Bragi Rdr 1^III/1 — Hrafnketill ‘Hrafnketill’

readings

[1] Hrafnketill: ‘hrafnk[…]ll’ C

notes

[1] Hrafnketill: The unsyncopated, older form of the pers. n. Hrafnkell (cf. ANG §359.2) is required by metre and present in all mss. The poet addresses this man directly and urges him to listen to his poem, which is evidently about both a painted shield (see below) and an unnamed prince. Internal evidence thus indicates that this is an opening helmingr of a shield poem. However, if it forms part of the same poem as st. 2, which seemingly alludes to Ragnarr loðbrók, and if both belong to Rdr, then who is Hrafnketill? It is unusual for an early Viking-Age skald to address a messenger, who has arguably brought the shield from his patron to the poet (so Gísli Brynjúlfsson 1860, 5; CPB II, 2; cf. Wood 1960a) in his opening stanza, rather than the patron himself, although this remains a possibility and presupposes either oral memorisation of the poem or a written text inscribed on a rune stick. There is early Viking-Age evidence for the use of runic message sticks from both Hedeby and Staraja Ladoga (cf. Liestøl 1971) and the missionary Ansgar, after a visit to Birka in 831, is said to have delivered a letter from the Swedish king, possibly in runes, to the Emperor Louis the Pious (Trillmich, Buchner and Scior 2000, 42). Another view (Marold 1986b, 445-6) is that Bragi and Hrafnketill are rival poets engaged in some form of competition. This idea is dependent upon the mention of a certain ‘Brahi’ and ‘Rankil’ in Saxo Grammaticus’s account of the battle of Brávellir (Saxo 2015, I, viii. 3. 10, pp. 540-1), where they are named as being among the Icelandic supporters of King Sigurðr hringr ‘Ring’ (see Note to st. 2/4).

grammar