Anon (Vǫlsa) 11^I

Sá ek ei forðum         — þó hefik farit víða —
flent reðr fyrri         fara með bekkjum.
Þiggi Maurnir         þetta blæti!
En þú, Aðalgrímr,         tak enn við Vǫlsa!

Ek sá ei forðum flent reðr fara fyrri með bekkjum; þó hefik farit víða. Þiggi Maurnir þetta blæti! En þú, Aðalgrímr, tak enn við Vǫlsa!

I have never before seen a penis with the foreskin pulled back pass first along the benches; yet I have travelled far and wide. May Maurnir receive this offering! But you, Aðalgrímr (‘Chief Grímr’), take Vǫlsi too!

Mss: Flat(122ra) (Flat); 292ˣ(55r) (Vǫlsa)

Readings: [2] þó: ‘so’ 292ˣ    [3] flent reðr fyrri: ‘flemt edur firne’ 292ˣ    [5, 6] Þiggi Maurnir þetta: abbrev. as ‘.þ. m. þ.’ Flat

Editions: Skj AII, 220, Skj BII, 239, Skald II, 124; Flat 1860-8, II, 335 (Vǫlsa); Guðbrandur Vigfússon 1860, 137, CPB II, 382, Edd. Min. 125, Schröder 1933, 82.

Context: Þormóðr examines Vǫlsi carefully, smiles and speaks a stanza, before passing it on to the third guest, who is called konungr ‘king’ in the prose text.

Notes: [All]: The attribution of the stanza to the distinguished skáld Þormóðr Kolbrúnarskáld (Þorm^V) is an amusing fiction. It is printed in Skj AI, 285-6, BI, 264 as Þorm Lv 17 as well as in the Vǫlsa sequence in Skj AII, BII. — [3] flent reðr fyrri ‘penis with the foreskin pulled back ... first’: Ms. 292ˣ instead reads ‘flemt edur firne’, which may be related to ModIcel. flimt n. ‘a lampoon, libel’ and firni n. pl. ‘an abomination, shocking thing’ (cf. Düwel 1971, 166 referring to CVC). The force of fyrri in the Flat text, here translated ‘first’, is not clear. — [3] flent reðr ‘penis with the foreskin pulled back’: The expression is a clear indication of the fact that Vǫlsi should be imagined as an erect penis. For flenna in the meaning of ‘pulling up the foreskin’, cf. SnH Lv 10/3-4^II: flenna allt leðr reðri Haralds upp af enni ‘to pull all the skin of Haraldr’s prick up from the head’. A hestreðr ‘horse-penis’ is mentioned in a níð stanza by King Magnús góði referring to Sigurður sýr (Mgóð Lv 1/4^II). — [7] Aðalgrímr ‘(“Chief Grímr”)’: An otherwise unattested ad hoc formation with aðal ‘noble, chief’, in order to emphasise the king (supposedly Óláfr Haraldsson) among the three Grímrs; cf. Note to st. 9/8.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
5. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Schröder, Franz Rolf. 1933. Quellenbuch zur germanischen Religionsgeschichte. Trübners philologische Bibliothek 14. Berlin and Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter.
9. Düwel, Klaus. 1971. Das Opferfest von Lade und die Geschichte vom Völsi: Quellenkritische Untersuchungen zur germanischen Religionsgeschichte. Partly published Göttingen: Habilitationsschrift.
10. Internal references
11. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Vǫlsa þáttr’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=28> (accessed 25 April 2024)
13. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Magnús inn góði Óláfsson, Lausavísur 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, pp. 5-6.
14. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sneglu-Halli, Lausavísur 10’ 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. 330-1.
15. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Þormóðr Kolbrúnarskáld, Lausavísur 17’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1102.