To arms!
Bjarkamál 1: Translation and commentary
The Bjarkamál preserved in book II of Gesta Danorum can be read as a miniature epic in dactylic hexameters. In spirit and structure it recalls the fall of Troy in book II of the Aeneid, presenting the doomed defence of king Rolf’s hall in Lejre and the heroic last stand of his warriors with similar grandeur. Though Saxo transmits the poem in Latin form, fragments of an earlier Old Norse version survive in Skáldskaparmál and Heimskringla.
King Rolf had married his sister Sculd to Hiarthwar, making him governor of Sweden on condition of tribute. Resenting this, Sculd incited Hiarthwar to revolt, secretly sending weapons to Lejre under the guise of tribute. While the king and his men slept after a lavish feast, the Swedes armed themselves and attacked. The champion Hialte, alerted by the clash, rushed back and fought through the palace, passing the chamber of his companion Biarce, still asleep, whom he exhorts to rise. The Bjarkamál begins here:
Wake swiftly, who would call himself his king’s friend, [1] [2]
whether he serves for honours or for loyalty alone. [3]
Nobles, shake the drowse from you, drive off the dull sloth. [4]
Wakeful wits must blaze forth: each man’s right hand
shall either grant him glory or besmirch the coward with shame. [5]
This night shall be either our death or our vengeance for villainy.
I do not bid you learn the games of maidens, [6]
nor caress the soft cheeks,
nor sweetly kiss your brides, clasp the tender breasts, [7]
nor strain after the clear-streaming wine [8]
while you stroke their supple thighs and cast glances at snow-white arms. [9]
No, I summon you to the bitter contests of Mars! [10]
Here there is need of combat, not careless courtship,
nor idle softness: this hour demands strife. [11]
To arms, every man who prizes the king’s friendship!
The scales of war stand ready to weigh our souls. [12]
Therefore let neither fear nor faltering dwell in hardened men;
let pleasure depart our minds and yield to weapons.
Our wages are now glory!
Each man is master of his own renown and can earn fame with his right hand.
Nothing nourished by pleasure may remain.
Every man must fill his mind with sternness and learn to turn aside the threatening defeat.
Whoever would win a name or war-booty
must not stiffen in cowardice and fear, but swiftly meet the champions
without paling at the sight of the ice-cold iron. [13]
[1] The king is referred to as rex, but also as dominus, dux, herus, parens, and princeps. His retinue appears as an undefined aristocracy, variously designated amici regis, milites, proceres, satellites, and socii. This variation likely reflects the Old Norse original, since skaldic poetry makes use of a wide range of poetic terms for rulers and warriors.
[2] His king’s friend: The relationship between lord and retinue is often expressed in terms of friendship in Old Norse poetry. Thus the retainers may be called the king’s friends, buðlungs vinir (Hrókskviða 15) and siklings vinir (Geirviðardrápa 5; Hrókskviða 8). Conversely, rulers themselves may be described as vinr drengja (Háttatal 14), vinr drottar (FoGT 23), vinr jarla (Erfidrápa Óláfs Tryggvasonar 9), and so forth.
[3] For honours or for loyalty alone: This line contrasts a long-serving and richly rewarded retainer with one newly admitted to the king’s service: both are loyal, but loyalty alone is characteristic of the younger man.
[4] A certain degree of lexical correspondence may be observed between the first lines of Saxo’s Bjarkamál and the second helmingr of Bjarkamál in fornu 1. Thus Old Norse vaki corresponds to Latin evigilet, vina hǫfuð to regis amicum, and inir œztu sinnar to proceres.
[5] Each man’s right hand… vengeance for villainy: These lines contains associative borrowings from either from Quintus Curtius Rufus, the author of Historiae Alexandri Magni, or from Walter of Châtillon, whose Alexandreis, a highly influential Latin twelfth-century epic poem on the life of Alexander the Great, drew extensively on Curtius’ work.
Alexander the Great was an exceptionally popular figure in medieval literature and culture. His story circulated widely in Latin historiography, epic poetry, and the vernacular romance traditions, where it was repeatedly reshaped to serve different literary and moral purposes.
Saxo’s prose style is strongly influenced by that of Curtius, and he often makes associative borrowings from the Historiae Alexandri Magni. Through such echoes and adaptations, the figure of Alexander forms a kind of literary undercurrent throughout Gesta Danorum. This influence, however, has never been systematically examined.
The line derives from a pre-battle speech delivered by Alexander’s principal adversary, the Persian king Darius. Although he stands as Alexander’s enemy, Darius is portrayed as his equal in stature as both leader and man, even if he like Hialte is fated to lose. In the speech he frames the coming conflict as an absolute alternative: the Persians, though outnumbered, face either total victory or complete annihilation.
By activating associations with Darius’ defeat, Saxo rhetorically (critics might say hyperbolically) elevates the fall of Lejre to the level of the battle of Arbela. In doing so, he suggests that the struggle at hand concerns not a minor dynastic quarrel, but the fate of an ancient northern empire presented as the equal of the great empires of classical history.
[6] The games of maidens: This and the following five lines expand upon the second helmingr of Bjarkamál in fornu 2. “The games of maidens” roughly corresponds to Old Norse vífs rúnum, though the equivalence is not exact.
[7] Brides: The Latin nupta (“bride, wife”) renders Old Norse brúðr (“bride”), a word frequently used in skaldic poetry as a poetic term for “woman”.
[8] The clear-streaming wine: This corresponds to the wine mentioned in the second helmingr of Bjarkamál in fornu 2. Epic convention demands the usage of qualifying adjectives, and therefore merum (“[pure] wine”) gets one, liquidum.
[9] Snow-white arms: The adjective hvít (“white, fair, radiant”) is conventionally used in poetry to denote female beauty. Exact counterparts to the poem’s Latin niueus (“snow-white”) occur in the Old Norse compounds fannhvítr (Bbreiðv Lv 4) and mjallhvítr (Alvíssmál 7; VíglÞ Lv 11). Cf. also Middle High German wîʒ, which is used in a similar way to denote female beauty, e.g. ir vil wîʒiu hant; ir vil wîʒe arme (Nibelungenlied) and ir hût noch wîʒer denn ein swan (Parzival).
Hialte’s mention of women and wine makes sense in the poem’s context. The night before, King Rolf had held a lavish feast in honour of Hiarthwar. Contrary to custom, the Swedish guests drank sparingly, whereas the Danes, true to their widely attested medieval reputation, indulged without restraint. Cf. Arnold of Lübeck’s Chronica Slavorum, Gunnlaugr Leifsson’s Merlínusspá, Helmold of Bosau’s Chronica Slavorum, William of Malmesbury’s Gesta Regum Anglorum, and Saxo himself, who comments several times on the drinking habits of his countrymen.
[10] The bitter contests of Mars: This phrase is an especially felicitous rendering of Bjarkamál in fornu 2’s heldr vekk yðr at hǫrðum Hildar leiki. Both Hildr and Mars are supernatural agents whose names may also signify “battle” or “war.” Latin amarus (“bitter, dire, terrible”) corresponds closely to Old Norse harðr (“hard, severe, dire”), while Latin certamen (“contest, race, battle”) corresponds to Old Norse leikr (“game, play, sport,” and in kennings, “battle”). Thus Hildar harði leikr and “Mars’ bitter contest” are readily interpretable kennings for war.
The contrast between warfare and carousing with women is conventional in Old Norse poetry; cf. Krákumál 20, flokkr about Sveinn Álfífuson, Nesjavísur 7, Hákonardrápa 1 etc.
We may be certain that Saxo knew the helmingr from Bjarkamál in fornu 2. Together with the vernacular version, these six lines have repeatedly been cited by commentators as the example par excellence of his tendency toward expansion and parallelism, often with a less than favourable assessment of his reworking. Yet Saxo’s adaptation is in fact highly sophisticated. From vífs rúnum alone he fashions six varied and vivid expressions, while sustaining the conventional theme noted above through a sequence of semantic contrasts and parallels. Moreover, even where Saxo expands and amplifies his source material, many of the additions continue to conform to Old Norse poetic terminology and convention (see notes 7 and 9 above).
[11] Idle softness: The Latin eneruis (“weak, lacking vigour”) corresponds to Old Norse dáðlauss (“incapable, lacking courage or drive, cowardly”), while Latin mollities (“softness”) corresponds to Old Norse bleyði (“softness, cowardice, unmanliness”). From these qualities a number of derogatory terms are derived, including blauðr, bleyðimaðr, and hugblauðr.
[12] The scales of war: The whole of book 2 of Gesta Danorum may be read as a sustained exploration of the virtue of liberality and the vice of avarice. The theme is effectively signalled at the very beginning, when King Frothe slays a dragon, the very embodiment of greed, in order to seize its hoard and raise an army. Throughout the book Saxo repeatedly examines the opposition between generosity and greed through the actions of a varied gallery of characters. The result reads as a mirror for princes: what loyalty and what fate may a generous king expect, as opposed to a greedy one? How does his retinue repay the gifts he bestows?
In Bjarkamál, this contractual relationship between king and retainer is repeatedly invoked, often through words built on the root pend-/pond-. The origin of the weighing metaphor is straightforward: the warriors receive gifts and rewards from their king, which must in turn be counterbalanced. Yet while their wages are concrete and material, their repayment is grim and abstract. The only thing that can balance the scales of war is death.
[13] Ice-cold iron: Latin gelidum ferrum, cf. Alexandreis, VII:59, Sic ait, et gelido terebrasset uiscera ferro.
Gelidum ferrum also occurs twice in a poem about Charlemagne sometimes attributed to Angilbert. If Saxo knew this poem, it would not be the first time he alluded to Carolingian material; cf. notes 4 and 5 to my translation of the Lay of Helga.
The Latin gelidum (“ice-cold”) ferrum (“iron, sword”) perfectly renders Old Norse ískǫld jǫ́rn (Magn 11). Latin ferrum was used in the same sense as Old Norse járn (“iron, sword”) and malmr (“ore, metal, sword”). Both were sometimes described as kaldr (“cold”) or svalr (“cool”); cf. also Old Frisian kald irsen (“cold iron”). “Cold” denotes not only a tactile quality of the weapon, but also carries metaphorical associations of hostility.
Longing for more about Lejre? Read my posts about The Sign of Victory and Crested Helmets and Grim-faced Geats
