Anon Krm 15VIII/6 — Rögnvaldr ‘Rǫgnvaldr’
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Herþjófi varð auðit
í Suðreyjum sjálfum
sigrs á órum mönnum.
Varð í randar regni
Rögnvaldr fyrir hníga;
sá kom hæstr of hölða
harmr at sverða gusti.
Hvast kastaði hristir
hjálms strengflaugar pálmi.
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Herþjófi varð auðit sigrs á mönnum órum í sjálfum Suðreyjum. Rögnvaldr varð hníga fyrir í regni randar; sá hæstr harmr kom of hölða at gusti sverða. Hristir hjálms kastaði hvast pálmi strengflaugar.
We hewed with the sword. Herþjófr was granted victory over our men in the Hebrides themselves. Rǫgnvaldr had to yield in the rain of the shield [BATTLE]; that greatest sorrow came upon men in the breeze of swords [BATTLE]. The shaker of the helmet [WARRIOR] vigorously propelled the palm-tree of the bowstring’s groove [ARROW].
readings
[6] Rögnvaldr: ‘rr[…]g[…]lldur’ 147
notes
[6] Rögnvaldr ‘Rǫgnvaldr’: This Rǫgnvaldr is almost certainly to be identified with the Rǫgnvaldr presented in the 1824b text of Ragn (and in all likelihood the 147 text also, see Ragn 1906-8, 180, 183) as the youngest of Ragnarr’s sons by his wife Áslaug (before the birth of their son Sigurðr, born after his death) and as dying heroically at Hvítabœr (Whitby in Yorkshire or Vitaby in Skåne, see Ragn 7/4, 6 and Note there); he is not mentioned at all in RagnSon and in Saxo’s account is mentioned only once as one of Ragnarr’s three sons by his wife Suanlogha who are too young to wield weapons (Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 17, pp. 644-5). His likely historical prototype is Rægnald, the viking king of York from 919 until his death in 921 (Stenton 1971, 333, 338; cf. Downham 2007, 91-5). If so, he cannot historically have been a son of Reginheri (d. 845), Ragnarr’s likely historical prototype, though he may have been a grandson of Imhar (d. 873), the viking king of Dublin who is himself a likely prototype of Ragnarr’s son Ívarr (McTurk 1991a, 99, 111; Downham 2007, 1-9, 29). The brevity of Rægnald’s reign in York (919-21) perhaps explains the emphasis on his youth in Ragn and by Saxo. In Krm, however, he is described, as will be evident, neither as a son of Ragnarr, nor as young, and as having died neither at Whitby nor at Vitaby, but in the Hebrides. It has been argued that Krm reflects here the western branch, spreading in the direction of the Hebrides, of an originally Northumbrian tradition of Rægnald, the eastern branch of which, reflected in Ragn and Saxo’s account, spread independently to Norway and Iceland by way of Denmark (McTurk 1991a, 98-114). For a modified version of this view, see Rowe (2012, 176).