Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 2020, Blaðsíða 331

Ok [......] ‘And ...
st[......]lét[...] ‘st[......]lét[...]’
margfrǫmuðr multiple promoter
minna dáða, of my deeds,
syni [...]gð son.DAT ‘[...]gð’
sonar Hálfdanar of Hálfdan’s son,
á Játvarðs on Edward’s
áttar *skeiði. family’s riding path (land).’
The crucial part here is the paraphrase for Eiríkr, ‘son of Halfdan’s son’, which
confirms the story in Egils saga that Eiríkr in York is the son of Haraldr Half -
danarson in Norway. (That Haraldr’s father’s name was Halfdan is attested in
Þorbjǫrn Hornklofi’s Haraldskvæði as well, about the battle of Hafrsfjord, c. 900.)
There are some obvious problems with the reconstruction of the stanza as a
whole, but the words forming the phrase ‘son of Halfdan’s son’ seem reasonably
certain and are found also in the earliest transcript of M (ÍB 169 4to). In sum,
Arinbjarnarkviða bears witness to the identification of king Eric of North umbria
with king Eiríkr Haraldsson of Norway, and the story of Egill’s head-ransom in
Egils saga, one of the central themes of Arbj, must have some historical kernel
too.4
Conclusions
As stated at the outset, Þorgeir Sigurðsson has written a good thesis, which con-
tributes to Old Norse studies in various ways. It is a fine piece of scholarship,
with original and important observations that increase our understanding of Old
Norse metrics and improve the reconstruction and interpretation of Arinbjarnar -
kviða. I have, however, criticised Þorgeir for having abandoned Sievers’ well-
established metrical system. By doing this, he has created a lot of problems for
himself that could have been avoided. At the same time, this “rebellious” nature
of his has made it possible for Þorgeir to see some things more clearly than oth-
ers, and probably more so than if he had worked within an already established
Comments from the second opponent 331
4 Þorgeir Sigurðsson claims to have found both the son of Eiríkr, king Haraldr grá -
feldr (r. c. 961–70), in Arbj 27.4 (“Eiríks syni”, p. 203), and his brother, king Hákon góði
(r. c. 935–61), in Arbj 29.7–8 in a battle-context (“*Hákon / í Háars veðri” ‘Hákon, in Óðinn’s
storm (= battle), p. 205), but these readings are more uncertain, and given the highly frag-
mentary status of these stanzas, they give little or no historical information. It should be
mentioned, though, that Haraldr Eiríksson was the foster-son of Arinbjǫrn according to
Egils saga, and as Þorgeir points out (pp. 70f.), it would seem reasonable if Arbj included
some mention of Haraldr and his victory over Hákon in the battle of Fitjar (c. 961).