StarkSt Vík 26^VIII (Gautr 34)

Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Gautreks saga 34 (Starkaðr gamli Stórvirksson, Víkarsbálkr 26)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 277.

text and translation

notes and context

The five following stanzas, Vík 26-30 (Gautr 34-8), are cited without intervening prose in two mss, 152 and 590b-cˣ, at the end of the long prose account of how Starkaðr was persuaded by his foster-father, Hrosshárs-Grani, who is now revealed as the god Óðinn, to sacrifice Víkarr to him by hanging his lord from a tree. After this event, Starkaðr was reviled in Hordaland and fled Norway, spending a long time at Uppsala with the kings Eiríkr and Alrekr. The prose text presents Vík 26-30 as part of Starkaðr’s response to King Alrekr’s request to him to tell his life story: þá orti Starkaðr kvæði, þat er heitir Víkarsbálkr: þar segir svá frá drápi Víkars konungs ‘then Starkaðr composed the poem that is called Víkarr’s section; there it says thus about the killing of King Víkarr’ (the wording of 590b-cˣ).

Aside from l. 5, which is corrupt, the metre of this stanza is fornyrðislag. — This stanza probably alludes to the story of Starkaðr’s killing of Víkarr by hanging him from a tree and piercing him with a reed-stalk in lieu of a spear. The hanging was presented to Starkaðr by Hrosshárs-Grani as a symbolic act, but it became a real sacrifice when the reed inexplicably became a spear and the noose of animal guts became a strong band. The story is told with some variation both in Gautr (Gautr 1900, 28-31) and in Saxo’s Gesta Danorum (Saxo 2015, I, vi. 5. 6-7, pp. 380-3). It is likely that the kernel of the narrative is old, though how old is not possible to determine. Other aspects of the story, such as the hero’s patronage by both Þórr and Óðinn, and the gifts that each god bestows on him, are also well established in Old Norse literature; for a review, see Turville-Petre (1964, 205-11).

readings

• [2] þeim er: om. 152
• [3] þá: þá þá 152
• [5] †ór†: verr 152
• [6] því: ‘þun’(?) 152
• [8] ‑lands: ‘lannz’ 152

sources

Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.

• AM 590 b-c 4°x (590b-cx) — 6r/28 - 6r/30

  Filgda ec filke þeim | er framaz vissak, þä unda ec best æfe minne, ädr for or enn þvi flaugd ollu | insta sinne til Haurdalandz.

  (HA)

  images
Close

• AM 152 fol (152) — 199vb/32 - 199vb/34

  Fylgða ek fylki,
  framast vissak,
  — þá þá unða ek bezt
  ævi minni —
  áðr fór verr
  — en †þun† flögð ollu —
  hinzta sinni
  til Hörða†lannz†.

  images
Close

editions and texts