5 Lines 4 and 8 are parts of the refrain.
6 The raven.
1 The present town of Ladoga, near the lake of that name in Russia.
2 Esthonia and the island of Ösel, respectively.
3 Kenning for “sword.”
4 Lines 4 and 8 of each stanza are parts of the refrain.
5 Kenning for “king.”
1 The northern angelica is a large umbelliferous plant growing to a height of several feet. The stalks are used much like celery.
1 An Icelandic skald.
2 Olaf of Sweden (?).
3 Kenning for “ravens.”
1 The exact location of it is not known. In all probability, though, the battle took place near the German island of Rügen, and not, as Adam of Bremen would have it, in the sound.
1 King Óláf Tryggvason.
2 Earl Eirík or Sigvaldi?
1 This effective crescendo account of the approaching fleet of Óláf Tryggvason ultimately goes back, over Odd Snorrason and Fagrskinna, to the Monk of Saint Gall’s story of Desiderius, the King of the Langobards, who from a high tower in Pavia watches the approach of Charlemagne’s army.
1 In his Funeral Drápa of Óláf.
1 In the original, the two adjectives alliterate.
2 That is, fleeing.
1 The Swedes were still largely heathen at the time.
1 An Icelandic skald.
2 Eirík (?).
3 Kenning for “battle.”
4 They had sailed ahead.
1 Earl Eirík.
2 i.e. the Long Serpent’s. Fáfnir was the name of the dragon slain by Sigurth in the legend.
1 Two lines are evidently missing here, though none of the manuscripts gives an indication of that fact.
2 Kenning for “ships.”
3 Kenning for “king.”
1 Garm is the hell-hound; the whole, a kenning for “battle-axes,” which “bite” the shields with their thin (keen) edges.
2 That is, I am a skald.
1 King Óláf Tryggvason.
2 Earl Eirík.
3 Island off southern Hálogaland.
4 King Svein: a false rumor.
1 An Icelandic skald, nephew of Sigvat.
1 Kenning for “oars.” It was not considered beneath the dignity of kings to take a hand at the oar.
1 An Icelandic skald. The poem referred to is now called Víkingavísur “Stanzas Dealing with a Viking Expedition.”
2 The “long ship,” navis longa, is a battleship.
1 The present town of Sigtúna, on a branch of Lake Mælaren.
2 The outlet of Lake Mælaren, at the present site of Stockholm.
1 The island of Ösel, off Esthonia.
2 Kenning for “battle.”
1 The southern coast of Finland.
2 Kenning for “ships.”
1 On the west coast of Jutland.
2 Gondul is a valkyrie; her game, “battle.”
1 Part of the Dutch coast.
2 The king, as warder of the laws.
1 According to the legend, the Virgin Mary despatched Saint Mercury to kill the Apostate, and he ran the emperor through with his spear.
1 The present Ringmere in East Anglia, the district then ruled by Earl Úlfkel.
2 Kenning for “battle.”
3 Ella is one of the English kings of that name; the whole, a kenning for “the English.”
4 King Óláf.
5 King Knút’s bodyguard.
1 Here, King Óláf.
2 It is not known who these are.
3 Unknown place name.
1 Perhaps the village of Dol at the head of the Golfe de Saint Malo, near Saint Michel.
2 Kenning for “battle.”
1 Grislupollar, Williamsby, and Fetlafjord are unidentified.
2 The Guadalquivir River in southern Spain.
3 Unidentified.
1 The town of Guerande in southern Bretagne.
2 Touraine.
3 The Loire.
1 Óláf Tryggvason. See “Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar,” chapter 57.
2 Rognvald Úlfsson, earl of West Gautland. The second half of this stanza evidently does not belong here.
1 Bothn is the name of the vessel in which the mead of skaldship was brewed; its “flood” (contents), “skaldship.”
1 In kviðuháttr measure.
1 Unidentified.
2 The Wolds, or Lincoln Heights, are a ridge extending from Lincolnshire to Northumberland in a north-south direction.
1 Kenning for “king.”
2 Now, Selje, a small island on the southern side of Cape Stath.
3 Strait between the island of Vagsö and the mainland.
1 Narrows between the island of Atleö and the mainland.
1 Against gnats and flies ?
1 This and other localities mentioned in this chapter are in the Trondheimfjord.
1 A tax which foreigners had to pay on arrival in Norway as well as on their departure.
1 By the Icelandic skald, Thórth Særekksson. A flokk is a shorter poem without refrain.
1 The Translator has, in this half-stanza, tried to give an example of the interweaving of sentences in skaldic verse.
1 Atli is the name of a sea-king; the whole, a kenning for “ships.”
2 Kenning for “ravens.”
3 An Icelandic woman skald. Bersi was one of the skald Kormák’s adversaries. This flokk, of which we have only the three stanzas here translated, evidently was in the nature of a “head-ransom.”
4 Kenning for “warrior.”
5 Kenning for “the wealth-dispensing king.”
1 Kenning for “sailor, king.”
1 These were of lesser rank than the men composing the king’s bodyguard, the hirth. The “guests” fulfilled the role of his executive and were used for particularly dangerous missions.
1 His cognomen inn digri, “the Stout,” may also have this meaning.
1 It still forms part of the boundary between Norway and Sweden.
2 The site of the present town of Sarpsborg.
1 A farm in Ranríki.
1 The present city of Novgorod.
1 It was believed that a king’s “luck” was potent and could be conferred by him on one going on a dangerous errand.
1 In the translation of this and following stanzas of Sigvat’s poem Austrfararvísur “Stanzas About a Journey East” the attempt has been made to reproduce both the alliteration and the internal rimes of the original.
2 Kenning for “ships.”
3 Kenning for “ships.”
4 Ræfil is the name of a sea-king; the whole, a kenning for “ships.” They were dragged ashore on rollers for winter.
1 That is, Sarpsborg.
1 That is, the present Gudbrands Dale and adjoining valleys.
2 This, as well as the localities mentioned in the next chapter, is located near Lake Mjors.
1 The present town of Eidsvoll.
2 Here, the forest between southern Norway and Sweden.
1 Near Uppsala.
1 It was etiquette to defer broaching the purpose of one’s visit. The more important this purpose, the longer the wait.
1 The present Karelia, Esthonia, and Courland, respectively.
2 Very likely, Snorri is thinking of the Mórathing, the assembly near Uppsala, where the Swedish kings received the oath of allegiance.
1 The raised platform along the sides of a hall.
1 Lough Larne, in Ireland.
1 The following stanzas are part of his Austrfararvísur, see chapter 71, note 1.
2 Here the Eith Forest.
3 Ironic kennings for “boat.”
4 Sacrificial feasts for the elves (álfar), the álfablot, took place in fall. It has been surmised that the álfar were the souls of departed ancestors.
5 Ironic kenning for “generous man.”
6 The person referred to is unknown.
7 The Sognings are the people of the Sogn District; the whole, a kenning f
or “King Óláf.”
8 Kenning for “ocean.”
9 In other words, emissaries from either ruler are to be treated well, reciprocally.
10 Earl Rognvald.
11 This paragraph repeats what was said above.
12 Jaroslav, king of Kiev and Novgorod (1016-1054).
1 Valdimar, Vsevolod. Jarizleif’s daughter by Ingigerth was Ellisif, who married King Harald Hardruler. See his saga, chapter 17.
1 Or what he considered to be so.
2 Since the verb etja means “to incite,” the name Atti probably signifies “the contentious one.” Dœlskr denotes a “stay-at-home, a dunce.”
3 At the mouth of the Fýrisá River, near Uppsala.
4 After the death of King Emund the Old who succeeded his brother Jákob (Onund), Earl Steinkel was elected king of Sweden (1060). He had married Emund’s daughter.
1 This chapter is in part a recapitulation of “Haralds saga Hárfagra,” chapters 27 ff.
2 By Thorbjorn Hornklofi. See “Haralds saga Hárfagra,” chapter 9, note 1.
3 King Malcolm McKenneth (1005-1034).
4 For this famous battle see the Njals saga, Chapter 157.
5 An Icelandic skald, attached first to the Orkney earls, Rognvald and Thorfinn, then to King Magnús. This half stanza is part of his Thorfinn’s drápa.
1 In chapter 86. Eyvind had fought against Einar.
2 That is, Earl Einar’s.
1 Norway, from the point of view of the Western Islands.
1 The Orkneyinga saga, chapter 19.
1 The fur trade with the Finns (or, rather, Lapps) was a royal monopoly.
1 The heathen gods.
1 The “lair-hoard” of the dragon is gold; its “loather” (enemy), the generous prince.
2 The name of a difficult passage between the hamlets of Vági and Sil.
1 See “Hákonar saga Góða,” chapter 11, note 1.
1 It is, rather, on the large island of Hinney in the northern Lofoten Islands.
1 According to the Old Norse adage náttvíg eru morðvíg “night slayings are murder.”
2 The office of the ninth hour, three o’clock in the afternoon.
1 It is not known what mounds are referred to nor why this warning is uttered.
2 Lake Vangsmjösen.
3 That is, between Lake Vangsmjösen and the Slidrefjord.
1 Carolus Magnus, Charlemagne.
1 A fair held in spring at the end of the fishing season.
1 An Icelandic skald, so called because he is said to have composed a poem (now lost) on his paramour, “coalbrows.” There exists a separate saga about him.
1 An Icelandic skald, see chapter 50, note 2.
1 Permia.
2 On the island of Ringvatsöy (latitude 70).
3 Finnish Jumala “God.”
4 On the island of Mageröy, not far from the North Cape.
5 Settlement opposite the large island of Senja.
1 Small island northwest of Bergen.
2 Island off Horthaland.
1 This is a repetition of the account given in greater detail in “Hákonar saga Góða,” chapter 12.
1 An Icelandic skald.
2 That is, the lampooning verse Stein had composed about him.
3 Just west of the city of Trondheim.
4 Small island not far to the northwest of the town of Álesund.
5 As a baptismal present.
6 The name of the place is not given in the best manuscripts.
7 At the entrance of the Trondheimfjord.
1 A mark is equal in weight to eight ounces.
2 Note that the fine was assessed in gold, but that the payments made are in silver.
3 This is a hint as to the role Thórir plays in the battle of Stiklarstathir.
1 On the day following?
1 A group of small islands west of Ålesund.
1 There is a lacuna here in the best manuscripts and the remainder are vague. Obviously words are missing to the effect that the king was enraged and vowed vengeance, but…
2 The reference is to the Fœringa saga, from which much of the preceding account is taken.
1 Óláf Tryggvason.
2 Óláf Haraldsson.
1 This is part of the refrain of the drápa. It is completed in stanzas 287, 288. The measure of the Knútsdrápa is töglag; which consists of eight four syllable lines, with the odd and even lines held together by alliteration, the even lines (in the original) showing aðalhending (complete inner rime), the odd lines, irregularly, skothending (consonant inner rime).
2 That is, Óláf.
1 The stanza does not seem to fit the context. Nothing is known about Earl Hákon (Eiríksson) having tried to reconcile the king with his yeomen.
1 Icelandic skald. Only this one stanza of his drápa is preserved.
2 The Egthirs and Skanings were the inhabitants of the districts of Agthir and Scania.
3 Knút.
1 Inlet in the Swedish province of Blekinge.
1 The present town of Roskilde.
1 Points of land near the present town of Skanör, at the southern entrance to the sound.
2 Smaller island off the coast of Halland.
3 Fróthi is a sea-king; the whole, a kenning for “the sea.”
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