History Forum / General / British History / July 2008

I'm looking for the original language text of a piece of poetry about
the breaking of London Bridge, attributed to Óttarr Svarti.

The Online Medieval and Classical Library has the text of Heimskringla
in English translation. Within 'Saga of Olaf Haraldson: Part I',
section 12 is entitled 'THE SIXTH BATTLE'. It quotes three pieces of
poetry. The first is attributed to 'Ottar Svarte' [sic] and runs:

    "London Bridge is broken down. --
    Gold is won, and bright renown.
         Shields resounding,
         War-horns sounding,
    Hild is shouting in the din!
         Arrows singing,
         Mail-coats ringing --
    Odin makes our Olaf win!"

Source: http://omacl.org/Heimskringla/haraldson1.html

I've looked for this text in the original language. I found
Heimskringla on Wikisource. It contains 'Ólafs saga helga', of which
section 13 (not 12) is called 'Orusta hin sétta'. It again has three
poetic quotations, of which the first attributed to 'Óttar svarti' is
given as:

Enn braustu, éla kennir,
Yggs veðrþorinn, bryggjur,
linns hefir lönd að vinna,
Lundúna, þér snúnað.
Höfðu hart um krafðir,
hildr óx við það, skildir
gang, en gamlir sprungu,
gunnþinga, járnhringar.

Source: http://is.wikisource.org/wiki/Heimskringla/%C3%93lafs_saga_helga/13

This seems to be an almost completely different text. Is there another
text of Heimskringla or of Óttarr Svarti's work? Can anyone tell me
where to find it? I've looked on http://www.heimskringla.no/original/heimskringla/index.php
but I found that 'Saga Ólafs hins helga' is missing.

Thanks, Samuel