2 There exist four other stanzas of her poem about Hálfdan.
1 To set a child on one’s knee was to adopt it.
1 Comprising the inland districts of Norway.
1 The present Hawfleet.
1 An Icelandic skald.
2 Scania.
3 Kenning for “king.” It is not certain whether Eirík or his son, Harald Graycloak, is referred to.
1 A Norwegian skald. Of his poem we have the eight stanzas here preserved by Snorri.
2 Kenning for “ships.”
3 Valkyries; the whole, a kenning for “battle.”
1 The Old Norse form for the present Seeland.
2 Kenning for “king.”
1 Kenning for “sailor, king.”
1 Kenning for “warrior, king.” Helmets were adorned with plaited rings.
2 “Ónar’s daughter” is the earth.
1 Encomiastic poem about King Harald Graycloak, of which considerable fragments are preserved.
2 Kenning for “warrior, king.”
3 Kenning for “sword.”
4 Kenning for “battle”; Skogul is a valkyrie.
1 These assemblies were located at Gula (directly south of the mouth of the Sognfjord), on Frosta (a peninsula in the Trondheimfjord), and on a spot a little south of Lake Mjors, respectively. Heithsær (“Lake of Heithmork”) is the older name of Lake Mjors. Actually, both the Gulathing and the Frostathing laws had been instituted before Hákon’s rule.
1 The name is missing in all manuscripts of Heimskringla.
2 Now Inderøy, a peninsula in the Trondheimfjord. This curious story has many variants in ancient and medieval lore, and ultimately goes back to Ethiopia.
3 The long ridge of mountains and plateaus separating Norway from Sweden. The word is popularly understood as meaning “a boat’s keel,” but actually signifies “wasteland.”
1 Held yearly in midsummer.
1 An Icelandic skald. Of the drápa only a few stanzas are preserved.
2 A giant killed by the gods. See Snorri’s Edda, “Skáldskaparmál,” chapter 1. This sentence, as well as the last one of the stanza, forms part of the refrain.
3 The temple priest, Sigurth.
4 Either “a prince” or else the sword of Sigurth the Dragon-Slayer.
1 The horse was sacred to Óthin.
1 i.e. “swords”; the whole, a kenning for “warrior,” Hákon.
2 Here, King Guthorm.
3 “Wound-snake” is a kenning for “sword”; the whole, “warrior.”
1 Across the isthmus on the landward side of Cape Stath.
2 Actually it is in North Mœr.
1 Hild is a valkyrie; her tempest, “battle.”
1 When the gods had fettered the wolf Fenrir they thrust a sword into its jaws distending them. See Snorri’s Edda, “Gylfaginning,” chapter 33.
1 Kenning for “battle”; which the avengers of Eirík wish to bring on.
2 Njorth is a god; the whole, a kenning for “sailor.”
1 Hákonarmál, transmitted in its entirety by Snorri in this and the following chapter. The measure varies between ljóðaháttr (stanzas 86, 90-101) and málaháttr.
2 The valkyries mentioned in stanza 86. Bjorn Haraldsson’s brother is Hákon.
3 i.e. men from Hálogaland and Rogaland, respectively.
4 Thus showing his equanimity.
5 An Icelandic skald. Of this poem four stanzas are preserved.
6 An old type of sword had a ring on the hilt for carrying.
7 Kenning for “warrior.” Týr is the god of war.
1 The “valkyries’ weather (or storm)” is a kenning for “battle”; its “wooer,” the king.
2 Kenning for “sword.”
3 Kenning for “skulls.”
4 A long-shafted arrow or javelin.
5 The king as the slayer of evildoers—Hákon, who advances before his ranks. The translator has attempted to make this stanza adumbrate the involved manner of skaldic poetry.
6 This was King Harald Graycloak’s reputation.
7 Gamli Eiríksson?
8 Thórálf’s.
1 As a fact, Snorri quotes it in its entirety. It is worth noting that málaháttr is used for the narrative portions, ljóðaháttr for the dialogue and final elegiac passages.
2 Óthin. Gondul and Skogul are two of his valkyries.
3 Kenningar for “swords,” and “battle-axes,” respectively.
4 “Sea-of-wounds” and “stream-of-arrows” are kenningar for “blood.”
5 Kenningar for “battle.”
6 i.e. halcyon, elysian.
7 The messenger god, the god of poetry, and Óthin, respectively.
8 Because Hákon had deserted him for Christ?
9 Óthin’s warriors in Valholl.
10 Kenning for “king” as subduing them.
11 The sons of Harald Fairhair?
12 The monster which in “the twilight of the gods” swallows the sun and kills Óthin.
13 This line, as well as stanza 97, are echoes from the Eddic “Hávamál,” stanzas 1 and 76.
1 Ygg is one of Óthin’s names; his “hawks” are the ravens or eagles.
2 This is stanza 72, repeated.
3 i.e. ravens.
4 According to the legend, King Hrólf Kraki of Denmark “sowed” gold rings on the Fýri Plain to retard pursuit by the Swedes.
5 Ullr was a god.
6 As told in the Eddie “Lay of Grotti,” two captive giant maidens ground gold for King Fróthi on the wishing mill.
7 Thór’s mother is the earth.
8 Fulla is a goddess; her fillet, gold.
9 The gold hoard hidden in the River Rhine.
10 He had served King Harald Fairhair and King Hákon the Good.
11 That is, I am but a supernumerary now.
1 Both localities are east of the Trondheimfjord.
1 “Enumeration” (genealogy) of the princes of Hálogaland. It is in kviðuháttr, like Ynglingatal.
2 Óthin; his “swans” are the ravens.
3 An Icelandic skald. The title of his poem signifies “lack of gold.” See also stanza 101.
4 Hethin is a legendary hero; his “red-moon-of-battle” is a kenning for the round and red-stained war shield; its “whittler” a warrior.
5 Njorth is a god; the whole, a kenning for “warrior.”
6 Norway, from the point of view of the Icelander.
7 Atli and Leifi are sea kings. “Leifi’s weather (or storm)” is a kenning for “battle.”
1 The district south of Westfold, not to be confused with Greenland.
2 That is, Harald Grenski and Hrani.
1 The Firthafylki, the district lying between the Nordfjord and the Sognf jord.
1 That is, the hail of missiles on helmets, “battle.”
2 “The wine-of-Wayfarer (Óthin)” is “skaldship, the poem.”
3 Thrótt is a name of Óthin; the whole, a kenning for “battle.”
1 Svolnir is one of Óthin’s names; his mate is the earth.
2 The livestock which has to subsist on the buds of trees.
3 This has not been preserved.
4 The general assembly of Iceland.
5 Out of the silver donated.
6 Gerth is a goddess; the whole, a kenning for “woman.”
7 i.e. the fish.
1 On the coast of Jathar, though Snorri evidently thought it was somewhere in the Uppland districts.
1 Here also called Hólmgarth, the realm around the present Novgorod in Russia. Its king at the time was Vladimir the Great (980-1015).
1 The last two, semi-legendary kings.
1 He means the later King Svein Forkbeard.
2 By popular etymology interpreted as “hard distress.” Actually, it is the angr, “narrow fjord,” of the Horthar (the present Hardangerfjord).
1 The Limfjord.
2 Kenning for “gold.”
3 Earl Hákon.
1 Now Cape Lindesness.
1 An
ornament worn by earls.
2 Kenning for “warrior, king”; here, Earl Hákon.
3 Earl Hákon.
1 Kenning for “battle.”
1 “Hethin’s-stormblast” is a kenning for “battle”; its Frey, “the king.”
2 Kenning for “warriors.”
3 A common practice in the earliest times for land warfare.
4 That is, as corpses.
1 Icelandic skald. His Drápa of the Gods, of which Snorri has preserved fragments here, celebrated the deeds of Eirík.
2 “Wound-flame” is a kenning for “sword.”
3 Kenning for “generous prince.”
4 This line is part of the refrain; which is completed in stanza 166, last line.
5 Kenning for “dragon ship.”
1 An insinuation of intimacy.
2 The island of Bornholm.
1 The present Pomerania.
2 The historic King Boleslav I (992-1025).
3 An Icelandic skald, about whom there exists a separate saga.
4 These lines hardly apply to the content of the chapter.
1 Otto II of Germany (973-983).
2 The line of fortifications extending in South Slesvik from the Baltic to the North Sea.
1 This kenning anticipates Óláf’s later role as missionary king.
1 Áli is a sea-king; the whole, a kenning for “ship.”
2 The inhabitants of Horthaland.
3 The king of Denmark.
4 Earl Hákon.
5 The emperor.
6 Kenning for “sailor, warrior”; here, Earl Hákon.
1 The Eyrar Sound (Öresund) and Scania are of course far to the south of the eastern mouth of the Limfjord.
2 Small islands at the mouth of the Gaut Elf (Göta Elf) River.
3 Kenning for “warrior.”
4 Sorli is a legendary hero; his “house” (or “roof”) is the shield.
1 The present town of Slesvik.
1 Kenning for “battle.”
2 The “steed-of-witches” is the wolf.
3 The king, as arbiter.
4 The Dutch island.
1 He reigned 938-980.
1 At the mouth of the Sognfjord.
2 To be likened to a mare was regarded as a mortal insult.
1 About him and other Jómsvíkings, see the Jómsvíkinga saga.
1 An Icelandic skald. About him and his rival in love and skaldship, Bjorn, see the Bjarnar saga Hitdœlakappa.
2 The planks of the Viking ship were secured by withies.
1 i.e. Earl Hákon (ironic).
2 An Icelandic skald.
3 A son of legendary King Jónakr.
1 An official appointed by the crown to administer lands and estates belonging to it.
2 Here, the Jómsvíkings, who had their stronghold in Wendish territory.
1 These cryptic words contain the reason for her otherwise inexplicable conduct: from the Legendary Saga of Saint Óláf we learn that she had wanted to become the mother of the saint. Note that she is called prescient about many things.
1 The present harbor of Osmondwall which, however, is not on (South) Ronaldshay but on the island of Hoy.
1 At the mouth of the Nith River.
2 An Icelandic skald.
1 Earl Eirík.
2 King Óláf.
3 Earl Hákon.
4 King Óláf. As to the kenning, see what is said about King Hrólf Kraki in chapter 29 of the “Ynglinga saga.”
5 Eirík. See his part in King Óláf’s fall, chapter 98th ff.
1 There is a gap here in all manuscripts of Heimskringla; but their names are known from other sources.
1 Not to be confused with Ástríth, the widow of King Harald of Grenland.
1 The intention of this symbolic act seems to be that Ástríth’s contrariness robs the king of the opportunity to raise Erling to the earldom. See the following chapter.
1 “Mouth of the Nith River,” the old name for the present city of Trondheim.
2 They carried with them a token in the shape of a carved stick or axe, which was sent from farm to farm.
1 Possibly identical with the persons of similar names in chapter 18 of “Hákonar saga Góða.”
1 The verses of both these skalds have come down to us in other sources.
1 The present Saltström, a powerful tidal current in and out of the Skjerstadfjord.
1 About him see the Laxdœla saga.
2 That is, of Njál and his family; about which see the Njáls saga; chapter 129.
3 Concerning the office of goði, see Introduction, page xi.
4 Vandræðaskjáld. See chapter 22, note 3.
1 That is, the “main” street of the town of Nitharós.
2 That is, if I do such a thing.
3 He who bestowed a name or cognomen on someone, whether child or adult, was expected to add a gift.
1 Now called Hornelen, on the island of Bremanger.
1 They are stanzas 161, 162 repeated.
2 Of Eyólf Dáthaskáld, see chapter 20.
3 Lines 4 and 8 are parts of the refrain.
4 On the German island of Fehmarn.
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