Hákonarmál (Old Norse: 'The Song of Hákon') is a skaldic poem which the skald Eyvindr skáldaspillir composed about the fall of the Norwegian king Hákon the Good at the battle of Fitjar and his reception in Valhalla. This poem emulates Eiríksmál and is intended to depict the Christian Hákon as a friend to the pagan gods. The poem is preserved in its entirety and is widely considered to be of great beauty.
These are the last three stanzas.
- Góðu dœgri
- verðr sá gramr of borinn,
- es sér getr slíkan sefa.
- Hans aldar
- mun æ vesa
- at góðu getit.
- Mun óbundinn
- á ýta sjǫt
- Fenrisulfr of fara,
- áðr jafngóðr
- á auða trǫð
- konungmaðr komi.
- Deyr fé,
- deyja frændr
- eyðisk land ok láð.
- Síz Hákon fór
- með heiðin goð,
- mǫrg es þjóð of þéuð.
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- On a good day
- is born that great-souled lord
- who hath a heart like his;
- aye will his times
- be told of on Earth,
- and men will speak of his might.
- Unfettered will fare
- the Fenriswolf,
- and fall on the fields of men,
- ere that there cometh
- a kingly lord
- as good, to stand in his stead.
- Cattle die
- and kinsmen die,
- land and lieges are whelmed;
- since Hákon
- to the heathen gods fared
- many a host is harried. – Hollander's translation
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- On a good day
- will that king be born
- who gets such a heart.
- His lifetime
- will forever be
- reckoned as good.
- Unfettered will
- on the abode of men
- the Fenriswolf go,
- before an equally good
- on the uninhabited pasture
- king might come.
- Cattle die,
- kinsmen die,
- land and sea are destroyed.
- Since Hákon fared
- among the heathen gods
- many people are oppressed. – Literal translation
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The last stanza is clearly related to a stanza from Hávamál. The traditional view[by whom?] is that Hákonarmál borrowed from that poem but it is also possible that the relation is reversed or that both poems drew on a third source.