85
predication by replacing the baseword with
the finite verb form. The skaldic
nomen
agentis baseword derived from
ýta is
ýtir,
which is used regularly with
GOLD
determinants in ‘distributor of gold’
kennings for
MAN
/
WARRIOR
(Meissner 1921:
307). The hypothetical kenning-instance
would have been
ýtir munds Rínar-sunda,
matching a common enough pattern of the
classical poetry. Other interpretations are
possible, but depend on emending the text.
(1.3)
heiðrs-verð –
heiðrs [n.masc.gen.sg. of
heiðr ‘honour’],
verð [adj.fem.nom.sg. of
verðr ‘worthy’]. A compound adjective
meaning ‘honourable, praiseworthy’, which
agrees with
the subject Auðr.
(1.3)
hárra burða – hárra [adj.fem.gen.sg. of
hár ‘high, tall’],
burða [n.masc.gen.pl. of
burðr ‘birth’], ‘of high birth’, i.e. noble.
With the syntax of the stanza being
somewhat loose, this adjective phrase is
most likely to be part of the long string of
coordinated/apposited predications that
seem to make up the first half-stanza; all of
these share the subject,
Auðr, named in the
first but ellipted in those that follow, of
which three also share the predicate.
(1.4)
her-jǫfurs drottning –
her- [bare stem of
n.masc.
herr ‘host, army, people’],
jǫfurs
[n.masc.gen.sg. of
jǫfurr lit. ‘wild boar’ but
used almost exclusively as ‘prince, king’],
drottning [n.fem.nom.sg. ‘queen’].
Her-
jǫfurr [lit. ‘prince of the army / people’]
could be read as a kenning for prince
20
or as
a compound heiti for prince; it should refer
to Auðr’s husband, Óláfr
hvíti, because here
Auðr is called his ‘queen’.
(1.5)
órræða-snor í snerru –
órræða- [n.neut.
gen.pl. of
órræði ‘a tool, means to achieve
an end; solution’];
snerru [n.fem.dat.sg. of
snerra ‘onslaught’]. The manuscript’s
snór
can be interpreted in two ways. One
possibility is to read it as
snǫr [adj.fem.
nom.sg. of
snarr ‘hard; swift; keen’]; if so,
órræða-snǫr is a compound adjective
meaning ‘decision-swift’. It may also be
read as
snor [n.fem. ‘daughter-in-law’]
(etymologically unrelated), here functioning
either a baseword for a kenning of
WOMAN
or a simple heiti for
WOMAN
. The resulting
órræða-snor would then mean ‘resourceful
woman’, the same as in the pervious
reading.
Snerra, derived from the same
stem as
snarr, is a
BATTLE
-heiti; as Auðr did
not take an active part in any battle,
snerra
may be read as an
ad hoc heiti for
DIFFICULT
SITUATION
; finding solutions to disputes
was a key skill for a medieval Icelandic
chieftain (Byock 2001: ch. 10), and in such
a reading Auðr here seems to be once again
(as in line 1.2) depicted as a leader of men
in the specific social situation of Iceland.
More specifically,
snerra could be a seen as
a variant of
ófriðr [n.masc. ‘war, feud’], and
a reference to the latter word’s occurrence
in
Laxdæla saga 4 in connection to Auðr’s
escape from Scotland:
Hon hafði brott með sér allt frændlið sitt,
þat er á lífi var, ok þykkjask menn varla
dœmi til finna, at einn kvenmaðr hafi
komizk í brott ór þvíkíkum ófriði með
jafnmiklu fé ok fǫruneyti.
She [Auðr] had taken away with her all her
relatives who were still alive, and the
opinion of men is that there is hardly any
other example of a woman escaping such a
desperate situation with so much wealth and
so many followers.
The meaning of
snerra in both readings is
identical – not the literal ‘battle’ but ‘dire
straits’.
(1.6)
snúðug tróð veig-úða –
snúðug [adj.fem.
nom.sg. of
snúðugr ‘agile’],
tróð [n.neut.
nom.sg. ‘wood’],
úða [n.masc.gen.sg. of
úði
‘fire’, very rare]. The manuscript’s
vegu
does
not make much sense,
21
so we suggest
the conjecture
veig- [bare stem of n.fem.
veig ‘a drink’]. As
tróð is identical to
tróða
in 1.1, then with
úði as a heiti for fire and
veig- as a heiti for water we get a
straightforward ‘fire of water’ →
GOLD
kenning, which is then used as a determinant
for kenning for
WOMAN
where
tróð is the
baseword.
Snúðug agrees with
tróð; the
entirety means ‘agile woman’ and refers to
Auðr. The syntax of the stanza is somewhat
loose; this adjective phrase is either part of
the predication
Auðr var from line 1.1, or
that of predication
treysti from line 1.7, or
that of predication
bað from line 1.8.
(1.7)
klár-huguð – klár [bare stem of adj.
klárr
‘clear’];
huguð [adj.fem.nom.sg. of
hugaðr
‘minded, having this or that temperament’].
The entirety is a compound adjective
86
meaning ‘clear-minded’, and agrees with
Auðr. ‘Clearness’ of mind could possibly be
pleonasm, an extra reference to her being
Christian, according to this stanza, and not
pagan, even though no direct information as
to Auðr’s faith is provided in
Laxdæla, and
by default one assumes she was pagan. It
could also refer to her bold decision to
promptly leave Scotland after deaths of her
father and son, and to head, ultimately, for
Iceland (see commentary on 1.5).
(1.7)
Kristo – this is dat.sg. form of Latin
Christus; it is dative because
treysti [v.3.sg.
pret.ind. of
treysta ‘trust to, rely upon’] in
the meaning active in this context (which in
ON would normally also require reflexive
variant
treystask) here takes an object. The
use of the original Latin declension for
Latin names is quite typical in ON texts (see
e.g. Sturla Þórðarson’s
Hákonar saga
Hákonarson).
(1.8)
gram sólar – sólar [n.fem.gen.sg. of
sól
‘sun’],
gram [n.masc.acc.sg. of
gramr
‘king’]. The noun phrase reads as [‘prince
of the sun’]; it is a straightforward kenning
for C
HRIST
(Meissner 1921: 372).
(1.8)
Krosshólum – kross [n.masc.gen.sg. of
kross ‘cross’],
hólum [n.masc.dat.pl. of
hóll/hváll ‘hill’]. The place-name reads as
‘The Hills of the Cross’, but no such place
is mentioned in
Laxdæla saga. It, as well as
the claim – unsubstantiated
by the saga text
or other saga sources – that Auðr was
Christian, appears in
Landnámabók (1986:
139, ch. S97/H84). Jesse Byock (2001: ch.
16) discusses the issues surrounding the
Christian faith of some of the first settlers.
2.
Őlafúr Pa̋ nam ala,
ÿdil dÿgd gieþs i bÿgþúm,
frÿþúr gaf fÿller da̋þa,
fafnis bÿng hiarþ hÿlltingū,
markv
7
þr Son Melkorku,
Mÿrki
r
tans ætt
og hiarta,
bar, en̄ bÿgþeſt af mægþúm,
Borg
r
Eigels ű-deiga.
2.
Óláfr Pá nam ala
íðil-dygð geðs í bygðum,
fríðr gaf fyllir dáða
Fáfnis bing Hjarð-hyltingum.
Markverðr sonr Melkorku
Myrkjartans ætt ok hjarta
bar, en bygðisk af mægðum
Borgar Egils ódeiga.
Regular word order
Óláfr Pá nam ala íðil-dygð í bygðum geðs.
Fríðr dáða fyllir [=Óláfr Pá] gaf Fáfnis bing
Hjarð-hyltingum. Markverðr sonr Melkorku
[=Óláfr Pá] bar Myrkjartans ætt ok hjarta, en
bygðisk af mægðum ódeiga Borgar-Egils.
Approximate English translation
Óláfr Pái nurtured
exceptional virtue in the house of the spirit [→
BREAST
/
CHEST
(heart)],
the handsome doer of deeds [→
WARRIOR
(Óláfr)]
gave
the pillow of Fáfnir [→
GOLD
] to inhabitants of
Hjarðarholt.
The remarkable son of Melkorka [→ Ó
LÁFR
]
was Myrkjartan’s
flesh and blood,
and through marriage he became a relative of
the formidable Egill [Skallagrímsson] of Borg.
Commentary
(2.1)
pá – [n.masc.nom.sg. ‘peacock’]. This is
a strong-declension form; in ON texts, a
different
an-declension form
pái is
normally used as Óláfr’s nickname.
(2.1)
nam ala – nam [v.3.sg.pret.ind. of
nema
‘take’],
ala [v.inf. ‘to feed’]. In ON,
nema
normally takes a noun as a direct object (as
in e.g.
nema land [‘claim a piece of land as
property’]), but it could also be used in an
emphatic construction
nema + infinitive, as
here. The object of
ala is
íðil-dygð (see
below). On the phonetic form of
ala and its
metrical implications, see “The Close” above.
(2.2)
íðil-dygð – dygð [n.fem.acc.sg. of
dygð
‘virtue, probity’], the object of
ala in 2.1.
The first element of the compound
íðil-
dygð, present in such MI words as
íðil-fagur
[‘very beautiful’], is derived from the ON
prefix
íð- [‘very’] (JdV: 283) and acts as a
reinforcement; the overall meaning of the
noun is ‘exceptional virtue’. On alliteration
in
this line, see “Alliteration” above.
(2.3)
geðs í bygðum –
geðs [n.neut.gen.sg. of
geð ‘mind, mood, spirit’],
bygðum [n.fem.
dat.pl. of
bygð ‘abode, habitation’]. The
whole stands for
í geðs bygðum [‘in the
dwelling-places of spirit’] and is a rather
conventional kenning for
BREAST
/
CHEST