Egil’s Saga (50 page)

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
).

¹³
E
INAR
J
INGLE-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.

¹⁴
O
SVIF THE
W
ISE.
See note 13 above, on Einar Jingle-scale.

¹⁵
S
TAVE.
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.

¹⁶
E
ARL
H
AKON
S
IGURDSON.
See special note, p. 250.

¹⁷
K
ING
H
ARALD
E
RICSON.
A
S
to these events, see note on Earl Hakon, p. 251.

¹⁸
S
TAVE.
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
.

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

²⁰
S
TAVE.
‘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.

²¹
S
TAVE.
‘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.

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

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

²⁴
S
TAVE
. ‘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.

²⁵
W
HEY-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
E
GIL 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
H
ILL OF
L
AWS
(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
S
TAVE.
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.

⁴
G
UNNAR
H
LIFARSON.
For more of him, see Hen-Th.
passim.

⁵
O
LAF
F
EILAN.
Grandson of Queen Aud, with whom he came to Iceland about 892 and from whom he inherited the family seat of Hvamm. See note on Thord the Yeller, p. 269.

⁶
T
HORD THE
Y
ELLER.
See note, p. 269.

⁷
O
DD-A-
T
ONGUE.
A famous lord in the west country, dwelt at Broadlairstead in Reekdale of Burgfirth. He plays a large part in Hen-Th., which says (ch. 1) that “he was not held for a man of fair dealings”. For more of him, see
ch.
LXXXI
ff.

⁸
D
IED
A
SGERD.
The power of the saga style is nowhere more surprisingly shown than in the little passages like this. The pathos and beauty of the plain, measured statement (‘A little after… that were then alive’) touch one as gentians do, seen suddenly on the naked mountain-side; yet there is no rhetoric or appeal to sentiment, simply the succession of relevant facts.

⁹
T
ARGE-
D
RAPA
(Berudrápa). The rest of the poem is lost.

¹⁰
S
TAVE.
‘King’s thane’ (þegn konungs), Thorstein Thorason. ‘The altar’s falling-tresséd Friend’ (fallhadds vinr stalla)—
Odin
; His ‘force
or
waterfall’
—poesy
. ‘Hordland’ (
trǫþ
Hǫrþa), lit. ‘that which is trod by Hords’—
Hordaland.
‘Crop of eagle’s chaps
or
beak’ (arnar kjapta ǫrþ)—
poesy
: from the story (Ed. p. 117) of Odin’s stealing of Suttung’s mead and flying off with it to Asgard in eagle’s-shape, and “spitting it out” into the casks of the Gods, “but Suttung’s mead gave Odin to the Aesir and to those men who have wit to use it”. The last two lines are corrupt: the ‘Raven’ is no doubt a ship, and her ‘steerer’ Thorstein Thorason.

¹¹
H
ELGA THE
F
AIR.
The heroine of Gunnl.

CHAPTER LXXX

¹
S
NAEFELLSTRAND
. The south coast of the Snaefellsness peninsula. (Cf. the curious New Zealand place-name ‘Snufflenose’, which is obviously ‘Snæfellsnes’ corrupted by foreigners who did not understand its meaning.)

²
K
ORMAK.
See his Saga, one of the oldest; Collingwood’s translation (the only one in English) has very great merits: the more the pity that it should be unwarrantably free and padded out, so as to give a reader no inkling, with its mask of lady-like smoothness, of the rough old features of its original. Kormak probably had Irish blood in his veins; his life-story hangs mainly on his love for Steingerd and his holmgangs with her successive husbands; of his poems addressed to her
C.P.B.
says, “were they perfect, they would probably be the finest of all Northern classic love-poetry Steinar plays some part in Kormak’s saga.

³
T
HE CATTLE WOULD GO WHERE IT LIKED.
A pretty quarrel: “Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark”.

⁴
I
NGS
(engjar). The same word, commonly used of meadows to-day in the north country, e.g. in Yorkshire.

⁵
W
ALL OF THE HOME-MEAD
(túngarðr).
Tún
is used in Iceland to-day, as it was in the saga-time, of the green cultivated field surrounding the home buildings.

⁶
L
ITTLE AT STAKE WHERE I AM
(lítlu til verja, þar sem ek em). Meaning, it will not be any great loss to Steinar if Thrand should unluckily be slain.

CHAPTER LXXXI

¹
H
AVE NIGHT-QUARTERS UNDER MINE AXE
(eiga náttból undir öxi minni). Cf.
Reykdœla
12, where Vemund Kogur had set on a foolish fellow; on promise of free winter-quarters, to put a public shame upon Steingrim of Kropp by smiting him with a boiled sheep’s head, and Steingrim avenged it by slaying his assailant, ‘and gave him winterquarters there and then, and saved Vemund the trouble’.