91
Commentary
(5.2)
olli slysi –
olli [v.3.sg.pret.ind. of
valda
‘wield; cause, inflict’],
slysi [n.neut.dat.sg.
of
slys ‘bad accident; mischief’]. In sagas,
slys is characteristically used to describe
female scheming (e.g. the actions of
Hallgerðr, Bolli’s aunt from
Njáls saga).
The manu-script has
slysa, which is a gen.pl.
form; however, the verb
valda takes an object
in
dative case, so we emend accordingly.
(5.3)
barsk – [v.3.sg.pret.ind.refl. of
bera ‘to
bear, carry’, not
berask [‘to be seen’]
25
].
The subject for this verb is
dimm-gæfa [‘bad
fate’] in 5.4, and the phrase literally means
‘bad fate carried itself’
í dóms drauma [‘into
fateful dreams’]
(see below), i.e. the bad
fate ‘entered’ into Guðrún’s fateful dreams,
thus revealing itself.
(5.3)
dóms í drauma –
dóms [n.masc.gen.sg. of
dómr ‘judgement; doom’],
drauma [n.masc.
acc.pl. of
draumr ‘dream’]. The normal
word order of words/stems is
í dóms
drauma [‘into a fateful, prophetic dream’]
(on the syntax, see “Noun Phrase Word
Order” above).
Drauma is here in
accusative plural, which, when used with
prepositions
í, á etc., implies motion (in)to
(see
barsk above), whereas the dative would
imply a state of being in or at a place or
thing. The phrase refers to the episode in
Laxdæla 33 where Guðrún recounts four of
her dreams and these are interpreted as
predicting each of her four marriages.
(5.4)
dimm-gæfa –
dimm- [bare stem of adj.
dimmr ‘dark, dim’],
gæfa [n.fem.nom.sg.
‘luck’]. This compound is an invention of
our poet, literally meaning ‘dark luck’, i.e.
bad luck, bad fate. The ON word for this
would have been
ógæfa [lit. ‘unluck’], on
which see 4.3.
(5.5)
Þiðranda-bana –
bana [n.masc.acc.sg. of
bani ‘death; killer’],
Þiðranda [n.masc.
gen.sg. of
Þiðrandi, a personal name]. This
refers to the episode of Guðrún hiding the
killer of Þiðrandi (
Laxdæla 69).
(5.5–6)
brúðar bekk –
bekk [n.masc.acc.sg of
bekkr ‘bench’ (a cognate)],
brúðar [MI
n.fem.gen.sg of
brúðr ‘bride’];
the
compound noun means ‘women’s bench’,
an area in an Icelandic longhouse. The
manuscript spelling
brúðer with
-e- does
not make sense; the possible conjectures are
bróðir [n.masc.nom.
‘brother’],
brúðar and
brúður [n.fem.nom. ‘bride’]. The former is
rejected because no brothers of Gunnar
Þiðrandabani feature in the particular
episode of
Laxdæla, whereas the latter
corresponds verbally to
the relevant section
of
Laxdæla 69 (lexical matches underlined):
En Guðrún sat innar á þverpalli ok þar
konur hjá henni ok hǫfðu lín á hǫfði; en
þegar hon verðr vǫr við, stígr
hon af
brúðbekkinum
ok heitr á sína menn at veita
Gunnari lið.
Guðrún meanwhile sat on the women’s
bench with other ladies around herself, and
all wore festive headgear; so when she
becomes aware [of the commotion related to
Þorkell seeing through Gunnarr’s disguise],
she steps down from the women’s bench
and orders her men to defend Gunnarr.
It is possible to read
brúður as the
nominative subject (= Guðrún), although
this would be an indicator of the lateness of
the poem since in ON the form would be
brúðr, unsuitable for the close. We prefer to
read the
brúðar bekk as a compound that
consciously mirrors the phrasing of the saga
(which requires editorially moving the end-
line comma). The use of the genitive
inflection of
brúðr thus appears as a
metrically motivated alternative to the bare
stem forming the compound owing to the
rhythm of the close. This particular type of
enjambment in which a two-stem non-
kenning compound is split in two by the end
of the line is not very common in classical
dróttkvætt, although it is used. The case is
accusative because motion is implied in the
verb phrase
stígin af -bekk [‘standing up
from bench’] (5.3).
(5.6)
stígin – [pp.fem.nom.sg of
stíginn ‘risen’,
of v.
stíga ‘step upwards; run’]. This agrees
in gender, case and number with
Guðrún,
hence a single
n, despite the nasal
overstroke in the manuscript
. As noted in
“Manuscript Spelling”, a nasal stroke over
n may function here as a reading aid, distin-
guishing handwritten
u (marked by an acute
accent) from
n (marked with overstroke).
(5.6)
rekkum – [n.masc.dat.pl. of
rekkr ‘free
man’]. The word is used as a poetic
synonym for men in general, here referring
to companions of Þorkell.
92
(5.7)
þreif – [v.3.sg.pret.ind. of
þrífa ‘to clutch,
grasp, take hold’]. Gudrun here is said to
‘grasp Gunnar away from Þorkell’s men’.
(5.7)
ofsa yfrinn –
yfrinn [adj.masc.acc.sg
‘excessive’],
ofsa [n.masc.acc.sg of
ofsi
‘arrogance; extravagance’]. The word
ofsi
typically means ‘tyrrany, overbearance’,
and more precisely readiness to resort to
violence in pursuit of one’s goals with
arrogant disregard for laws and justice
(Byock 2001: chs. 10, 13); by extension it
also just means ‘extravagance’, as in riches
etc., which is the meaning active here. The
phrase means that Gudrun has provided (or,
to be precise, had her husband Þorkell
provide) Gunnar with
a lot of money on his
way out of Iceland.
(5.8)
Unnr falda –
falda [n.fem.gen.pl. of
faldr,
‘special women’s headgear’ worn by high-
status ladies in Iceland],
Unnr [n.fem.
nom.sg, a female personal name]. It is a
regular kenning for woman coined according
to a well-attested model ‘female name of
piece of female atire’ [
LP: 582; Meissner
1921: 405–409]. This headgear appears in
the episode of
Laxdæla quoted in 5.5, where
lín [lit. ‘linen’] is a common synonym for
faldr, which was white and made of that
fabric. In some ON texts, Auðr the Deep-
Minded is called
Unnr instead of
Auðr. Our
poet could potentially be linking Guðrún to
the earlier heroine of the poem. With emen-
dation, another interpretation is possible.
26
(5.8)
nunna – [n.fem.nom.sg ‘nun’]. This is a
reference to Guðrún becoming the first
hermit nun in the history of Iceland, having
outlived her four husbands (
Laxdæla 78).
6.
Þorkell Ejúlfs mióg merkúr,
Múſteris ha̋tt a̋ búſtúm,
allfrÿds i Őſe Nidar,
arme þeſs mællte karma,
eins Stő7an̄ gÿrnteſt gióra,
Gúds ran̄
, þő kőngúr ban̄e,
hollúr ad Hælga felle,
hans ra̋d daúden̄ afma̋de.
6.
Þorkell Eyjólfs- mjǫk merkr
musteris, hátt á bu
rstum,
al-fríðs í ósi Níðar,
armi þess mældi karma;
eins stóran
girndisk gera
guðs rann, þó konungr banni
hollr, at Helgafelli;
hans ráð dauðinn afmáði.
Regular word order
Mjǫk merkr Eyjólfs-Þorkell, hátt á burstum,
mældi armi karma þess al-fríðs musteris í
Níðarósi. [Þorkell] girndisk gera stóran rann
eins guðs at Helgafelli, þó hollr konungr banni
[þat]. Dauðinn afmáði ráð hans [=Þorkells].
Approximate English translation
Þorkell Eyjólfsson, a most remarkable man,
having climbed
high on the gables,
with his own hands measured the frame
of that very beautiful minster in Trondheim;
he
was eager to build a large
house of One God at Helgafell,
even though
the gracious king forbade that;
death ruined his plans.
Commentary
(6.1)
Þorkell Eyjólfs – i.e. Þorkell Eyjólfsson,
fourth husband of Guðrún (see plot
summary above). On the particular form
and word order of this sequence, see
“Lexical and Syntactic Features” above.
(6.1)
merkr – [adj.masc.nom.sg. ‘remarkable,
noteworthy, truthful’]. Agreed with
Þorkell.
(6.2)
musteris – [n.neut.gen.sg. of
musteri/
mustari ‘temple’]. The word is derived from
Latin
monasterium (> English
minster); the
word is in the same form in
Laxdæla 74, to
the events of which most of this stanza
refers.
(6.2)
burstum – n.fem.dat.pl. of
burst ‘gable’
in a house];
hátt á burstum [‘high on the
gables’] is part of the clause that has
mældi
as the principal verb (6.4), meaning that
Þorkell was measuring the church while
having climbed high up the scaffolding as
described in
Laxdæla 74. The manuscript
spelling has
bustum, lacking -
r-, a common
spelling mistake already in ON times;
27
we
restore it here for clarity. However,
bust is
the correct spelling and pronunciation for
the 18
th
century (e.g. Björn Halldórsson
1992: 95) and necessary here for correct
aðalhending, a full stem rhyme with
musteris (which has never had
r before
s),
which is a mark of the lateness of the text.