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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon Óldr 23I

Kate Heslop (ed.) 2012, ‘Anonymous Poems, Óláfs drápa Tryggvasonar 23’ 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. 1054.

Anonymous PoemsÓláfs drápa Tryggvasonar
222324

Ok andvǫnum Endils
ítrskíð á dreif síðan
sann-Njǫrðungum seima
sveif hundruðum undir,
svát glójarðar gerði
Gylfa skíðs of víði
— búkr hné margr fyr mæki —
meinfœrt of lǫg hreinum.

Ok {andvǫnum sann-Njǫrðungum seima} sveif síðan hundruðum á dreif undir {ítrskíð Endils}, svát gerði meinfœrt of víði {hreinum {glójarðar {skíðs Gylfa}}} of lǫg; margr búkr hné fyr mæki.

And {life-lacking true Njǫrðungar <gods> of gold} [MEN] drifted afterwards in hundreds, scattered under {the glorious ski of Endill <sea-king>} [SHIP], so that it made the going dangerous across the ocean {for reindeer {of the gleaming earth {of the ski of Gylfi <sea-king>}}} [SHIP > SEA > SHIPS] across the sea; many a body fell before the sword.

Mss: Bb(113ra)

Readings: [2] ítrskíð á: ítr skíða Bb    [3] Njǫrðungum: ‘iordvngvm’ Bb

Editions: Skj AI, 577-8, Skj BI, 573, Skald I, 277, NN §1222; Munch and Unger 1847, 123, 141, Gullberg 1875, 18, 38.

Notes: [1-4]: Line 2 violates Craigie’s Law (on which, see Gade 1995a, 29-30), since dreif ‘scattering’, in á dreif ‘scattered’ is a long-stemmed noun in position 4 of a Type D4/E-line, which is not otherwise found until the C14th. Dreif could be a verb, ‘drove’, but no analysis of the helmingr accommodates that easily, and there may be corruption. — [3] sann-Njǫrðungum ‘true Njǫrðungar <gods>’: The many instances of incorrect word division in Bb’s text make this a trivial emendation. Njǫrðungr appears to be a derivative of the god-name Njǫrðr. It occurs in other warrior-kennings, always in the pl. (LP: njǫrðungar). — [3] seima ‘of gold’: The absence of skothending leads previous eds, following Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1832, 16), to emend to sennu ‘of quarrel’. They suggest this is a battle-heiti, and LP: 1. senna cites two examples of senna f. alone meaning ‘battle’, but at least one is doubtful (in Arn Þorfdr 10/8II; see Note), whereas seimr m. is a common determinant in man-kennings (LP: seimr). — [4] sveif ‘drifted’: The verb, inf. svífa, is impersonal, with logical subject in the dat. case. — [5-8]: Like the first helmingr, this may be seriously corrupt. The m. v. gerðisk might have been expected, rather than gerði ‘it made’ (l. 5), and the repetitious of víði, of lǫg ‘across the ocean, across the sea’ (ll. 6, 8) is problematic (see Note to l. 8), as is the ship-kenning with another ship-kenning embedded (ll. 5, 6, 8). — [8] of lǫg ‘across the sea’: This phrase could modify either the main clause, as here, in which case it duplicates the sense of of víði ‘across the ocean’, or the intercalary clause in l. 3, in which case it adds to a clause that is already complete, as well as making l. 8 tripartite. The present arrangement is chosen since a phrase meaning ‘across the sea’ is more logically attached to ships than bodies falling before the sword.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 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. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  6. Munch, P. A. and C. R. Unger, eds. 1847. Oldnorsk læsebog med tilhörende glossarium. Christiania (Oslo): Dahl.
  7. Gullberg, H., ed. 1875. Óláfs drápa Tryggvasonar: fragment ur “Bergsboken”. Lund: Berling.
  8. Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1832. Skóla-hátíd í minníngu Fædíngar-dags vors allranádugasta Konúngs Fridriks Sjøtta: Ólafs drápa Tryggvasonar er Hallfredr orti Vandrædaskáld. Videyjarklaustri: Á kostnad Bessastada Skóla.
  9. Internal references
  10. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Þorfinnsdrápa 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. 241-2.
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