Home of the Eddic Lays
Chapter 11
When our poet represents numerous companies of men from Heðinsey as supporting Helgi, we seem to have an indication that he imagines the Danish king either to have had himself a firm foothold on the coasts of Wendland, or to have had allies there.
The mention of Hiddensee in the lay makes it probable that the poet thought of the war between Helgi and Höthbrodd as taking place in the Baltic and on the Wendish coasts. This helps us to an explanation of other names of places in the poem.
Some of the ships which are to join Helgi's fleet sail in to Örvasund (I, 24). This name means 'sound of arrows'; and I take it to be a translation of Strelasund, Stralsund, the sound which separates Rügen from the mainland, and on which the town of Stralsund now lies. The sound got its name from the island of Strela in the Knytlinga Saga called Stræla, now Dänholm, to the south-east of Stralsund---an island often mentioned in accounts of the Wendish wars. Mid. Low Ger. strâle, strâl, AS stræl, means 'an arrow,' so that Stralsund, when one did not think of the island Strela, could be translated into ON by Örvasund. How easy this translation was, becomes evident when we observe that the coat-of-arms of the town of Stralsund in the Middle Ages was ein strâl (an arrow). (26)
The poet describes how the sails were hoisted on Helgi's ships in Varinsfjord (á Varinsfirði, I, 26). This place also was probably on the Wendish coast. Since we see in what follows that Helgi sails westwards, I am of the opinion that in Varinsfjörðr the poet thought of the fjord at the mouth of the river now called the Warnow, near the place now known as Warnemünde. At Warnow there lived in the eleventh and twelfth centuries the Slavic people Warnabi (Adam of Bremen), Warnavi (Helmold). Their land was called Warnouwe. (27)
The poet makes Sinfjötli say to Guthmund in the word-combat between them (I, 37): 'thou wert a völva (sibyl, prophetess) in Varinsey.' And the Norse author of the lay on Hrímgerth and Atli makes the witch say to Helgi Hjörvarthsson's watchman (H. Hj., 22): 'Atli! go thou into the land, if thou art cofident of thy strength, and let us meet í vík Varins.' The names 'Varin's Isle' and 'Varin's Bay' were formed in imitation of 'Varin's Fjord (Varinsfjörðr)' by the Norwegian poet himself, who probably had never been in that fjord.
Thus in order to determine where the poet thought that the lands of Höthbrodd and the other sons of Granmar lay, we have, as it seems, the following facts: [1] that men come in hundreds to Helgi from Hiddensee; [2] that numerous ships, which set out to join Helgi, sail into the sound near Stræla or Dänholm; and [3] that the collected fleet sails out afterwards from Warnemünde. The poet therefore represents Helgi as collecting his fleet on the southern coast of the Baltic.
We learn from the First Lay the direction in which Helgi is thought by the poet to have sailed to Höthbrodd's land. When Helgi has come to the country where Granmar's sons live, Sinfjötli, Helgi's brother, says to one of Höthbrodd's brothers that the latter can tell that 'the Wolfings have come from the east' (I, 34). This expression, in connection with the place name previously given, shows us that the poet represents Helgi's expedition against Höthbrodd as sailing along the southern coast from Rügen westwards, and that it was near the south western end of the Baltic that he imagined Höthbrodd's land to lie.
When Helgi's ships, after their voyage, have come into harbour in the hostile land, the men ('they themselves') from Svarin's Hill (þeir sjálfir frá Svarinshaugi, I, 31) look out over the fleet. On this statement is based the following remark in the prose bit after st. 13 in the Second Lay (p. 193 a): 'Granmar was the name of a mighty king who dwelt at Svarin's Hill (at Svarinshaugi).' Since the poet represents Helgi's fleet as sailing from the east (H. H., I, 34), and since he imagined Varinsfjord, the place from which the fleet has last sailed, as near Warnemünde, we must naturally seek for Svarin's Hill in the south-western part of the Baltic. The place which the poet seems to have had in mind is Zuerin, (28) Suerinum, in the land of the Obotrits, now Schwerin, which is mentioned as a castle of the Wends as early as the first half of the eleventh century. The word haugi in the compound Svarinshaugi may refer to the forest covered heights near Schwerin. (29)
Saxo mentions an Earl Svarinus, whose name is connected with Svarinshaugi; of him I shall speak later. Tacitus (Germania, 40) names among the Germanic peoples who worshipped Nerthus or Mother Earth, between the Eudoses and the Nuithones, a people whose name in most editions is given as Suardones. Zeuss (pp. 154, 476) places these on the coast of the Baltic, between the Trave and the Oder, (30) Much (31) somewhat further north. In Much's map they are placed in the region south of the present Aalborg. The MSS. BCc have Suarines; over this in b, dones was written by corrector ß. It is perhaps possible that the Helgi poet got Svarinshaugi from an older Danish poem and that in the beginning the name was not brought into connection with Schwerin, but was a poetic representation of Svarines.
I have conjectured that when the author of the First Helgi lay mentioned Varin's Fjord, he thought of the fjord near Warnemünde, where the Slavic Varnavi dwelt. It is not, however, improbable that he took the name from an older Danish Helgi poem, and this name may then at first have been understood as the name of a fjord in the land of the Germanic Varini. To support this suggestion, we have the fact that the AS poem Wîdsîð brings Varns and Vikings into connection with one another (mid Wærnum and mid Wîcingum, l. 50), where the Varns are without any doubt the Germanic people which Procopius mentions in his account of the expedition of the Erulians northwards, as dwelling south of the Danes, and where the Vikings must (as in Wîdsîð, 47) designate Ingeld's people, the Heathobards. The fact that the Varns are named in an AS poem along with the Heathobards, suggests that Varin's Fjord, hard by Höthbrodd's land (i.e., as we shall see later, the land of the Heathobards), was originally thought of as a fjord in the land of the Germanic Varini. The personal name Varinn, which occurs in ancient stories in Norway and in Sweden, should also be explained by the name of the Germanic tribe.
In determining the scene of the wars between Höthbrodd and Helgi, the name of one more place deserves notice. In H. H., I, 46, Helgi says of Granmar's sons:
þeir hafa markat
á 'móins heimom,'
at hug hafa
hjörum at bregða.
'They have shown at Móinshome (at Móins dwelling places) that they have courage to swing swords.' Since the poet imagined that the scene of the battles between Helgi and Granmar's sons was the Wendish coast eastward as far as Rügen and the Danish coast oppostie, together with the sea between these coasts, I cannot but think that by á Móinsheimum (32) he meant 'on Mön.' We should note that in Móins the older form in two syllables is preserved. (33)
In Abildgaard's description of Mön's cliff, he states (p. 2) that on Mön the words Mo, Mojord are used as names of whitish, thin marl and chalky earth, with which the peasants whitewash their houses. Mo, Mojord, Molér are used also in many other parts of Denmark. (34) By this Mo Abildgaard explains the name of the island Mön; and this explanation has been further developed and supported by Dyrlund and O. Nielsen. (35) They explain Mön as coming from Móvin, and refer to Mœn, the name of a Norwegian countryseat (gaard), which occurs twice and has its origin in Mó-vin, (36) although, indeed, in this compound, mór has a different meaning.
This explanation of Mön as originally Mó-vin is supported by Móinsheimum in the Helgi-lay. (37) In an attack on the realm of the Danish king from the Wendish coast near Stralsund, it was natural that a battle should take place in Mön. (38) According to Saxo (Bk. XIV, p. 742), Absalon sails from the open sea by Rügen back to Mönensium portus. This shows that in the time of Valdemar I. there was a well-known harbour at Mön. (39) Saxo also says (Bk. XIV, p. 874) that the fleet of the Wends which lay Swaldensi in portu, planned to sail to Mön, to land cavalry on the south coast of the island, foot soldiers on the north coast, and then to have the ships enter Kyalbyensis sinus anfractibus (now Stege Nor). The Valdemar era appears, therefore, to throw light on the naming of the battle á Móinsheimum between Helgi and the sons of Granmar.
We have thus found that the First Helgi-lay mentions places on the southern coast of the Baltic and in Mön. This proves that the poem was not composed in Greenland or in Iceland. It also makes it less probable that it was composed by a Norwegian in Norway. (40)
Several personal names in the account of the war with Höthbrodd in the First Lay appear to be borrowed from the Danish story of the Shieldings.
The young Hjörleifr, who accompanies Helgi in his expedition (I, 23), seems to be identical with Herleifr, who in the Skjöldungasaga, as Arngrim Jónsson testifies, (41) is named as a son of Frotho I. Names in Her- and Hjör- are frequently interchangeable; (42) and we have probable evidence that the name form Herleifr occured earlier in the Helgi-lay, where our MS. has the acc. hiorleif. Saxo reproduces in Latin the names of the warriors who took part in the Brávalla battle, his authority for these names being the original Brávalla poem, which was probably composed towards the end of the eleventh century by an Icelander who had Norway, and especially Telemarken, in his mind. In Harald's army are mentioned as coming from Hadeland (in the interior of southern Norway): 'Har atque Herlewar cum Hothbroddo cui Effreni cognomen.' (43) Moreover, in the reproduction of the poem in the fragment of the Skjöldungasaga, Herleifr is named. It looks as if the author of the Brávalla poem knew the First Helgi lay and took from it the names Herleifr and Höðbroddr. Because of the first part of the latter name he referred them to Hadeland, to which Hoddbroddr is referred in Flateyjarbók, I, 24. (44)
Further on in the Helgi lay, we have other personal names which seem to belong to the story of the Shieldings. When Höthbrodd sends out messengers to get help, he says (I, 52):
Bjóðið ér Högna
ok Hrings sonum,
Atla ok Yngva,
Ölf enum gamla!
'Carry messages to Högni and the sons of Hring, to Atli and Yngvi, to Alf the old!' In the Skjöldungasaga we are told that Hring (Ringo, or Sigvardus Ringo), who was King of Denmark and Sweden, was married to Alfhilld, daughter of King Grandalf of Raumarike in southern Norway, a descendent of Alf the old (Álfr enn gamle). After her death Hring, in his old age, met in Sciringssal (in southern Norway) Alf and Yngvi, King Alf's sons from Vendel, and their sister Alfsol, whom he wooed in vain. (45) It seems certain that there is connection between these names and the names of Hring's sons, Yngvi and Alf the old, in the Helgi lay. The names in the lay were probably taken from Skjöldungasaga. (46)
26. It was not unusual in ON to translate foreign names, and also names of places. I have given examples of this custom in my Studien über die Entstehung der nord, Götter- u. Heldensagen, I, 134 f (Norw. ed., pp. 128f). The name Livius was translated by 'the envious' (hinn öfundsjúki, öfundsami); Sicoris, the name of a river in Spain in Lucan's Pharsalia, I, 14, by 'the secure' (øruga), as if the name came from securus. Even in the land of the Wends, there were two placenames which were translated by Norsemen: Kamin (cf. Pol. Kamien', 'stone') was called by the Icelanders Steinborg; and Stettin (cf. Pol. szczecina, 'a brush') corresponds to Icel. Burstaborg. See N. M. Petersen, Annaler, 1836-37, p. 240. Back
27. See Zeuss, Die Deutschen, pp. 652 f; N. M. Petersen, Annaler, 1836-37, p. 209. Back
28. Cf. N. M. Petersen, Annaler f. nord. Oldk., 1836-37, p. 207. The name has been explained as a derivative of Old Slavic zveri, 'wild animal.' The foreign form Swerin could have been changed into ON Svarinn just as the ON man's-name Varinn corresponds to OS Werin. Back
29. The name Sparinsheiðr, in I, 51, resembles Parin, the name of an allodial property in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, not far from Grevesmühlen. I regard this likeness as accidental, and hold to my opinion that Sparinsheiðr is based on Sparta. Back
30. Cf. Müllenhoff, in Ztsch. f. d. Alt., XI, 286 f. Back
31. Sievers's Beiträge, XVII, 211-213. Back
32. The editors of the phototype edition (p. 42, l. 12) read heio. Where this word recurs in H. H., II, 24, the MS. has a. m. r., by which, if written in full, the scribe probably meant á (or at) móins reino, from rein, a strip of land. Back
33. Except when in combination, the name of the island did not form a genitive in -s. Possibly the ON poet inserted the gen. form Móins, in accordance with the name of the serpent Móinn in Grím. 34. Yet with reference to the gen. form in -s in combination with a name originally united with vin, cf. ON. Hns Kirkja, Féns Kirkja, and the like (see Arkiv, VII, 262 f). Cf. also Hísingsbúar = Hísingbúar; ON hjálpsmaðr = Old Icel. hjálparmaðr. Back
34. See Molbech's Dansk Dialekt-Lexikon, p. 362. Back
35. The former in Arkiv, XI, 183; the latter in a private communication. Back
36. See O. Rygh in Arkiv, VII, 246, and Trondhjemske Gaardnavne, II, 243. Back
37. Adam of Bremen calls the island Moyland. This seems tohave been originally Moynland, and to point to a two-syllable form, Móyn. In the Ry-Year-books (Pertz, Scriptores, XVI, 392) we have Moen. Back
38. After my explanation of Móinsheimar was written down, I saw that Bergmann (Die Eddagedichte der nord. Heldensage, pp. 61, 121, 212) explains the name by Mön. Much, in Ztsch. f. d. Alt., XXXIII, I, explains the word by 'the Maine,' OHG Môin; but this does not agree with the surroundings in which the war with Granmar's sons takes place. Back
39. Cf. N. M. Petersen, Ann. f. n. Oldk., 1836-37, pp. 242 f. Back
40. Cf. A. Olrik, Sakses Oldhist., I, 23: 'No Icelandic accounts of the Shielding story tell of battles in Germany, and the contact with Germany in other old stories (Hervararsaga, Ásmundarsaga kappabana) are insignificant, and do not bear in the least the impress of a national war.' Back
41. See A. Olrik in Aarb. f. n. Oldk., 1894, pp. 85, 107. In Sakses Oldhist., II, 273, Olrik expresses the opinion that the Icelanders themselves made up this Herleifr, whose name they alone knew. Back
42. The same person is called in Sögubrot (Fornaldarsögur, I, 375) Hervarðr Ylfingr, and in Ynglingasaga (ed. F. J., chaps. 37-39) Hjörvarðr Ylfingr. In H. H., I, 14, Cod. reg. has Hiorvarð, where Völsungasaga has Hervarð. Back
43. See A. Olrik in Arkiv, X, 229, 224. Back
44. One of the lines in the Brávalla lay may have run: Höðbroddr grimmr (cf. grimmum, H. H., I, 18) or H. berserkr (cf. Flat., I, 24, where Hoddbroddr is grandfather of Rómundr berserkr). It may be that Har is a corruption of Höðr (Haudr), who is named in Flat., I, 24, as father of Hoddbroddr. Back
45. Fornaldarsögur, I, 387 f; Olrik, Aarb. f. nord. Oldk., 1894, pp. 93 f, 129-132, 146 f. Back
46. On the Zealander Ringo, in Saxo's story of Gram, see what follows. The Brávalla lay, 15 (see Olrik, p. 231), has Hringr Atlasun (in Saxo, Ring Athylae filius), who, the poet seems to think, came from the southeast of Norway. It is very uncertain whether these names are borrowed from the Helgi lay. In Hyndl., 12 and 18, occurs Álfr enn gamli in a different connection from that in H. H., I, and in the Skjöldungasaga. Ring was perhaps to some extent thought of as an eponym for Ringsted. Ringo as a name of Sigurd Ring, on the contrary, appears to be a translation of Adam of Bremen's Anulo. With reference to other persons, the name Hringr has been brought into connection with Hringarki; cf. J. Jónsson in Arkiv, X, 130 ff. Back
<< Previous Page Next Page >>
© 2004-2007 Northvegr.
Most of the material on this site is in the public domain. However, many people have worked very hard to bring these texts to you so if you do use the work, we would appreciate it if you could give credit to both the Northvegr site and to the individuals who worked to bring you these texts. A small number of texts are copyrighted and cannot be used without the author's permission. Any text that is copyrighted will have a clear notation of such on the main index page for that text. Inquiries can be sent to info@northvegr.org. Northvegr™ and the Northvegr symbol are trademarks and service marks of the Northvegr Foundation.
|