Egil’s Saga Page 37

  4SKAPTI THORODDSON. Speaker of the Law 1004–30. He plays a prominent part in Nj. and Grett.

  CHAPTER LXXVIII

  1OLAF THE PEACOCK. Comes into several of the sagas, e.g. Ld., in which he plays a big part, and Nj. He was a man of much magnificence and show, and one of the great men in the Western Dales, of royal kin on both sides.

  2VERMUND. Vermund the Slender, son of Thorgrim Kiallakson the Priest, dwelt at Bearhaven on the N. side of the Snaefellsness peninsula. His brother was Slaying Stir, ‘very masterful and exceeding in wrongfulness’, the father-in-law of Snorri the Priest. Vermund himself was peaceful and respectable; see Eb. passim.

  3SLAYING BARDI. The hero of the Heath-slayings Saga.

  4THE MEADS (Vellir). There is a farmstead to-day at Hvítárvellir on the south bank where the river Hvítá (Whitewater) opens into Burgfirth. The conditions of wind and tide here are apt to be dangerous precisely in the way described in the saga. I crossed in a heavy open boat from Hvanneyri to Einarsness on an evening of late summer of an unforgettable beauty, at the turn of the tide after a stormy day, when the whole countryside was bathed in the golden light of the low-swinging sun, and the vast ramparts of Skarðsheiði and the Heiðarhorn seemed to be built not of rock but of heavenly topaz and sapphire, because of the sunset glory on their new snows and the blue and amethystine shadows in the gullies. A few weeks later two farm-lads from Hvanneyri were drowned by a cruel accident very like that which cost the life of Bodvar Egilson.

  5SHUT-BED (lokrekkja). These were bedrooms for the heads of the household, made by partitioning off parts of the passage that ran round the hall behind the long benches (cf. p. 133); the way into the ‘shut-bed’ was by a door opening into the main body of the hall from behind the high seat. Thorkel Foulmouth had his ‘deeds of derring do’ carved over his shut-bed (Nj. 118). Cf. also Eb. 25, where it is said of Thorbiorn Jaw that, “A lock-bed he had made exceeding strong with beams of timber, but the Bareserks brake that up, so that the naves outside sprang asunder; yet was Stir himself the bane of Thorbiorn Jaw”; and the slaying of Thorgrim the Priest by Gisli Surson, Gisl. 9.

  6 NONES (nónskeið). The canonical hour of nones (3 p.m.). This is of course an anachronism.

  7AT FREYJA’S. The old poem Grimnismál, st. 13, describing the mansions of the blest, says:

  Folk-vangr es inn níundi, enn þar Freyja rœðr sessa kostom í sal:

  halfan val hon kýss hverjan dag, enn halfan Óðinn á.

  ‘Folk-mead is the ninth, and there Freyja ruleth the choice of seats in the hall. Half the slain She chooseth every day, but half Odin hath.’ C.P.B. think halfan val must mean the one half of mankind—i.e. women. This interpretation is supported by this passage in Egla, but by no other evidence. Valr is usually translated the ‘slain’, but it is quite possibly connected with velja—to choose; (Valkyrja, a ‘chooser of the slain’, or ‘chooser of the chosen’). If Freyja has half the ‘chosen dead’ that half may well be women, and Folk-vangr Her private Valhalla for ladies.

  8DULSE (söl). “An edible species of seaweed, Rhodymenia palmata, having bright red, deeply divided fronds. In some parts applied to Iridœa edulis” (O.E.D.).

  9SCORE IT ON A ROLLER (rísta á kefli). An anachronism interpolated in the text in the thirteenth century (F.J.).

  10NOTES ON SONATORREK. The Sonatorrek was probably composed about 960.

  The measure is the same as that of the Arinbjarnarkviða: unrhymed alliterative verse of a slower movement than the wind-rushing short rhymed couplets of the Höfuðlausn. My rendering has kept the alliterations wherever possible, has aimed at faithfulness to the original, word for word and line by line, but above all has sought to model itself (by ear) on the beat and music of the original. The first stave reads:

  Mjǫk erom tregt

  Tungo at hrœra

  Meþ loptvétt

  Ljóþpundara.

  Esa nú vœnlegt

  Of Viþors þýfe,

  Né hógdrœgt

  Ór hugar fylgsne.

  Lit. ‘Much is it for me difficult tongue to move with air-weight of lay-balance. ’Tis not now hopeful of Vithor’s theft, nor (is it) easy-drawn out of heart’s hiding place’.

  St. 1. ‘Odin’s plunder’ (Viþors þýfe), the gift of song or skaldship, stolen by Odin from the Giants.

  St. 2. ‘The fair thing found of Frigg’s kinsfolk’ (fagnafundr Friggjar niþja), skaldship. Frigg, Odin’s wife.

  St. 3. ‘Faultless’, etc., referring (cf. st. 24) to the gift of skaldship. (The first four lines are very corrupt, and various guesses have been made at their meaning.)

  ‘Giant’s wound-stream’ (Jǫtons háls under), lit. ‘wounds of the Giant’s neck’—the sea.

  St. 4. ‘Maples’ (hlyner). Doubtless the big Norse maple, acer platanoides.

  St. 7. ‘Ran’ (Rán), Aegir’s wife, Goddess of the sea.

  St. 8. ‘The Ale-smith’ (Qlsmiþr), Aegir, the God of the sea, and brewer to the Gods.

  ‘The fierce storm’s brother’ (hroþa vábrœþr), lit. ‘the storm’s baleful brother’—Aegir.

  St. 10. ‘The way of bliss’ (munvegr), i.e. to Valhalla.

  St. 13. ‘Light wind of the Moon’s bride’ (byrvind Mána brúþar), a kenning for the mind, or thought.

  ‘Hild’ (Hildr), Goddess of War.

  St. 15. ‘In Iceland dwelling.’ This is paraphrase and guess-work. Egil says Elgjar galga, ‘the Elk’s gallows’, which has been explained as a kenning for ice (the hunted elk perishing in the ice-hole); hence ‘the folk of the elk’s gallows’ means ‘the folk of Iceland’. I agree with C.P.B. that this is far-fetched. C.P.B. amends Yggjar galga, ‘Ygg’s gallows’ (i.e. the Ash, or World-Tree, of Yggdrasill). The text may be corrupt.

  St. 16. The rest of the stanza is lost.

  St. 18. C.P.B. shuffles and divorces the lines of this stanza (in my opinion, most unhappily), and moreover renders the first four lines in a sense which seems to misconceive their whole bearing. The stanza as it stands is very moving and very true in its swift and unprepared change of key: the scornful and self-sufficient pride of the first four lines suddenly softening to the wistful sadness of the last four.

  ‘Where the bee’s path beareth’ (býskeiþs bœ), lit. ‘the dwelling of the bee’s race or swift course’.

  St. 19. ‘Judge of the Froth-mash’ (fens hrosta hǫfundr)—Aegir.

  St. 21. ‘He which holdeth converse with men’ (Gauta spjalle), lit. the ‘speller’, or converser, with the Goths—Odin.

  St. 22. ‘Lord of Spears…Ruler of Wains…Awarder of Vict’ry’ (geirs dróttenn...vagna rúne… sigrhǫfundr)—Odin.

  St. 23. ‘Vilir’s Brother ... Mimir’s Friend’ (bróPor Viles ... Mims vinr)—Odin.

  St. 24. ‘God of Battles, Great Foe of Fenrir’ (Ulfs báge víge vanr), lit. ‘Wolf’s Foe, to battle wont’; the Foe of the Wolf Fenrir, with whom He must fight at the Twilight of the Gods—Odin.

  St. 25. ‘The Wolf’s right Sister—All-Father’s Foe’s’ (Tveggja bága njǫrva nipt), lit. ‘Tveggi’s foe’s near (i.e. proper, not half-) sister’, the Goddess of death—Hell. Tveggi is probably a name of Odin. The ness is Digraness (modern Borgarnes), where Kveldulf and Skallagrim, and now Egil’s sons Bodvar and Gunnar, are laid in howe.

  11FITIAR IN STORD. See the account of this great battle in Hkr. (Hak. 28–32), where there is also a translation (but, like all Morris’s translations of skaldic poetry, unsatisfactorily smooth and ‘literary’) of Eyvind Skaldspiller’s Hákonarmál, with its grand overture:

  Göndul ok Skögul sendi Gauta-Týr

  at kjósa of konunga:

  hverr Yngva ættar skyldi með Óðni fara

  í Valhöll at vesa.

  ‘Gondul and Skogul the Goths’-God sent to choose of the kings’; the Valkyries of the God of Hosts halting their steeds beside the dying but victorious king, to summon him home.

  12 NOTES ON ARINBJARNARKVIĐA. Unluckily the text of this third great poem of Egil’s is corrupt and mutila
ted.

  The measure is the measure of the Sonatorrek. The first two staves say in effect, ‘I am a proud man, and I speak my mind’. St. 3–10 recount the episode of the Höfuðlausn in York. St. 11 is almost lost. The rest is praise of Arinbiorn’s nobility, truth, and generosity, ending in the last stave with the proud Horatian theme, “Exegi monumentum sere perennius”.

  St. 3. ‘The Hersir’—Arinbiorn.

  St. 5. The grandeur of this justifies quotation:

  Vasa tunglskin

  tryggt at líta

  né ógnlaust

  Eiríks bráa,

  þás ormfránn

  ennemáne

  skein allvalds

  œgegeislom.

  St. 6. ‘Bolster-hire’ (bolstrverþr), the price of a night’s lodging, paid in this case in the form of the Höfuðlausn. ‘Him that is make of the fish of the wildwood’ (maka hœings markar), lit. ‘make or equal of the forest-trout’, i.e. of the worm or serpent—Odin (from a story in Ed. of His becoming a snake and in that form discovering the art of poesy). ‘Ygg’s cup’—skaldship (Ygg, a by-name of Odin).

  St. 7. ‘Knob of hats’ (hattar staup). Egil is never tired of this theme.

  St. 8. ‘Noddle’, Icel. tira, which F. J. says is ἅπ. λεγ. of unknown meaning; query, ‘head’ or ‘gift’. Last two couplets:

  ok sá muþr

  es mína bar

  Hǫfoþlausn

  fyr hilmes kné.

  St. 10. ‘Of kempés foremost’ (knía fremstr), i.e. ‘of champions’; for ‘kempe’ or ‘kempery-man’, see the border ballads passim.

  St. 13. ‘Offspring of Hersirs’—Arinbiorn.

  St. 15. ‘Bear of the Table of Birches’ Dread’ (bjǫrn bjóþa birkes ótta). An elaborate pun on his friend’s name—another unfailing attraction to the poet. ‘Birches’ dread’ is fire; the ‘table’ of that, the hearth (Icel. arinn); ‘Hearth-bear’, ‘Arinn-björn’.

  St. 16. ‘Bear of the Stone’ (Grjótbjǫrn); the same joke.

  St. 17. The first two couplets are corrupt. The text I have taken reads as follows:

  En Hróalds

  at hǫfoþbaþme

  auþs iþgnótt

  at alnom sifjar.

  ‘Hroald’s head-stem’ (cf. ‘Kings’ head-stem’ in the drapa on Athelstane, see note, p. 283), the head of the family sprung from Earl Hroald, Arinbiorn’s grandfather. ‘The wind-bowl’s wide bottom’, that bowl whose brim is the horizon, and its contents the land we dwell in.

  St. 18. The text is again obscure. The authority I have followed reads the first couplet:

  Hann drógseil of

  eiga gat,

  filling up with the word ‘eiga’ the lacuna in F.J.’s text. ‘Draw-rope unto hearing-baskets’, a cord to draw men’s ears to hearken to him. ‘Vethorm’ F.J. thinks may be an unknown friend of Arinbiorn’s; others say it means ‘one who spares the temples’, i.e. a god-fearing man. In my translation I have not ventured to judge between these interpretations. ‘Weaklings’ defender’ (veklinga tøs). Tøs is a kind of axe or hatchet always kept at hand and used daily.

  St. 19. The idea in the last two couplets seems to be: Bountiful men are far to seek, and it is a weary way from one such house till you find another such; and it is not every bountiful man who can be all things to all men and be loved of all sorts and conditions of men, as Arinbiorn is.

  St. 20. ‘Long-built bedstead-ship’ (legvers lǫngom knerre)—a curious kenning for a house. ‘Dwelling-stead of spear’—hand.

  St. 21. ‘He who dwells in the Firths’, Arinbiorn, who was lord of the Firthfolk. ‘Draupnir’s scions’ (Draupnes niþja); Odin’s ring, named Draupnir, gave birth in one night to eight others each as heavy as itself (F.J., quoting Ed.). This stave is simply a set of variations on the thought of the bountiful man smashing up his bits of gold and flinging them as largesse among his friends and followers.

  St. 22. Something is lost here.

  St. 23. ‘The mews’-path, much beridden of Rokkvi’s steed’ (máskeiþ ramriþen Rǫkkva stóþe)—the sea. (Rokkvi is a sea-king.)

  St. 24. This is the original:

  Vask árvakr,

  bark orþ saman

  meþ málþjóns

  morgenverkom,

  hlóþk lofkǫst

  þanns lenge stendr

  óbrotgjarn

  í bragar túne.

  The ‘servant of speech’ is the tongue. ‘Bragi’s mead’, the tún, or home-mead, of ‘Bragr’, which doubtless here means of ‘poetry’ (cf. D. s.v. bragr).

  13EINAR JINGLE-SCALE (Einarr Skálaglamm). Our saga is the chief authority for the life of this famous skald of Earl Hakon’s. His brother Osvif’s daughter was Gudrun of Laxriverdale, the heroine of Laxdcela. His most famous poem was ‘Gold-lack’ (Vellekla), mentioned on p. 201, a drapa on Earl Hakon quoted in Ed. and also in Hkr. (H. Gr. 6, 15; O.T. 16, 18, 26, 28, 50). He was drowned on Einar’s-skerry in Broadfirth (Landn.). See the note on him and his work, C.P.B. vol. 11, pp. 41–3.

  14OSVIF THE WISE. See note 13 above, on Einar Jingle-scale.

  15STAVE. The last couplet has been variously interpreted. I read ‘of’ instead of ‘af’, following Ernst A. Kock (“Notationes Norrænæ”, Lunds Universitets Årsskrift)—

  létk of emblo aske

  elde valbasta kastat.

  Kock says (loc. cit.) that ‘to let cast the fire of [valbasta] over Embla’s ash’ = ‘to let the glittering of a sword stand over a man’. Embla is the first woman, according to Eddie mythology: her ‘Ash-tree’ is a man. See also the stave on p. 175 and note thereon, p. 297.

  16EARL HAKON SIGURDSON. See special note, p. 250.

  17KING HARALD ERICSON. AS to these events, see note on Earl Hakon, p. 251.

  18 STAVE. One of the finest of Egil’s staves.

  Þverra nú þeirs þverþo

  þingbirtingar Ingva

  (hvar skalk manna mildra)

  máreitar dag (leita?)

  þeir es hauks fyr handan

  háfjǫll digolsnjáve

  jarþar gjǫrþ viþ orþom

  eyneglþa mér heglþo.

  ‘Mew-field’—the sea. The ‘day’, or glitter, of that—silver. Minishers of silver: people who (like Arinbiorn) are always giving it away. ‘Brighteners of Ingvi’s [a sea-king] thing’, ornaments of battle—warriors. ‘Hawk’s high-fell’—the hand (that the hawk sits on)’. ‘Limbeck’s snow’, snow of the crucible, i.e. silver. ‘Earth’s girdle,’ the sea: that ‘island-nailed with words’—poetry. This seems to be the meaning: that his sea of song which, like a jewelled girdle with gemlike words for islands, encompassed the earth, brought from these bounteous patrons a snow-storm of refined silver, falling in showers on his hand, that lofty seat of falcons. There are few verses where the magnificence of poetic imagery which inspires what may at first appear the cold conceits of skaldic verse, can better be studied. The piling up, in this particular stave, of sublime and gorgeous metaphors, combined with the severity and concentration of the verse-form, has an effect comparable to great chords of music, e.g. those which usher in the tremendous Maestoso of Beethoven’s Op. III.

  19GOLD-LACK. See note on Einar Jingle-scale, p. 304.

  20STAVE. ‘Ale of Odin’ (veig Váfaþar), lit. ‘drink of Váfuðr’, (a by-name of Odin)—poesy. ‘Captain’ (virþa vǫrþr), lit. ‘Warden of the virðar or king’s men’, i.e. Earl Hakon. ‘That sits o’er earth’, i.e. rules the land; cf. the similar phrase in Egil’s stave recited before King Eric in York, p. 137, and in Arinbjarnarkviða, p. 195.

  21STAVE. ‘That earl’, i.e. Sigvaldi. ‘Twi-row’d’ (borþróenn), with oars on both sides. ‘Ring-shielded’ (baugskjǫldr), i.e. with a ring painted on his shield. ‘Drop hand with me’ (drepr viþ mér hende), i.e. drive me away, cast me off. ‘Wound-serpent’ (sárlinnr)—sword; the ‘swayer’ (sveiger) of that—a warrior; here, Sigvaldi. ‘Endil’s snow-shoe’ (Endels Qndorr)—a ship (Endil, a sea-king).

  Internal evidence dates this stave shortly before the
great sea-fight of Hiorungwick, circ. 986, when the Jomsburg vikings came north with a great fleet to wrest Norway from Earl Hakon, but were defeated by him and his sons. Earl Sigvaldi, who was then captain of the Jomsburgers, fled with all his own ships when the day was in the balance; other lords of Jomsburg, e.g. Bui the Thick, fell in the battle, and others were laid hand on and hewn down in cold blood: see the whole story in Hkr. (O.T. 38–47), and in more detail in the Fómsvíkinga Saga, which however is not available in English.

  22DRAWN UPON WITH TALES OF OLD. Cf. Achilles’s shield.

  23AND SLAY HIM. Said, of course, not ‘with a sad brow’, but in jest.

  24STAVE. ‘Glittering fence of ships’ (ljósgarþ barþa)—shields were hung on the gunwale side by side; cf. the Bayeux tapestry. The ‘treasure-sender’ (hoddsender) is Einar Jingle-scale. ‘Gylfi’s land’—the sea (G. a sea-king); the ‘stallion’ (glaumr) of that—a ship; the ship of the ‘Earth-born’ (i.e. of the dwarf) is poesy.

  25WHEY-VAT (sýruker). Such as can be seen at any farmhouse in Iceland to-day. At the burning of Flugumyri nearly 300 years later, Gizur saved his life by hiding in the whey-vat and actually had to put aside gently with his hands, to prevent their piercing his belly, the spears of his enemies who were prodding in the dark to find if anyone was lurking there (Sturlunga Saga: this scene is translated by W. P. Ker, Epic and Romance, p. 259 ff.).

  CHAPTER LXXIX

  1 EGIL LOVED HIM LITTLE. Presumably because he thought him a milksop. He seems to have thought better of him after the affair with Steinar (ch. LXXX ff.).

  2 HILL OF LAWS (lögberg). “Here, on the highest peak of the rock, on the Lögberg properly so called, formal notices of trials, and proclamations on matters of public interest, were uttered by word of mouth” (Dasent, Nj. vol. 1, p. cxxviii). The exact site of the Lögberg is in dispute.

  3 STAVE. First couplet seems to mean, ‘I had no heir that was any great use to me’. ‘Water-horse’s bestrider’ (vatna viggríþande), seaman, man—Thorstein. ‘They that own the sea-sleighs’ (hafskíþa hljótendr’), lit. ‘the allottees or conquerors of the sea-skis’; i.e. vikings, and so simply—men. The piling of stones is, of course, laying in howe.