A NEW INTRODUCTION TO OLD NORSE PART II: READER A NEW INTRODUCTION TO OLD NORSE PART II READER FOURTH EDITION EDITED BY ANTHONY FAULKES VIKING SOCIETY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON 2007 © VIKING SOCIETY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCH ISBN: 978-0-903521-69-7 First published 2001 Second edition with corrections and additions 2002 Third edition with corrections and additions 2005 Fourth edition with corrections and additions 2007 Reprinted with minor corrections 2008 Printed by Short Run Press Limited, Exeter PREFACE This fourth edition of A New Introduction to Old Norse, Part II: Reader contains, in addition to all those in previous editions, nine new texts: extracts from The Book of Settlements, the Saga of Eiríkr the Red (about an expedition to Vínland), Njáls saga, a law-book (Grágás), a learned text (treatise on physiognomy), examples of Old Danish and Old Swedish writings and the Norwegian King’s Mirror; and two complete poems, another eddic (heroic) poem (Ham›ismál) and the ríma about St Óláfr. The vocabulary of these texts is included in the fourth edition of Part III: Glossary and Index of Names. The texts have been prepared and annotated by the following: I , XVII and XX: Michael Barnes. II, XVI and XIX: Anthony Faulkes. III, VIII, XXI and XXVII: Richard Perkins. IV, IX, X, XI and XXIV: Rory McTurk. V, VI, XV and XXVI: Alison Finlay. VII: Diana Whaley. XII and XXIII: David Ashurst. XIII and XXII: Carl Phelpstead. XIV: Peter Foote. XVIII: Elizabeth Ashman Rowe. XXV: John McKinnell. The introductions are by the same writers, except in the case of Text I. This is by Anthony Faulkes, who has also been general editor of the whole volume, and compiled the main Glossary and Index in Part III, the fourth edition of which includes supplementary Glossaries and Indexes to the East Norse texts and the runic inscriptions by Michael Barnes. The general ‘Introduction to the Study of Old Norse’ is by Alison Finlay. The plan of this volume was that it should include at least one extract from works in each of the main genres of Old Norse literature. This plan has now been fulfilled, and NION now offers an introduction to the whole range of early Scandinavian writings. Users of this book are reminded that several further complete Old Icelandic texts with glossaries are available in other Viking Society publications (see p. xxxiv below). The first part of Text I, the extract from Hrólfs saga, has a compre- hensive grammatical commentary. The remainder of the extract is fully glossed with virtually complete references. It is recommended that vi A New Introduction to Old Norse students begin with this text to ensure that they understand the grammatical structure of Old Icelandic before proceeding to others where the grammatical information in the glossary and notes is much sparser. The succeeding texts are glossed with progressively fewer references, though it is hoped that all words have been explained on their first occurrence in each extract, so that it will not be necessary for them to be read in the order in which they are printed. Idioms and constructions are explained much more fully in the Glossary than is usual in teaching books because experience has shown that it is these that cause the greatest difficulty in understanding Old Icelandic texts; and numerous cross-references are included to help elementary students identify the entry forms of words that appear in the texts in guises that are difficult to recognise—another of the persistent problems of learn- ing this language. Spelling, of both texts and textual notes, has been normalised, using the symbols listed in NION I, §§ 2.1.1–2.1.3 (with the addition of ‘∂’ for the short open e in Old Norwegian). This also applies to the verses, and the language of these has not been archaised as has been the custom in most previous editions. Word forms have on the whole not been changed from what appears in the manuscripts, either to conform to what is believed to have been normal in the early thirteenth century for early sagas or to replace the modern forms that appear in late manuscripts (e.g. in those of Hrólfs saga); or to replace the Norwegian forms that appear in Fagrskinna and Konungs skuggsjá. This is in- tended to help students to become accustomed to the wide variety of forms (archaic, dialectal, post-classical or analogical) that appear commonly in editions (and dictionaries and grammars), and also to ensure that they are aware of the different forms that underlie the normalised texts that have traditionally been used in teaching, and of the variations in the language between AD 900 and 1400 over the wide cultural area inhabited by Vikings in the Middle Ages. It should also make it easier for them to progress to independent reading of texts where the language is not fully normalised. All such variant forms are included in the Glossary in NION III, with cross-references as necessary. Emendations to the base texts have been marked by pointed brackets ‹ › around letters added to the manuscript readings, square brackets [ ] around letters supplied that are illegible and italics for letters changed (the manuscript readings in the last case are given in footnotes). Introduction to the study of Old Norse vii CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................... viii INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF OLD NORSE ............................ ix CHRONOLOGY .................................................................................. xxxvii MAP OF ICELAND .................................................................................... xl LIST OF LAWSPEAKERS ....................................................................... xlii I: HRÓLFS SAGA KRAKA ............................................................... 1 II: Snorri Sturluson: EDDA ............................................................... 15 III: Sturla fiór›arson: ÍSLENDINGA SAGA ...................................... 23 IV: KORMAKS SAGA ....................................................................... 35 V: BJARNAR SAGA HÍTDŒLAKAPPA ......................................... 43 VI: FAGRSKINNA ............................................................................. 55 VII: Snorri Sturluson: HEIMSKRINGLA ............................................ 79 A: ÓLÁFS SAGA TRYGGVASONAR ............................................... 82 B: HARALDS SAGA SIGUR‹ARSONAR ....................................... 89 C: THE ART AND CRAFT OF THE SKALDIC STANZA ................ 94 VIII: Ari fiorgilsson: ÍSLENDINGABÓK ............................................. 99 IX: fiRYMSKVI‹A ........................................................................... 127 X: V¯LUNDARKVI‹A ................................................................. 141 XI: fiI‹REKS SAGA ........................................................................ 155 XII: SAGA AF TRISTRAM OK ÍS¯ND ........................................... 163 XIII: MARÍU SAGA ............................................................................ 173 XIV: JÓNS SAGA HELGA ................................................................. 179 XV: LAXDŒLA SAGA ..................................................................... 191 XVI: AU‹UNAR fiÁTTR.................................................................... 201 XVII: RUNIC INSCRIPTIONS ............................................................ 211 XVIII: MÖ‹RUVALLABÓK ................................................................ 239 XIX: LANDNÁMABÓK ..................................................................... 255 XX: EAST NORSE ............................................................................. 261 XXI: EIRÍKS SAGA RAU‹A ............................................................. 281 XXII: ÓLÁFS RÍMA HARALDSSONAR ........................................... 307 XXIII: PHYSIOGNOMY ....................................................................... 323 XXIV: KONUNGS SKUGGSJÁ ............................................................ 333 XXV: HAM‹ISMÁL ............................................................................ 343 XXVI: NJÁLS SAGA ............................................................................. 363 XXVII: GRÁGÁS .................................................................................... 381 ABBREVIATIONS BS = The Book of the Settlements. Landnámabók, tr. Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards (1972). CCIMA = Corpus Codicum Islandicorum Medii Aevi I–XX (1930–56). CSI = The Complete Sagas of Icelanders I–V, ed. Vi›ar Hreinsson et al. (1997). C–V = Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson, An Icelandic–English Dictionary. 2nd ed. by William A. Craigie (1957). DMA = Dictionary of the Middle Ages, ed. Joseph R. Strayer, 13 vols (1982–89). EÓS = Einar Ól. Sveinsson, The Age of the Sturlungs: Icelandic Civilization in the Thirteenth Century, tr. Jóhann S. Hannesson (1953). Gr = Michael Barnes, A New Introduction to Old Norse. Part I. Grammar (2004). Hkr = Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla. History of the Kings of Norway, tr. Lee M. Hollander (1964 and reprints). HOIC = Jón Jóhannesson, A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth, tr. Haraldur Bessason (1974). ÍF = Íslenzk fornrit I– , 1933– . ION = E. V. Gordon, An Introduction to Old Norse. 2nd ed. by A. R. Taylor (1957). Laws = Laws of Early Iceland. Grágás I–II, tr. Andrew Dennis, Peter Foote, Richard Perkins (1980–2000). LP = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, Lexicon Poeticum, rev. Finnur Jónsson (1931). MRN = E. O. G. Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of