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Bersi Skáldtorfuson was an Icelandic skald, active around the year 1000. He was a court poet to Earl Sveinn Hákonarson. During the Battle of Nesjar he was captured by King Óláfr Haraldsson's forces. In captivity he composed three of his four stanzas which have come down to us.
- Thou badest this eager
- Worshipper of poetry farewell,
- And we could answer
- The same, O strife-wont warrior!
- It listed me not to be delayed
- Longer; therefore I sold
- To the noble-born giver of gold
- Those words as I bought them.
- I have seen the great fights
- Of Swein; we fared together
- Once when the cool blades
- Afterwards sang loudly;
- Never again hereafter
- Shall I follow in a host,
- O king, any chieftain
- More glorious than he.
- This year I lie in chains
- For a long while in the great ship.
- O swinger of the sword! I humble
- Myself never so lowly,
- That I betray, O wise war king,
- My loyal friends or be loath
- To have them. In my youth
- Among my friends I found thy foe.
- (Translation by Monsen and Smith)[1]
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- "Depart in peace," thou didst,
- prince, bid me, the poet;
- and I said the same to
- seasoned tree-of-combat.
- Unwillingly these words in
- weapon-thing returned I
- as from the Fáfnir's-treasure's-
- foe I had received them.
- Seen have I Svein tested
- since we fared together—
- sang loud polished swords—in
- serious conflicts, ruler.
- Never on shipboard shall I,
- should whate'er betide me,
- in fiercest fray tested
- follow a better master.
- Crouch I shall not, King, nor
- crawl before thee—rather,
- let us ready, liege, a
- large ship, this year—and so
- turn my back on true and
- tried friends and aggrieve them.
- Young when I was I held dear
- him who was your enemy.
- (Translation by Lee M. Hollander)[2]
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Bersi is a minor character in Grettis saga. His mother, Skáld-Torfa, was also a known poet.
Notes
- ^ Monsen 2004, p. 253
- ^ Hollander 1991, page 285.
References
- Hollander, Lee M (editor and translator). (1991). Heimskringla : History of the Kings of Norway. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292730616
- Monsen, Erling (editor) and A. H. Smith (co-translator) (2004). Heimskringla Or the Lives of the Norse Kings. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0766186938
- Bersi Skáldtorfuson Extant poetry
- Grettis saga
