95
also literally ‘the rain of spears at Skorradal
was falling down with a great noise out of
the clouds’. Such word choice, where, e.g.
the verb is picked to (partially) agree
semantically with the literal (i.e.
inactive)
meaning of a kenning baseword (in our
case, the basic meaning of the baseword
skúr is ‘rain’, and the rain pours, hence the
choice of
dynja), is typical for certain
varieties of skaldic verse and described in
Snorra Edda (
HT 6‒7, sections on
sannkenningar and
nýgǫrvingar).
Conclusion
We believe this little poem is a very interesting
text for several reasons. Not only does it
represent an attempt to write in
dróttkvætt, a
very strict metre on many levels, including
syntactic, lexical and phraseological, a long
time after the oral
dróttkvætt tradition had
likely died out, but also an attempt that, as we
believe we have shown, should be judged as
largely successful. The author demonstrates
his very advanced understanding of the
metrical requirements of
dróttkvætt, as well as
his very effective grasp of skaldic poetics and
the generative principles of skaldic vocabulary –
a truly remarkable achievement. Even if
dróttkvætt was not alive in his time, it does
come alive in his poem. The poet also
demonstrates his skill and creativity in two
veins, one that successfully fits new develop-
ments in the language into the confines of the
old rules, and one that stretches what was in
fact theoretically possible, even though
unrealized, in classical
dróttkvætt, and in other
veins that
are either unrelated to the dróttkvætt
modus operandi or altogether impossible. It is
a curious example of what may be styled as a
‘post-mortem’ life of a metre and a poetic
system that was once central to the Icelandic
tradition, and one that, apparently, was still
alive aurally (though most likely not orally),
had remained culturally relevant, and, to a
degree, resurrectable and renewable centuries
later. Further, such evidence of
the very active
engagement of our poet/scribe with the skaldic
tradition should also be considered important
for wider issues of the existence and
(especially post-medieval) transmission of ON
prosimetric texts such as sagas; even if
Tyrfingur is probably a rather rare bird in that
he
composed skaldic verse at such a late date,
he certainly could not have been that rare in
possessing
a
very
advanced
working
comprehension of it.
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank
Haraldur Bernharðsson, the two anonymous reviewers,
and quite especially Shaun F.D. Hughes for their
invaluable comments that improved the paper
considerably.
Ilya V. Sverdlov (ilya.sverdlov[at]helsinki.fi) Helsinki
Collegium for Advanced Studies, Fabianinkatu 24 (P.O.
Box 4), 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland.
Sofie Vanherpen (Sofie.Vanherpen[at]UGent.be) Ghent
University Library, Department of Catalography and
Acquisition, Sint-Hubertusstraat 8, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
Notes
1.
Vísur um Kjartan og Bolla by Þórður Magnússon are
preserved in the following
Laxdæla manuscripts
from the 17
th
century: TCD MS. 1008 fol., AM 127
fol., AM 126 fol., AM 125 fol., –– 4
to
, AM 396 fol.
From the 18
th
century: Add. Ms. 11111 fol., ÍB 45
fol., TCD MS 1009 fol., Lbs 151 4
to
, Ms. 4° 306, Lbs
1212 4
to
.
2. In this article, we only refer to stanzas from
kappakvæði or panegyrics in praise of
Laxdæla saga
characters that were used as finishing pieces to the
saga text. As they are not
relevant to the topic of the
current article, the discussion does not extend to
other poems that conclude the saga (e.g. in ÍB 71 4
to
and Lbs 1332 4
to
) or stand-alone poetry inspired by
the saga (e.g.
Kjartanskvæði preserved in JS 520 8
vo
and
Laxdælarímur by Eiríkur Bjarnason in the
autograph JS 46 4
to
). For a more thorough discussion
of these, see the forthcoming doctoral thesis of Sofie
Vanherpen.
3. The third
vísa or stanza was published in Modern
Icelandic spelling without any further analysis or
discussion in (Kjartan Óláfsson 1999: 5).
4. These three manuscripts are: Lbs 2480
4to
written in
1742 (Páll Eggert Ólason 1935‒1937: 325), MS
Boreal 144 written in 1746 (Madan 1897: 469) and
Lbs 513 4
to
written in 1746‒1747 (Páll Eggert
Ólason 1918: 262).
5. In more detail, see: https://handrit.is/en/manuscript/
view/is/Lbs04-0513.
6. This is the opening sentence of a very long period
detailing the provenence of this text of
Eyrbyggja
saga.
7. The following note, in a different hand, is added to
this colophon:
Prestur að Stað í Súganðafyrði [‘Pastor
at Staður in Súgandafjörður’] (Lbs 513 4
to
, f. 102r).
8. One case of
fyrning are editions of
Vápnfirðinga
saga (1950), of which only a single vellum leaf of a
(late) medieval manuscript survives (Jón Helgason
1975: 62–78), while the bulk of the saga texts
preserved in paper manuscripts that date from 16
th
century or later have essentially MI spellings.
Despite this, the non-diplomatic editions of the saga