StarkSt Vík 4^VIII (Gautr 12)

Þrévetran mik         þaðan af flutti
Hrosshárs-Grani         til Hörðalands.
Nam ek á Aski         upp at vaxa;
sákat niðja         á níu vetrum.

Hrosshárs-Grani flutti mik þrévetran þaðan af til Hörðalands. Ek nam at vaxa upp á Aski; sákat niðja á níu vetrum.

Hrosshárs-Grani (‘Horse-hair Grani’) carried me off from there at the age of three years to Hordaland. I grew up at Ask; I did not see my kinsmen for nine winters.

Mss: 590b-cˣ(3v), 152(198va), papp11ˣ(5r) (Gautr)

Readings: [1] ‑vetran: so 152, papp11ˣ, ‑veturn 590b‑cˣ    [3] ‑Grani: ‘granne’ 152    [5] Aski: skipi 152    [7] sákat: Stórvirks papp11ˣ    [8] vetrum: sumrum 152, papp11ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 324-5, Skj BII, 344, Skald II, 185; FSN 3, 17-18, Gautr 1664, 21, Gautr 1900, 14-15, FSGJ 4, 14; Edd. Min. 38.

Context: Following the information given in the Context to Gautr 11, the prose text goes on to mention one of the important men in King Herþjófr’s army called Grani, or Hrosshárs-Grani; on this name, see Note to line 3 below. He lived on the island of Fenhring (now Askøy near Bergen; cf. Þul Eyja 4/4^III and Note) off the coast of Hordaland at a farm called Askr. Grani abducted Starkaðr, who was then aged three, and took him home to Fenhring, where he stayed for nine years. Gautr 11 and 12 are introduced with Svá segir Starkaðr ‘so says Starkaðr’.

Notes: [1] þrévetran ‘at the age of three years’: Lit. ‘being three winters’. — [3] Hrosshárs-Grani ‘Hrosshárs-Grani (“Horse-hair Grani”)’: Lit. ‘Horse-hair’s Grani’. Grani ‘bewhiskered one’ (AEW: grani) was the name of the legendary hero Sigurðr’s horse. Later in the saga, the figure of Hrosshárs-Grani is revealed to be a manifestation of the god Óðinn (cf. Þul Óðins 4/7^III and Note there). Óðinn is associated with horses in several contexts in Old Norse myth, and this may point to his connection with a horse cult (cf. Falk 1924; Simek 1993, 161, 293-4). — [5] á Aski ‘at Askr’: The farm Askr was presumably located at or near the modern village of Ask on the island of Askøy (ON Fenhring), immediately north-west of Bergen and now connected to the city by a bridge. — [8] vetrum ‘winters’: Years were usually measured in winters rather than summers in early Scandinavia, as in other Germanic cultures. Sumrum may have been chosen here by some scribes out of a false belief that the alliteration of ll. 7-8 was on <s> rather than <n>. The age of twelve (9+3) was considered the age of adulthood in early Scandinavia, though later medieval sources place it at sixteen (cf. Grg Ib, 22; Dennis et al. 1980-2000, II, 46).

References

1. Bibliography
2. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
5. Dennis, Andrew et al., trans. 1980-2000. Laws of Early Iceland: Grágás I-II. 2 vols. The University of Manitoba Press Icelandic Studies 3 and 5. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.
6. Grg = Grágás.
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. Falk, Hjalmar. 1924. Odensheite. Skrifter utg. av Videnskapsselskapet i Kristiania. II. Hist.-filos. kl. 1924, 10. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
10. Simek, Rudolf. 1993. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Trans. Angela Hall. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
11. Gautr 1900 = Ranisch, Wilhelm, ed. 1900. Die Gautrekssaga in zwei Fassungen. Palaestra 11. Berlin: Mayer & Müller.
12. Gautr 1664 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1664. Gothrici & Rolfi Westrogothiæ Regum Historia. Lingua antiqua Gothica conscripta. Uppsala: Curio.
13. Internal references
14. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Eyja heiti 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 977.
15. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Óðins nǫfn 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 741.
16. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Gautreks saga 11 (Starkaðr gamli Stórvirksson, Víkarsbálkr 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 257.