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The Heimskringla on Eyvind Skaldaspiller

Heimskringla > The Chronicle Of The Kings Of Norway > Preface Of Snorre Sturlason.

attestation: Eyvind Skaldaspiller composed the poem Haleygjatal about Earl Hakon the Great, reckoning his ancestors from Saeming son of Yngvefrey

"Eyvind Skaldaspiller also reckoned up the ancestors of Earl Hakon the Great in a poem called "Haleygjatal", composed about Hakon; and therein he mentions Saeming, a son of Yngvefrey"

attribution: Eyvind Skaldaspiller composed verses about Earl Hakon Grjotgardson's death at Fialar

"So says Eyvind Skaldaspiller"

attribution: Eyvind Skaldaspiller composed the poem Hakonarmal about King Hakon's death and reception in Valhalla.

"Eyvind Skaldaspiller composed a poem on the death of King Hakon, and on how well he was received in Valhal. The poem is called "Hakonarmal""

comparison: Eyvind Skaldaspiller's verse contrasts the generosity of Hakon's reign, when skalds wore gold, with the miserliness of Gunhild's sons who bury wealth.

"In Hakon's days the skald wore gold Upon his falcon's seat; he wore Rolf Krake's seed, the yellow ore"
attestation: Eyvind declared he had only one lord before Harald and remained faithful to Hakon through strife and pain.

"One lord I had before thee, Harald! One dear-loved lord! Now am I old, And do not wish to change again,-- To that loved lord, through strife and pain, Faithful I stood; still true to Hakon,-- To my good king, and him alone."
attestation: Harald forced Eyvind to surrender a great gold ring called Molde that had been dug up long ago, as a fine.

"Eyvind had a great gold ring, which was called Molde, that had been dug up out of the earth long since. This ring the King said he must have as the mulet for the offence"
attestation: Eyvind composed a verse about going to Iceland, lamenting that Harald had taken his father's gold arm-ring by force.

"I go across the ocean-foam, Swift skating to my Iceland home"
attestation: Eyvind went home and apparently never came near the king again.

"Eyvind went home; but it is not told that he ever came near the king again."

attribution: Eyvind Skaldaspiller's Haleygjatal records that Sigurd was burnt to death by Norway's lord at Oglo.

"At Oglo, as I've heard, Earl Sigurd Was burnt to death by Norway's lord,-- Sigurd, who once on Hadding's grave A feast to Odin's ravens gave."

attestation: Eyvind Skaldaspiller composed a verse about midsummer snow lying on the frozen ground, comparing their situation to Laplanders keeping cattle stalled.

"Tis midsummer, yet deep snows rest On Odin's mother's frozen breast: Like Laplanders, our cattle-kind In stall or stable we must bind."

attestation: Eyvind composed a poem about Iceland's people, and each bonde rewarded him with three silver pennies of full weight.

"Eyvind composed a poem about the people of Iceland, for which they rewarded him by each bonde giving him three silver pennies, of full weight and white in the fracture."
attestation: Eyvind had to sell the clasps to buy food during the famine, and was so impoverished he had to sell his arrows to buy herrings.

"Eyvind was obliged to separate the clasps from each other, and sell them to buy food for his household."
attestation: When a herring shoal appeared, Eyvind manned a boat with his servants to fish, composing a verse about it.

"the same spring a shoal of herrings set in upon the fishing ground beyond the coast-side, and Eyvind manned a ship's boat with his house servants and cottars, and rowed to where the herrings were come"
attestation: Eyvind's verse calls herrings "the arrows of the sea" because of their swift darting movement.

"Herrings, from their swift darting along, are called the arrows of the sea."

attestation: Eyvind Skaldaspiller composed verses in the Haleygja-tal about the battle against the Jomsborg vikings

"Eyvind Skaldaspiller says also in the "Haleygja-tal""