# Norwegian: Heimskringla



## hollabooiers

Hey everyone. 

Could someone help me translate this part of the Heimskringla? I'm especially interested in the last few lines. I guess Gymes is a name, but does anyone know what it is exactly?

Opp det kom
at de Yngvar
hadde ofret,
Syslas menn;
estisk  hær
den lyse hærmann
slo i hjel
på stein ved sjøen,
og  østhavet
synger nå
Gymes havsang
for svenskekongen.

Thanks in advance!


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## Frenchlover1

Hello!

_Opp det kom_ means that everybody (in a community) got to know a fact. The literal translation would be "Up it came"; that it came into the life, the reality, it got "visible" for everyone... A tough one

_at de Yngvar
hadde ofret_:
that they had immolated Yngvar (name)

_Syslas menn;_:
The men of Sysla (name);

_estisk hær_:
Estonian army

_den lyse hærmann_:
the blond "army man" (one man in the army)

_slo i hjel_:
slayed

_på stein ved sjøen,_:
on (the) rock next to the sea,

_og østhavet_:
and the east sea

_synger nå_:
is now singing

_Gymes havsang_:
Gyme's sea song

_for svenskekongen._:
to the king of Sweden.

Remember that this is a poem and it is therefore written in a way that would be wrong to write in if it was a "normal" Norwegian text

http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyme says this about Gyme:

_*Gyme*
Gyme var i norrøn mytologi en «bergrise» (en slags jotne). Han var gift med Aurboda, og de hadde datteren Gerd, som Frøy fridde til._

*Gyme*
In Norse mythology Gyme was a "bergrise" (a type of "Jötunn" (jötunn is a creature from Norse mythology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jötunn).)) He was married to Aurboda, and they had a daughter, Gerd, who Frøy proposed to.


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## hollabooiers

I see, that was a lot of help! Thanks very much indeed.


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## Frenchlover1

No problem, it's always a pleasure to help


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## sindridah

Snorri Sturluson!


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## Frenchlover1

Did he write this poem? 
(In Norway we call him Snorre Sturlason)


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## sindridah

Yeah he did write Heimskringla 

I thought that not so many people in Norway would know him


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## Silver_Biscuit

No, Snorri Sturluson didn't write the poems in the Heimskringla - he was quoting from older sources, like the little bits of poetry in the Prose Edda. The original Icelandic goes:


> Svo segir Þjóðólfur:
> 
> Þat stökk upp
> at Yngvari
> Sýslu kind
> um sóat hafði
> og ljóshömum
> við lagar hjarta
> her Eistneskr
> at hilmi vá,
> ok austmarr
> jöfri sœnskum
> Gýmis ljóð
> at gamni kveðr.


I don't know who Þjóðólfur was, but all the poetry extracts in the _Ynglinga saga_ seem to be preceded by 'svo segir Þjóðólfur' (so says Þjóðólfur). My copy has the English translation like this:


> And it came about
> that Yngvar was
> by the folk of Sysla
> slain dead,
> and the hoary chief,
> near the rocky heart of the sea,
> was killed
> by the Estland men's army.
> And now the Baltic waves
> sang songs, for the sport
> of the sea god,
> over the Swedish prince.


I don't know how good it is though, because it's a 1932 translation and I'm not very good at Old Icelandic.

Edit: Sindri, of course they know him, it's the history of the Kings of Norway! Well, sort of history.


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## sindridah

Oh, I just asumed that it was him that wrote it since he wrote the book Heimskringla, I apologise


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## Silver_Biscuit

He wrote the prose


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## Frenchlover1

Yes, he is well known in Norway He wrote sagas about Norwegian kings, didn't he? I learned about him on school when I was 7 years old or something


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## hollabooiers

Oh thanks for the less literal translation! I reckon "folk of Sysla" and  "Estland men's army" are the same thing, am I right? In Estonian folklore  they often repeat things in slightly different wording once or twice,  so I suppose that could be what's been done here with describing how Yngvar  died.

Does anyone know what Sysla might be though? Google and Wikipedia didn't  get me too far. According to Wikipedia it's a police district in  Iceland. 

I'm asking this all on behalf of my dad, by the way. He's become really  interested in finding Yngvar's grave D) and he doesn't speak much  English.


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## Silver_Biscuit

A sýsla is an administrative district.

The bit before the poem says:


> King Yngvar fell and his folk fled and he was buried in a howe by the sea in Adalsysla.


The footnote elaborates:


> _Adalsysla_ is the O.N. name for the mainland opposite the island of Ösel, the latter being called _Eysysla_ (island district). _Adalsysla_ signified the main _syssel_ and the whole of Estland was called a _sysla_ (or _syssel_) which can be translated by 'district' or 'shire'.


I don't think you're going to get anything more specific from the Heimskringla, apart from that he was killed in a place called Stein (Stone).


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## sindridah

Sýsla in Icelandic is a county or district


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## Lars H

Hej!




hollabooiers said:


> I'm asking this all on behalf of my dad, by the way. He's become really  interested in finding Yngvar's grave D) and he doesn't speak much  English.



You could help your father by looking up "vendsyssel" in wikipedia and read more about "sysla" there.

Normally, kings and chieftains throughout Scandinavia of the Iron Age were buried under mounds, but considering the story told in Heimskringla, there should be no mound to be found, since mounds did take some time to make...


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## hollabooiers

Lars H said:


> You could help your father by looking up "vendsyssel" in wikipedia and read more about "sysla" there.



Right, I'll have to do that then.  Thank you all yet again!


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