Sigv Ást 1I/4 — sigr ‘victorious’
Hrein getum hôla launa
hnossfjǫlð lofi ossu
Ôleifs dœtr, es átti
jǫfurr sigrhvatastr digri.
Þings beið herr á Hǫngrum
hundmargr Svía grundar
austr, es Ástríðr lýsti
Ôleifs sonar môlum.
Getum hôla launa lofi ossu dœtr Ôleifs, es sigrhvatastr, digri jǫfurr átti, hrein hnossfjǫlð. Hundmargr herr grundar Svía beið þings á Hǫngrum austr, es Ástríðr lýsti môlum sonar Ôleifs.
We [I] will repay splendidly with our [my] praise Óláfr’s daughter [= Ástríðr], to whom the most victorious stout prince [Óláfr Haraldsson] was married, for an abundance of bright treasures. A massive army from the land of the Swedes attended the assembly at Hangrar in the east, when Ástríðr proclaimed the cause of Óláfr’s son [= Magnús].
readings
notes
[4] sigrhvatastr ‘most victorious’: Although LP lists compounds in both sig- n. ‘battle’ and sigr- m. ‘victory’, it is not clear that there was a real distinction between these two elements, especially in compounds (cf. Finnur Jónsson’s translation of sigrgjarn as kamp-begærlig ‘battle-eager’ in LP and sejrbegærlig ‘victory-eager’ in Skj BI, 533). Both Finnur Jónsson and Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson in ÍF 28 select the variant reading sighvatastr, presumably to improve the pun on the poet’s own name, of which Sighvatr is a standard form (cf. Paasche 1917, 80; Fidjestøl 1982, 160). However, sigrhvatastr is preferable both stemmatically and metrically. According to Kuhn (1983, 77), when r follows another consonant, especially b, d, or g, both consonants participate in the internal rhyme, thus digri would presuppose a rhyme on sigr-. Moreover, Sigvatr made use of the rhyme between the simplex sigr and his favourite epithet for King Óláfr, digri ‘stout’, on several occasions (Sigv ErfÓl 6/8, 8/2, Sigv Lv 12/6; see also Jǫk Lv 1/8, ÞjóðA Magn 1/2II, Arn Hryn 13/7II). — [4] sigrhvatastr, digri ‘the most victorious stout’: Strong (-astr) and weak (digri) adj. inflections are juxtaposed here, as occasionally elsewhere in skaldic poetry. The weak digri is appropriate, being Óláfr’s nickname (cf. Note to l. 4 sigrhvatastr).