The Lay Of H'akon
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p. 66
The Lay Of Hkon
[hkonarml]
By Eyvind Finnsson Skldaspillir
If The \"Lay of Eric" was "made to order" by an unknown poet, as the eulogium of an unpopular, though brave, king, the "Lay of Hkon" is composed by the best-known of Norwegian skalds, unquestionably of his own accord, to commemorate his generally beloved leader. Hence the warmth of feeling, the note of personal loss, which pervades this splendid poem.
Hkon, surnamed the Good, a child of Harold Hairfair's old age, had been fostered by King thelstan of England, and thus brought up a Christian. After overthrowing his half brother Eric he tried to introduce the new faith, but met with stubborn opposition and had to desist in order to keep his throne. He is described as an ideal ruler for the times, handsome, generous, warlike though not aggressive, during whose reign of twenty-six years Norway enjoyed comparative peace and good harvests. He repelled several attempts of the sons of Eric to repossess themselves of the kingdom with the help of the Danes, but was wounded in a (victorious) battle against them on the island of Storth in southwest Norway (961) and died soon thereafter.
The poet Eyvind Finnsson was himself a distant relative of the king. We know that he lived in moderate circumstances and was a man of character. His (much-debated) epithet of "skldaspillir" seems to mean "despoiler of skalds"; and if so, must have been given him by his enemies who readily fastened on the fact that his best works, "Hkonarml" and "Hleygiatal"--the latter a long genealogical poem--are quite evidently patterned, the one after "Eiriksml," the other, after "Ynglingatal," by the earlier poet, Thithlf of Hvin.
If, notwithstanding this lack of original inspiration, the "Lay of Hkon" has been generally admired, then as well as now, this is due, not only to the genuine warmth and sincerity, but also
p. 67
to the superior artistry which makes it, all in all, perhaps the finest monument of its kind erected by Northern antiquity.
Central, and similar down to details, in both "Eiriksml" and "Hkonarml," is the hero-king's advent in Valholl; but whereas the former does not change scene (and thus achieves greater unity) the latter, with richer content, shifts from earth to heaven and back again to earth as it ebbs in the poet's plaint over the loss of the peerless king. Also in style "Hkonarml" shows more variety--consciously striven for. Thus, the straightforward and sober style of the narrative stanzas contrasts with the typically skaldic, baroque overloading of the battle-scene, clamorous with gorgeous and bizarre kennings, and that again with the highly charged dramatic force of the dialogues and the elegiac sorrow of the final dirge. The meter likewise shows a carefully considered correspondence to the style and theme--simple, impressive "lithahttr" for the epic-dramatic and lyric portions, against the martial tramp and blare of "mlahttr" descriptive of the carnage.
Eyvind had no doubt both a political and an apologetic aim with his poem: it was to be a counterblast to "Eiriksml" and outdo it in splendor, but also to save the king's good heathen reputation. If Hkon at his entrance in Valholl is suspicious of thin's attitude and refuses to abandon his arms, he has abundant cause to fear the god's wrath--his abortive defection from the heathen cause. And the good reception accorded him because he had "protected" the heathen fanes which, in fact, he had been powerless to destroy, may not have been altogether convincing to his contemporaries.1 Also the heathen trappings, the copious reminiscences from such arch heathen poems as "Volusp" and "Hvaml," the interest in the king shown by the valkyries, the delegation to receive him composed of the gods Bragi and Hermth--the same who was to fetch Baldr back from Hel2--all seem deliberately chosen to link the king with the old religion and to rehabilitate him in the eyes of his people.
p. 68
The complete poem is found in Snorri Sturlason's History of the Norwegian Kings ("Heimskringla"), at the end of "Hkonarsaga gtha". Portions of it are transmitted also in "Fagrskinna".
1 Gautatr3 sent forthGondul and Skogul4
to choose among kings' kinsmen:
who of Yngvi's offspring5should with thin dwell,
and wend with him to Valholl.
2 They found Biorn's brother6his byrnie donning,
under standard standingthe stalwart leader--
were darts upliftedand spearshafts lowered;
up the strife then started.
3 Called on Hlogaland's7heroes and Horthaland's swordsmen
the Northmen's folkwarder,ere he fared to battle:
a good host had h henchmen from Norway--
the Danes'-terrordonned his bronze-helm.8
4 Threw down his war-weeds,thrust off his byrnie9
the great-hearted lord,ere began the battle--
laughed with his liege-men;his land would he shield now,10
the gladsome hero'neath gold-helm standing.
p. 69
5 Cut then keenlythe king's broadsword
through foemen's war-weeds,as though water it sundered.11
Clashed then spear-blades,cleft were war-shields;
did ring-decked12 war-swordsrattle on helmets.
6 Were targes troddenby the Tr-of-shields,13
by the hard-footed hilt-blade,and heads eke of Northmen;
battle raged on the island,14athelings reddened
the shining shield-castles15with shedded life-blood,
7 Burned the wound-fires16in bloody gashes,
were the long-beards17 liftedagainst the life of warriors--
the sea-of-wounds18 surged higharound the swords' edges,
ran the stream-of-arrows18on the strand of Storth-isle.
8 Reddened war-shieldsrang 'gainst each other,
did Skogul's-stormblasts19scar red targes;
billowed blood-wavesin the blast-of-thin20--
was many a man's sonmowed down in battle.
9 Sate21 then the liege-lordswith swords brandished,
with shields shatteredand shredded byrnies:
not happy in their heartswas that host of men,
and to Valholl wended their way.
p. 70
10 Spoke then Gondul,on spearshaft leaning:
"groweth now the gods' following,22
since Hkon hath beenwith host so goodly
hidden home by holy gods."
11 Heard the war-lordwhat the valkyries spoke of,
high-hearted, on horsehack--
wisely they bore them,sitting war-helmeted,
and with shields them sheltering.
HKON said:
12
\"Why didst Geirskogul,23grudge us victory?
Yet worthy were wethat the gods granted it."
Skogul said:
13
\"'Tis owing to usthat the issue was won
and your foemen did flee.
14 Ride forth now shall we,"said fierce Skogul,
"to the green homes of the godheads,--
there to tell thinthat the atheling will now
come to see him himself."
15
\"Hermth and Bragi!"called out Hrptatr:24
"Go ye to greet the hero;
for a king comethwho hath keenly foughten,
to our halls hither."
16 Said the war-worker,wending from battle--
was his byrnie all bloody:
"Angry-mindedthin meseemeth.
Be we heedful of his hate!"
17
\"All einheriarshall swear oaths to thee:
share thou the sir's ale,
p. 71
thou enemy-of-earls!25Here within hast thou
brethren eight," said Bragi.
18
\"Our gear of war,"said the goodly king,
"we mean to keep in our might.
helmet and hauberkone should heed right well:
'tis good to guard one's spear."26
19 Then was it seenhow that sea-king had
upheld the holy altars,
since Hkon alldid hail with welcome,
both gods and heavenly hosts.
20 On a good day is bornthat great-souled lord
who hath a heart like his;
aye will his timesbe told of on earth,
and men will speak of his might.27
21 Unfettered will farethe Fenriswolf,
and fall on the fields of men,
ere that there cometha kingly lord
as good, to stand in his stead.28
22 Cattle dieand kinsmen die,29
land and lieges are whelmed;
since Hkonto the heathen gods fared
many a host is harried.30
Next
Footnotes
p. 67
1 Though we may in this stanza also see a reflection on his successors who ravaged the sanctuaries and hid the gold.
2 Cf. "Baldr's Dreams".
p. 68
3 \"The God of the Gauts. i.e.," thin.
4 Valkyries.
5 Yngvi generally stands for Freyr in his capacity of progenitor of the Swedish kings. Here, however, he stands for thin, the progenitor of the royal race of Norway.
6 Hkon. Biorn was one of the many sons of Harold Fairhair.
7 Cf. "Haraldskvthi", note 37. Horthaland is here substituted for the Rogaland of the text. It is directly south of the latter.
8 The change to the golden helmet (in the next stanza) has been referred to an episode of the battle as told by Snorri: "Hkon was more easily recognized than other men, and his helmet glittered when the sun shone on it. He always was in the thick of the fray. Then Eyvind Finnsson (our poet) drew a hood over it. Whereupon Eyvind skreya (one of the enemy) cried out: 'Is the king of Norway hiding now, or has he fled--else where is his golden helmet?' The king shouted: 'Come forward hither if you would find the King of Norway,' and in the ensuing hand-to-hand fight cleft his skull with his sword."
9 This was not uncommon with fierce warriors, in the heat of battle.
10 Viz., against the sons of Eric.
p. 69
11 At his departure from England, his foster father, King thelstan, gave him the sword Quernbiter with which Hkon is said to have cut a millstone in two.
12 Swords frequently had rings on the hilt, for carrying.
13 The following stanzas are examples of Skaldic style overloaded with kennings; though not as complicated and disjointed as was believed until recently. The Tr (god)-of-shields (or rings) is a kenning for "warrior." In ordinary language the first part of the stanza says that the shields and the heads of Northmen were trodden (hewed) by the hardened steel of the king (Kock).
14 Viz., of Storth.
15 The serried shields thrown about the king.
16 Kenning for "sword."
17 Kenning for "battle-axe."
18 Kenning for "blood."
19 "I.e.," the mutual attacks. The difficulties, both of interpretation and translation, are considerable.
20 Kenning for "battle."
21 Viz., dying.
p. 70
22 Cf. "Eiriksml", 7, note, for the conception implied.
23 "I.e.," Spear-Skogul.
24 "God of gods, i.e.," thin.
p. 71
25 \"Hero."
26 Cf. "Hovaml," 1. I follow Kock's suggestion.
27 There is reference here, probably, to his favor with the gods, manifest in good harvests and general prosperity.
28 Cf. "Volusp" 36, 54: not till the end of the world will a better ruler come.
29 Patently, a reminiscence of the famous stanzas 77, 78 of "Hvaml".
30 This is, very likely, an allusion to the lawless times that followed the reign of Hkon.
p. 66
The Lay Of Hkon
[hkonarml]
By Eyvind Finnsson Skldaspillir
If The \"Lay of Eric" was "made to order" by an unknown poet, as the eulogium of an unpopular, though brave, king, the "Lay of Hkon" is composed by the best-known of Norwegian skalds, unquestionably of his own accord, to commemorate his generally beloved leader. Hence the warmth of feeling, the note of personal loss, which pervades this splendid poem.
Hkon, surnamed the Good, a child of Harold Hairfair's old age, had been fostered by King thelstan of England, and thus brought up a Christian. After overthrowing his half brother Eric he tried to introduce the new faith, but met with stubborn opposition and had to desist in order to keep his throne. He is described as an ideal ruler for the times, handsome, generous, warlike though not aggressive, during whose reign of twenty-six years Norway enjoyed comparative peace and good harvests. He repelled several attempts of the sons of Eric to repossess themselves of the kingdom with the help of the Danes, but was wounded in a (victorious) battle against them on the island of Storth in southwest Norway (961) and died soon thereafter.
The poet Eyvind Finnsson was himself a distant relative of the king. We know that he lived in moderate circumstances and was a man of character. His (much-debated) epithet of "skldaspillir" seems to mean "despoiler of skalds"; and if so, must have been given him by his enemies who readily fastened on the fact that his best works, "Hkonarml" and "Hleygiatal"--the latter a long genealogical poem--are quite evidently patterned, the one after "Eiriksml," the other, after "Ynglingatal," by the earlier poet, Thithlf of Hvin.
If, notwithstanding this lack of original inspiration, the "Lay of Hkon" has been generally admired, then as well as now, this is due, not only to the genuine warmth and sincerity, but also
p. 67
to the superior artistry which makes it, all in all, perhaps the finest monument of its kind erected by Northern antiquity.
Central, and similar down to details, in both "Eiriksml" and "Hkonarml," is the hero-king's advent in Valholl; but whereas the former does not change scene (and thus achieves greater unity) the latter, with richer content, shifts from earth to heaven and back again to earth as it ebbs in the poet's plaint over the loss of the peerless king. Also in style "Hkonarml" shows more variety--consciously striven for. Thus, the straightforward and sober style of the narrative stanzas contrasts with the typically skaldic, baroque overloading of the battle-scene, clamorous with gorgeous and bizarre kennings, and that again with the highly charged dramatic force of the dialogues and the elegiac sorrow of the final dirge. The meter likewise shows a carefully considered correspondence to the style and theme--simple, impressive "lithahttr" for the epic-dramatic and lyric portions, against the martial tramp and blare of "mlahttr" descriptive of the carnage.
Eyvind had no doubt both a political and an apologetic aim with his poem: it was to be a counterblast to "Eiriksml" and outdo it in splendor, but also to save the king's good heathen reputation. If Hkon at his entrance in Valholl is suspicious of thin's attitude and refuses to abandon his arms, he has abundant cause to fear the god's wrath--his abortive defection from the heathen cause. And the good reception accorded him because he had "protected" the heathen fanes which, in fact, he had been powerless to destroy, may not have been altogether convincing to his contemporaries.1 Also the heathen trappings, the copious reminiscences from such arch heathen poems as "Volusp" and "Hvaml," the interest in the king shown by the valkyries, the delegation to receive him composed of the gods Bragi and Hermth--the same who was to fetch Baldr back from Hel2--all seem deliberately chosen to link the king with the old religion and to rehabilitate him in the eyes of his people.
p. 68
The complete poem is found in Snorri Sturlason's History of the Norwegian Kings ("Heimskringla"), at the end of "Hkonarsaga gtha". Portions of it are transmitted also in "Fagrskinna".
1 Gautatr3 sent forthGondul and Skogul4
to choose among kings' kinsmen:
who of Yngvi's offspring5should with thin dwell,
and wend with him to Valholl.
2 They found Biorn's brother6his byrnie donning,
under standard standingthe stalwart leader--
were darts upliftedand spearshafts lowered;
up the strife then started.
3 Called on Hlogaland's7heroes and Horthaland's swordsmen
the Northmen's folkwarder,ere he fared to battle:
a good host had h henchmen from Norway--
the Danes'-terrordonned his bronze-helm.8
4 Threw down his war-weeds,thrust off his byrnie9
the great-hearted lord,ere began the battle--
laughed with his liege-men;his land would he shield now,10
the gladsome hero'neath gold-helm standing.
p. 69
5 Cut then keenlythe king's broadsword
through foemen's war-weeds,as though water it sundered.11
Clashed then spear-blades,cleft were war-shields;
did ring-decked12 war-swordsrattle on helmets.
6 Were targes troddenby the Tr-of-shields,13
by the hard-footed hilt-blade,and heads eke of Northmen;
battle raged on the island,14athelings reddened
the shining shield-castles15with shedded life-blood,
7 Burned the wound-fires16in bloody gashes,
were the long-beards17 liftedagainst the life of warriors--
the sea-of-wounds18 surged higharound the swords' edges,
ran the stream-of-arrows18on the strand of Storth-isle.
8 Reddened war-shieldsrang 'gainst each other,
did Skogul's-stormblasts19scar red targes;
billowed blood-wavesin the blast-of-thin20--
was many a man's sonmowed down in battle.
9 Sate21 then the liege-lordswith swords brandished,
with shields shatteredand shredded byrnies:
not happy in their heartswas that host of men,
and to Valholl wended their way.
p. 70
10 Spoke then Gondul,on spearshaft leaning:
"groweth now the gods' following,22
since Hkon hath beenwith host so goodly
hidden home by holy gods."
11 Heard the war-lordwhat the valkyries spoke of,
high-hearted, on horsehack--
wisely they bore them,sitting war-helmeted,
and with shields them sheltering.
HKON said:
12
\"Why didst Geirskogul,23grudge us victory?
Yet worthy were wethat the gods granted it."
Skogul said:
13
\"'Tis owing to usthat the issue was won
and your foemen did flee.
14 Ride forth now shall we,"said fierce Skogul,
"to the green homes of the godheads,--
there to tell thinthat the atheling will now
come to see him himself."
15
\"Hermth and Bragi!"called out Hrptatr:24
"Go ye to greet the hero;
for a king comethwho hath keenly foughten,
to our halls hither."
16 Said the war-worker,wending from battle--
was his byrnie all bloody:
"Angry-mindedthin meseemeth.
Be we heedful of his hate!"
17
\"All einheriarshall swear oaths to thee:
share thou the sir's ale,
p. 71
thou enemy-of-earls!25Here within hast thou
brethren eight," said Bragi.
18
\"Our gear of war,"said the goodly king,
"we mean to keep in our might.
helmet and hauberkone should heed right well:
'tis good to guard one's spear."26
19 Then was it seenhow that sea-king had
upheld the holy altars,
since Hkon alldid hail with welcome,
both gods and heavenly hosts.
20 On a good day is bornthat great-souled lord
who hath a heart like his;
aye will his timesbe told of on earth,
and men will speak of his might.27
21 Unfettered will farethe Fenriswolf,
and fall on the fields of men,
ere that there cometha kingly lord
as good, to stand in his stead.28
22 Cattle dieand kinsmen die,29
land and lieges are whelmed;
since Hkonto the heathen gods fared
many a host is harried.30
Next
Footnotes
p. 67
1 Though we may in this stanza also see a reflection on his successors who ravaged the sanctuaries and hid the gold.
2 Cf. "Baldr's Dreams".
p. 68
3 \"The God of the Gauts. i.e.," thin.
4 Valkyries.
5 Yngvi generally stands for Freyr in his capacity of progenitor of the Swedish kings. Here, however, he stands for thin, the progenitor of the royal race of Norway.
6 Hkon. Biorn was one of the many sons of Harold Fairhair.
7 Cf. "Haraldskvthi", note 37. Horthaland is here substituted for the Rogaland of the text. It is directly south of the latter.
8 The change to the golden helmet (in the next stanza) has been referred to an episode of the battle as told by Snorri: "Hkon was more easily recognized than other men, and his helmet glittered when the sun shone on it. He always was in the thick of the fray. Then Eyvind Finnsson (our poet) drew a hood over it. Whereupon Eyvind skreya (one of the enemy) cried out: 'Is the king of Norway hiding now, or has he fled--else where is his golden helmet?' The king shouted: 'Come forward hither if you would find the King of Norway,' and in the ensuing hand-to-hand fight cleft his skull with his sword."
9 This was not uncommon with fierce warriors, in the heat of battle.
10 Viz., against the sons of Eric.
p. 69
11 At his departure from England, his foster father, King thelstan, gave him the sword Quernbiter with which Hkon is said to have cut a millstone in two.
12 Swords frequently had rings on the hilt, for carrying.
13 The following stanzas are examples of Skaldic style overloaded with kennings; though not as complicated and disjointed as was believed until recently. The Tr (god)-of-shields (or rings) is a kenning for "warrior." In ordinary language the first part of the stanza says that the shields and the heads of Northmen were trodden (hewed) by the hardened steel of the king (Kock).
14 Viz., of Storth.
15 The serried shields thrown about the king.
16 Kenning for "sword."
17 Kenning for "battle-axe."
18 Kenning for "blood."
19 "I.e.," the mutual attacks. The difficulties, both of interpretation and translation, are considerable.
20 Kenning for "battle."
21 Viz., dying.
p. 70
22 Cf. "Eiriksml", 7, note, for the conception implied.
23 "I.e.," Spear-Skogul.
24 "God of gods, i.e.," thin.
p. 71
25 \"Hero."
26 Cf. "Hovaml," 1. I follow Kock's suggestion.
27 There is reference here, probably, to his favor with the gods, manifest in good harvests and general prosperity.
28 Cf. "Volusp" 36, 54: not till the end of the world will a better ruler come.
29 Patently, a reminiscence of the famous stanzas 77, 78 of "Hvaml".
30 This is, very likely, an allusion to the lawless times that followed the reign of Hkon.
