign, costly’ or from velja ‘choose’ (cf. LP: valamálmr), in the sense ‘choice, selected’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
5. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
6. Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
7. Gautr 1900 = Ranisch, Wilhelm, ed. 1900. Die Gautrekssaga in zwei Fassungen. Palaestra 11. Berlin: Mayer & Müller.
8. Internal references
9. Not published: do not cite ()