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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Sigv Víkv 14I/4 — Leiru ‘the Loire’

Malms vann Mœra hilmir
munnrjóðr, es kom sunnan,
gang, þars gamlir sprungu
geirar, upp at Leiru.
Varð fyr víga Njǫrðum
Varrandi sjá fjarri
brenndr á byggðu landi
— bœr heitir svá — Peitu.

Malms munnrjóðr, hilmir Mœra, vann, es kom sunnan, gang upp at Leiru, þars gamlir geirar sprungu. Varrandi, fjarri sjá á byggðu landi Peitu, varð brenndr fyr Njǫrðum víga; bœr heitir svá.

The reddener of the mouth of the sword [(lit. ‘mouth-reddener of the sword’) SWORD BLADE > WARRIOR], the ruler of the Mœrir [NORWEGIAN KING = Óláfr], when he came from the south, fought his way up to the Loire, where old spears shattered. Varrandi, far from the sea in the settlements of Poitou, was burned for the Nirðir <gods> of battles [WARRIORS]; the town is so named.

readings

[4] Leiru: ‘leitu’ Tóm

notes

[4, 6, 8] Leiru; Varrandi; Peitu ‘the Loire; Varrandi; Poitou’: Leira is the Loire, and there is indeed a Guerrande (now mostly spelt Guérande) at the mouth of this river, a name which accords well with Varrandi. However, it is in southern Brittany, not in Poitou, nor is it ‘far from the sea’ (l. 6). Sigvatr is either mildly confused in his geography here, or has conflated two or more separate incidents. Ótt Hfl 12/1-2 states that Óláfr ‘laid waste to Poitou’ and fought in Touraine (the area around Tours, also on the Loire). Óttarr’s stanza may indeed record raids in these areas that were not mentioned by Sigvatr, or that have not survived in Víkv (note that the numbering of battles has ceased by this point: see Introduction above). For Continental records of Óláfr’s stay in France, see Note to Ótt Hfl 12 [All].

grammar

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