Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Anonymous Poems, Nóregs konungatal 4’ 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. 764.
Tók kappsamr
við konungsnafni
Haraldr brátt
inn hárfagri,
þás Halfdan
hafði drukknat
í hœings
hallar næfri.
Kappsamr Haraldr inn hárfagri tók brátt við konungsnafni, þás Halfdan hafði drukknat í {næfri {hallar hœings}}.
Vigorous Haraldr inn hárfagri (‘the Fair-haired’) at once received the title of king when Hálfdan had drowned in {the roof-shingle {of the salmon’s hall}} [WATER > ICE].
Mss: Flat(144va)
Editions: Skj AI, 579, Skj BI, 575, Skald I, 278; Flat 1860-8, II, 520.
Notes: [All]: Hálfdan svarti drowned in an open channel in the ice on Randsfjorden, a lake in south-eastern Norway. See Fsk (ÍF 29, 58), HsvHkr (ÍF 26, 92). — [1] kappsamr ‘vigorous’: See also sts 12/1 and 29/1 below. — [4] inn hárfagri ‘(“the Fair-haired”)’: Haraldr had vowed not to cut his hair before he became sole ruler of Norway, and his thick and tangled locks earned him the nickname lúfa ‘Shaggy-locks’. Once his sovereignty had been established, he had his hair cut and received the new nickname hárfagri ‘Fair-hair’ on account of his beautiful hair. See Ágr (ÍF 29, 3), Fsk (ÍF 29, 70), HhárfHkr (ÍF 26, 122). — [7] hœings ‘of the salmon’s’: Hœingr is a male salmon (see also Nefari Lv 1/3). — [8] næfri ‘the roof-shingle’: Lit. ‘birch-bark’. Used both here and in st. 68/3 in the sense ‘roof-shingle’, because roof-shingles were made from birch-bark.
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