Hildibrandr Lv 3^VIII (Ásm 3)

Stendr mér at höfði         hlíf in brotna.
Eru þar talðir         tigir inir átta
manna þeira,         er ek at morði varð.

In brotna hlíf stendr at höfði mér. Inir átta tigir manna, þeira er ek varð at morði, eru talðir þar.

The broken shield stands by my head. Eighty men, of whom I was the slayer, are counted there.

Mss: 7(43r) (Ásm)

Readings: [4] inir: ‘ens’ 7

Editions: Skj AII, 321, Skj BII, 340, Skald II, 183; Peringskiöld 1722, 22 (ch. 9), FSN 2, 485 (ch. 9), Detter 1891, 99, FSGJ 1, 406 (ch. 9) (Ásm); CPB II, 191, Halvorsen 1951, 13; Edd. Min. 54, NK 314.

Notes: [All]: Some eds (e.g. FSGJ) collapse sts 3 and 4, which both have only six lines, into a single stanza of twelve lines. Alternatively, to complete an eight-line stanza for each, Edd. Min. posits two missing lines between ll. 2 and 3 in st. 3 and two missing lines between ll. 4 and 6 in st. 4. — [1-2]: These lines are mirrored in Saxo 2015, I, vii. 9. 15, ll. 1, 4, pp. 508-9: Ad caput affixus clypeus mihi Sueticus astat, ‘By my head stands fixed a Swedish shield’, which depicts proceres pugilesque subactos ‘princes destroyed, champions overthrown’. The reference to a shield painted or otherwise inscribed with images (or possibly names) of dead warriors suggests an affinity with the Carolingian and early Scandinavian pictorial poem or ekphrasis (cf. Clunies Ross 2007; Fuglesang 2007). — [4] inir átta tigir ‘eighty’: Lit. ‘the eight tens’. Skj B, Skald and Edd. Min emend tigir to tigar (gen. sg.) to agree with 7’s ‘ens’.  Here it is assumed that the scribe mistook the abbreviation symbol for <-ir> for a long <s>. 

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
6. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
7. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
8. Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
9. Fuglesang, Signe Horn. 2007. ‘Ekphrasis and Surviving Imagery in Viking Scandinavia’. Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 3, 193-224.
10. Clunies Ross, Margaret. 2007. ‘Stylistic and Generic Definers of the Old Norse Skaldic Ekphrasis’. Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 3, 161-85.
11. Detter, Ferdinand, ed. 1891. Zwei Fornaldarsögur (Hrólfssaga Gautrekssonar und Ásmundarsaga kappabana) nach Cod. Holm. 7, 4to. Halle: Niemeyer.
12. Halvorsen, Eyvind Fjeld. 1951. ‘On the Sources of the Ásmundarsaga kappabana’. Studia Norvegica 2, 1-57.
13. Peringskiöld, Johann, ed. 1722. Saugu Asmundar, er kallaður er Kappabani. Stockholm: Horrn.
14. Saxo 2015 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2015. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes. Trans. Peter Fisher. Oxford Medieval Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
15. Internal references
16. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ásmundar saga kappabana’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 15. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=65> (accessed 21 May 2024)