Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Gautreks saga 36 (Starkaðr gamli Stórvirksson, Víkarsbálkr 28)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 279.
Skylda ek Víkar í viði hávum,
Geirþjófs bana, goðum um signa.
Lagða ek geiri gram til hjarta;
þat er mér hermast handaverka.
Ek skylda um signa Víkar, bana Geirþjófs, goðum í hávum viði. Ek lagða geiri til hjarta gram; þat er mér hermast handaverka.
‘I was obliged to dedicate Víkarr, the slayer of Geirþjófr, to the gods on the high tree. I thrust with the spear to the ruler’s heart; that is for me the most regrettable of the deeds of my hands. ’
As for Gautr 34.
Starkaðr again refers to external forces, though without specifying which they are, as the causes of his action in sacrificing Víkarr to the gods. The use of the verb signa ‘dedicate, consecrate’ (l. 4) indicates as much, as does the manner of the sacrifice, which follows the pattern that Óðinn is said to have established both for himself (cf. Hávm 138-41) and for those heroes that he took for himself; on this subject see Turville-Petre (1964, 43-8; ARG I, 409-12, II, 49-50; Simek 1993, 242, 249). Characteristic of Odinic sacrifices are the use of a spear to pierce the victim and the mode of sacrifice, hanging on a tree, which is attested both from medieval ethnographic literature, such as Adam of Bremen’s account of the sacrifices at the temple at Uppsala (Schmeidler 1917, 259-60), and from texts like Hávm.
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.
skillda eg Wikar i vidi häfum | geirþiöfs bana, godum um signa, lagda eg geire gram til hiarta, þat er mier | hermast handaverka ||
(HA)
Skylda ek Víkar
ná við hofum ,
Geirþjófs bana,
goðum signa.
Lagða ek geir
gram til hjarta;
þat er mér harmast
handaverka.
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