Lodbrokar-Quida/Notes for the English Reader
NOTES FOR THE ENGLISH READER.
The foregoing ode hath been much admired by the lovers of northern literature. The historian esteems it for the light it throws upon several antient transactions, and the poet is entertain’d with the singularity of its composition. Even the Christian may learn a lesson from the arctic Tyrtæus. When he reflects on the natural ferocity of the human mind; its dark conceptions of Deity; and the gross notions which it forms of future happiness, he will be the more inclinable to set a just value on the discoveries of revelation.
Regner, king of Denmark, is generally believed to have flourished in the viii. tho’ the Ms. of Flatey places his birth in the beginning of the ix. century. After a variety of adventures he was at last made prisoner by Ella a Northumbrian prince. He was condemned to die by the bite of vipers, and, during the operation of their poison, is reported to have sung the Lodbrokar-quida.
To maintain that a poem, which, for centuries, must have floated on the breath of oral tradition, still retains, precisely, its original form would be a vain attempt. There is, however, no improbability that Regner shou’d finish his career with a recital of his actions. Many of the Scandinavian heroes were votaries of the muse; & one of them, we know, obtained a respite from death by the mere exertion of his poetical talents. Besides, during the rude periods of society, the safety, both of nations and of individuals, depends upon making themselves objects of terror. Hence, while the captive Indian mitigates his torments by the recollection of his exploits, he tramples, as it were, on the cruelty of his enemies, by recapitulating the multitude of their relations who have perished by his sword. The Lodbrokar-quida shews, that a similarity of manners prevailed in the north; and, indeed, men, in the same degree of civilization, will act, and think, nearly in the same way.
Having suggested to some learned natives of Iceland, that this poem seemed to be of that species called twi-saungr, they approved the remark. The line Hiuggom ver &c. is, therefore, printed separately as a chorus, and the rest as recitative. In the triple chorus of Tyrtæus, the infirmities of age were forgotten by the Spartan veterans while they sung to the youth, Αμμες ποκ΄ ημες αλκιμοι νεανιαι. The picture becomes more interesting, if we conceive Lodbroc to be surrounded by a groupe of faithful adherents, who console their dying Captain by leading him thro’ the scenes of his prosperity; and who, animated by an extatic remembrance of the share they had in his victories, strike up at intervals, Hiuggom ver med hiaurvi.
Stropha I. Regner begins with his expedition to Gothland. Herraud, a chieftain of that country, had a daughter Thora, who was detain’d in captivity by a serpent of an enormous size. Herraud declared the lady shou’d be the reward of any champion who effectuated her deliverance. Regner undertook the task; &, that he might not suffer from the serpent’s poison, wrapped himself in shaggy trowsers whence he was, afterwards, called Lodbroc. Thus prepared, he overcame the monster, & obtained the bride. Perhaps the allegory implies no more, than that Thora was confined within the walls of a fortress by Orme a petty tyrant in the neighbourhood; & to whose name the poet adapts his ideas. Orme i. e. the serpent, or sword, was an appellation common even in Britain. Orme de Abernethy, probably grandson of Gil-michael earl of Fife, lived in the xiii. century; and, if we suppose him predecessor to the Spences of Wormis-ton, it will enable us to account, why the Abernethies, & Spences, bore the arms of Macduff, & claim’d his privileges.
II. Describes an engagement in the Straits of Eyra, now the Sound, near Elsinore.
III. An expedition to the Duina a river in Livonia. There is a striking coincidence between some passages of this ode, and others in the Nordiska Kaempe-datter, as,
| Falla letom | We made to fall |
| Atta Iarla | Eight Earls |
| Fyrir Aundnese | At Aundness. |
IV. Helsinga was a district of Sweden — Heiden, a celebrated pirate, being on a visit to Haugna king of Halogaland, forcibly carried off his daughter Hilda, the Helen of the north. This occasioned long & bloody wars. The heroine was, at last, considered as a goddess presiding over every thing military. Hence battle is termed the joys of Hilda: armour her vesture; shields, and helmets her umbrellas &c. — Odin was the Mars of the Scandinavians. — The Ifu is supposed to be the Iba a river in Angermania.
V. Herraud, Regner’s father in law, dies on his winged steeds i. e. his galleys. The Skalds, frequently, compare ships to all beasts of burthen; So, in stanza 18, they are called aegis-asni or asses of the ocean.
VI. Scarpa-sceria i. e. the sharp rocks, probably Scarpey near Spangabeidi, in Norway, the scene of many of Regner’s adventures.
VII. Eystein was a Swedish prince; and Ullar-acre one of his provinces of which Upsal was the capital.
VIII. Indyris is thought to be the Inderö isles in the bay of Drontheim. Fala was a general name for certain furies who, mounted on wolves, were supposed to gallop. through the air. The Belgic colonies seem to have introduced the same superstitious notions into our island; for the Britons offered human victims to certain nurderous spirits, y Fal, that posted through the atmosphere on the march Falen or steeds of Fal. Hence the proverb, A gasgler ar farch Falen dan ei dorr ydd â.
IX. Borgundar-holm, now Bornholm, an island in the Baltic. The poet calls bows the elm, by which it would scem, that, in the north, they were made of that tree for want of yew.
X. Flamingia-veldi, included the antient Belgium, now the Low-countries. A cuirass, in the original, is termed the coat of Haugna. See the note on Stropha 4.
XI. All the rest of the poem relates to Regner's expeditions round the British isles, Engla-nes means the English cape, probably on the coast of Kent, which the Belgæ appear to have called Kant i. e. the angle, or corner. Ships are here denominated, steeds of the promontories of the isles, because it was a maxim among the Sea-kings ”at liggia iafnan firer annesiom i. e. to lye always before capes, that they might command the more extensive prospect, & the more readily intercept coasting vessels. Skip-nes or Skipnish in Argylesbire, received its name, perhaps, from having been a common station of pirates. Regner is said to have disliked the Christian religion, therefore, he tauntingly calls an engagement ”odda messo i. e. the mass or matins of weapons.
XII. Bartha-firthi, seems to have been the mouth of the Tay, near Perth or Der-tha, in the neighbourhood of which, was Rath-inver-Amond, of old, the residence of the M’ Alpin kings. It is not unlikely, however, that the true reading shou'd be Breida-firtbi, or the firth of Forth, the common resort of the northern adventurers. The whole of that peninsula Iying between the Tay & Forth was particularly infested by the Scandinavians, at a very early period. An engagement on its coasts between two chieftains, very near the age of Fingal, is said to have been represented in needle work by the daughter of Haco, a celebrated sea-king, who fled to Scotland after the Battle of Roskild; and it is thus described in the Edda.
Scip Sigmundar Scriþo fra landi. Gyltar grimor Grafnir stafnar Byrþo viþ a borþa þá er þeir börþuz Sigar oc Siggeir Suþr a Fivi.
The ships of Sigmund Slipped from land. Golden helms Carved prows And ship met ship Then when fought Sigar and Siggeir South at Fife.
Saxo says the Picts were reduced by Lodbroc, and, as Fife was the seat of the Pictish government, it is probable that the natives aided the sons of Lochlin against the tribes of Morven. Hence one of Kinneaich 11. allegations against the Picts was ”confoederatio eorum cum paganis Saxonibus contra Scotos. That the people here termed Saxons were Norwegians seems clear from a very antient chronicle, wherein it is said ”Normanni integrum annum degerunt in Pictavia. These Scandinavian auxiliaries incorporated with the natives, whose language, of course, became tinged with the Teutonic, as is evident from the names of many places in Fife. Thus Mucros (more antiently Kil-ri-mon) signifies the monk’s cross; Fossvege (Fossway) the place near the cataracts; Herad-Nachtan Nachtan's territor Cong-hiörnet (Kinghorn) the King's cape; Coupar the market town; and we find A. D. 1538 the district round Brunt - island was divided into Conungr -land King's land, and Gref-land Earl's land, which indicates that part was royal demesne, & part the property of the earls of Fife. It was, indeed, from the Norse, & not from the Saxon, that the broad Scottish dialect originated.
In the x. age the southern coast of Fife was called Fiord-riki, or the kingdom on the bay, & it seems the have been possessed by feudatory Princes. Two of them, probably the thanes of Fife and Strathern, dreading a visit from Olave king of Norway, put themselves under the protection of Canute the Great, as Snorro tells us. ”Til hans como tveir Kongar, nordan af Skotlandi, of Fifi; oc gaf hann þeim up reida sina, oc laund þau aull er þeir haufdo ádr, oc þar med storar vingiafir; Þa quaþ Sigvatr. Literally; To bim (Canute) came two Kings from Scotland in the north, from Fife; and he gave them up his wrath, and all that land which they had before, and therewith store of winning-gifts. This quoth Sigvat.
Hafa allframer Jofra Ut sín haufut Knute Færþ or Fifi nordan Fridkaup var þat midio.
Princes from the middle of Fife, with bowed beads, have purchased peace of Canute.
Towards the middle af the xi. age, M’ Duff, probably descended of Duff (or as the monkish writers call him Niger) king of Scotland, having killed the usurper M Beth thane of Angus at Dun-fin-oen (Fin - Evan-castle) got Fife erected into a county palatine. His posterity also ”Propter M’ Nigram” were entitled to certain privileges, contained in a Gothic inscription engraven on a stone pillar.
XIII. Hadninga bay is supposed to have been in the Orkneys; the two last lines are imitated in the Fridthiofsaga. Ei er sem biarta bruþi &c.
XIV. Northumberland was one of the oldest Saxon establishments, and it is remarkable, that the Danes, to this day, retain the guttural pronounciation or burr observable in the north of England. The two last lines of this stanza are also imitated in the Fridthiofsaga. Erat sem eckia &c.
To understand what the poet here means by his throne, it is necessary to observe, that, of old, the halls of northern chieftains were fitted up with two longitudinal rows of seats. Exactly in the middle, & fronting the southern door, was a bench more elevated than the rest. This was appropriated for the King, Queen, and nobility. It was reckoned so great an honour to be admitted to this place of dignity, that one of the ceremonies, at creating a Norwegian earl, was ”at settia han i haa-sete i. e. to set him on the high seat, & give him a sword, and banner.
XV. The Hebrides, by the Norwegians, were denominated Sudoreys or southern isles, to distinguish them from the Orkneys. It would seem, that the Comites littoris Saxonici, for some time, scared the freebooters who infested the Caledonian seas. Hence many people, to avoid the anarchy subsequent to the arrival of the Saxons, sought an asylum in the Hebrides, where they introduced the Roman literature, & the arts of life. A Skald, decribing, an elegant dress for a hero of the vii. century, says.
Enn Sudreyskar spunnu. Sudreyans spun the web.
About the beginning of the ix. age, the west was miserably harassed by pirates, a profession then as honourable as it was in Greece, when they hailed each other, ει ληςαι εισιν; Charlemagne, alarmed' at their progress, engaged Echach, king of Scotland, to assist in repressing their depredations; but their endeavours were to little purpose. All the islands round Britain were successively visited by Regner, and Harold Harfager. Harold, having reduced the Orkneys, formed them into a principality which became very troublesome to Scotland. Earl Torfin, marrying Grelog the daughter of Duncan earl of Cathness, added that county, together with the eastern coasts of Sutherland, Ross, and Murrayshire to his estate. He was father to Sculi and Liod, who, at the battle of Skida-myre, routed Finlaig, thane of Angus, and his son Magbiodr (Macbeth) afterwards the usurper. The power of Sigurd the corpulent became so suspicious, that Olave, king of Norway, demanded his son Hund as a hostage. Hund (perhaps the father of Kalfr who pretended to some part of Scotland) dying in Norway Sigurd disclaimed all further dependance upon that kingdom; & Malcolm ii. the more effectually to detach this great man from the Norwegian interest, gave him his daughter in marriage. It was, this connexion, which afforded Malcolm an opportunity, not only of repelling invaders, but of uniting all the fragments of the Pictish dominions into one solid monarchy.
XVI. Regner makes an expedition to Ireland, where, in the neighbourhood of Waterford, he killed Marstein, possibly the Melbric of Saxo. The fertile Erin was long the great resort of the Scandinavians, who, from the internal dissensions of the natives, gained considerable footing. They, however, met with a stubborn resistance. Hence the Islandic authors represent the Irish as most profuse of life; and the Ira fár was no less terrible to the sons of Lochlin, than the furor Normannorum to the rest of Europe. Some of the Norwegian kings were fond of imitating the Irish manners, and one of them cou’d speak no language perfectly but the Caelic. Several Runic pillars are inscribed to Swedes who fell in Erin.
XVII. The poet here calls a sword the thorn from its scabbard; and a breastplate Hamder’s shirt of mail, from a hero who was supposed to have armour proof against every weapon.
XVIII. Sea-kings valued themselves much upon their honour, and after a famous adventurer were denominated sons of Endil. A battle was fought at Sky with so much ardour, that the royal Skald says his ships were red with blood. To comprehend this passage it is necessary to remark, that antiently, prior to an engagement, the ships were linked closely together, by the mutual consent of the combatants, that they might engage hand to hand, from the decks — Scogul was one of the Scandinavian Bellonas, and armour is called her vesture — Skiold, the son of Odin, is reputed to have been the progenitor of the Danish kings, & from him they were named Skioldungi.
The rovers from Lochlin often landed on the isle of Sky, tho’ its inhabitants were much celebrated for their bravery. A Hero of the vii. age, while chearing his dying moments with the rehearsal of his exploits in the Sudoreys, thus sings.
Fórum vestan Fengiar vitia, So at bragnar mer Bleydi kendu Unz á Skydu Scatnar fundu, Brædr baulharda, Oc at bana urdu.
We went west Spoil to seek, Yet beroes me But timid thought, Until in Sky Soldiers we found, Brothers in valour, And wrought their doom.
XIX. Ila was long the residence of the Kings of the isles. The Hebridian princes, being surrounded by a variety of powerful, and rival monarchs, found it necessary to espouse the interests of those, who had the means of compulsion in their hands. Hence Ila often experienced the severity of the contending parties. A poet describes the proceedings of Magnus Barfot, in the following manner.
Rauk um Il þa er iöku Alvaldz menn a brennur
Ila reeked wide while spread Our Sovereign’s men the flames.
A. D. 1263. Haco took Ila, but, afterwards, restored it to Angus of the isles, as appears from the Raven’s-ode.
Upp gaf al-köpnom Engns her-fengna Il fyrer itr-bóla Eyþi dal-reydar.
He gave up Ila, taken by his troops, to the valiant Angus the liberal distributor of beauteous rings.
XX. Lindiseyri is by some thought to be Lindisnes in Norway, but, as the Irish are mentioned, it is more probably Leins-tir in Ireland. It must be owned, however, that this argument is not conclusive, since the Sea-kings of the British isles often returned the visits of Lochlin. Lluyd speaks of one Yrp Lyidog (perhaps the famous Erp of the Islandic writers, or the Erp of the Pictish chronicles) who with his fleet made a descent on Scandinavia. The cause of Harold Harfager’s voyage to the Hibernian seas was, that swarms of freebooters, from that quarter, nestled in the Orkneys, and from thence made depredations on the coast of Norway.
XXI. Records a battle, at the mouth of a river in Anglesey the Mona of the Romans.
XXII. Contains a paraphrase of some sentiments of Tyrtaus.
Αἰσχρὸν γὰρ δὴ τοῦτο, μετὰ προμάχοισι πεσόντα Κεῖθσαι πρόσθε νέων ἄνδρα παλαιότερον. Ου γάρ κως θάνατόν γε φυγείν ειμαρμένον ἐςὶν Ανδρας ουδ' ει προγόνων ἢ γένος ἀθανάτων Πολλάκι δηϊοτητα φυγὼν καὶ δοῦτον ἀκόντων Ἔρχεται, ἐν δ᾽ ὅικο μοῖρα είχεν θανάτου Τρεσσάντων δ' ἀνδρῶν πᾶσ᾽ ἀπόλωλ᾽ ἀρετή
XXIII. The Skald here, again, accidentally paraphrases the Spartan.
᾿Αλλὰ τις ἐγγὺς ἰὼν ἀυτοσχεδὸν ἔγχει μακρά Ἤ ξίφει ουτάζων δήϊον ἅνδ᾽ ἑλέτω Καὶ φέρνον φέρνῳ πεπαλημένος ἀνδρὶ μαχέσθω ᾿Ανδράσι μὲν θνητοῖσι ἰδεῖν ἐρατὸς δε γυναίξι Ξωὸς ἐὼν, καλὸς δ᾽ ἐν προμάχοισι πεσὼν.
XXIV. Regner consoles himself with the reflexion that Ella, from his decided superiority, had gained no honour by his victory. Saxo tells us, that it was a maxim among the Vickings, or Sea-kings, Duos cum uno decernere, ut iniquum, ita probrosum esse. We are even told of a Chieftain who disbanded some of his retainers, that he might provoke his adversary, man for man with him to break a spear.
XXV. The royal captive expresses his belief in absolute destiny, a favourite tenet among the Scandinavians.
Balder's father, Fiolner, & Vithris were surnames of Odin, whose Hall was the great Elysium of the Scandinavians, and where they expected to quaff beer from the sculls of their enemies!
XXVI, Odin is called Vithris, or the Traveller, because he led the Goths from Scythia.
XXVII. Aslang was Regner's second queen. An antient poet imitates the thought that concludes this stanza.
Von væri mer Vitra manna, Snarpra seggia, Ef vær saman ættom.
I might expect Prudent men, And gallant beroes, Were we in wedlock join’d.
XXVIII. The Norwegians announced war by sending round the Her-ör or shaft of desolation to the different tribes; the Caledonians by a tick, burned at one end, called the cran-tara. from the Caelic cran a stick, & the Islandic tara war. The Scandinavian youth enter’d soon into the military line as appears from the following passage.
Tolf vetra nam Tyggi at heria
At twelve years began The king to plunder. The Æsir or immortals were properly the great Captains who, having attended Odin from the Asiatic Scythia, were highly honoured in the Val-halla or mansions of select Heroes.
XXIX. The Disæ were certain goddesses whose province it was to invite warriors, that died bravely, to Odin’s hall.
A very learned native of Iceland prepared both the text and the glossary for the press; any difference, therefore, between them arises from the state of the Islandic orthography which is extremely arbitrary, and unsettled.
The reader will be pleased to make the following emendations. In page 33. for invite read invite; 47. crediderim credideram; 49. St. 28. Disæ Æsæ; 69. diciplinam disciplinam. In some copies Page 30. Higgom Hiuggom; 37. frendêre frenduêre.
FINIS.