Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

Þjóð Yt 15I/16 — of

Fell Óttarr
und ara greipar
dugandligr
fyr Dana vôpnum.
Þann hergammr
hrægum fœti
ðs borinn
á Vendli sparn.
Þau frák verk
Vǫtts ok Fasta
sœnskri þjóð
at sǫgum verða,
at eylands
jarlar Fróða
vígfrǫmuð
of veginn hǫfðu.

Dugandligr Óttarr fell und greipar ara fyr vôpnum Dana. Hergammr víðs borinn sparn þann hrægum fœti á Vendli. Frák þau verk Vǫtts ok Fasta verða sœnskri þjóð at sǫgum, at jarlar Fróða eylands hǫfðu of veginn vígfrǫmuð.

The valiant Óttarr fell beneath the talons of the eagle before the weapons of the Danes. The battle-vulture [RAVEN/EAGLE], come from afar, trod him with flesh-hung foot at Vendill. I have learned that these deeds of Vǫttr and Fasti became legends for the Swedish people, that the jarls of Fróði from the island had killed the inciter of war [WARRIOR].

notes

[13-16] at jarlar Fróða eylands hǫfðu of veginn vígfrǫmuð ‘that the jarls of Fróði from the island had killed the inciter of war [WARRIOR]’: Almost all eds associate eylands with jarlar Fróða ‘jarls of Fróði’. However, their views of the syntactic status of the gen. diverge. (a) Taking eylands with jarlar yields the interpretation ‘the island jarls of Fróði’ (Hkr 1893-1901, IV; Skj B; ÍF 26 and this edn). Jarlar Fróða are thus the jarls installed by Fróði as the defenders and administrators of the island. (b) Taking eylands with Fróða results in ‘the jarls of the island of Fróði’ (Noreen 1912b, 130; Yt 1925). But since Þjóðólfr’s lines characteristically constitute logical unities, it is preferable to assume a collocation of jarlar Fróða. (c) For this reason Åkerlund (1939, 98-100) takes a step further and associates eylands with vígfrǫmuð ‘inciter of war’, taking eylands as gen. object of víg-, hence ‘attackers of the island’ (so also Beyschlag 1950, 24 and Hkr 1991). However, the syntactic kenning-type vígfrǫmuð eylands does not occur in kviðuháttr (Noreen 1921, 41), and the object of víg is normally human.

grammar

Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close

Word in text

This view shows information about an instance of a word in a text.