Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 103 (Ormarr, Lausavísur 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 475.
Sunnan em ek kominn at segja spjöll þessi:
sviðin er öll Myrkviðar heiðr,
drifin öll Gotþjóð gumna blóði.
Ek em kominn sunnan at segja þessi spjöll: öll heiðr Myrkviðar er sviðin, öll Gotþjóð drifin blóði gumna.
I have come from the south to relate these words: all Myrkviðr’s heath is scorched, all the land of the Goths sprayed with the blood of men.
Mss: 203ˣ(111r-v), R715ˣ(34r) (Heiðr)
Readings: [2] segja: segir R715ˣ [4] ‑viðar: viðar corrected from ‑heiðar above the line in another hand 203ˣ, om. R715ˣ; heiðr: so R715ˣ, heiði 203ˣ [5] drifin: drjúgum er R715ˣ [6] gumna: gunna 203ˣ, R715ˣ
Editions: Skj AII, 254, Skj BII, 273-4, Skald II, 143; Heiðr 1672, 172, FSN 1, 499, Heiðr 1873, 279, Heiðr 1924, 149, Heiðr 1960, 53 (Heiðr); Edd. Min. 7, NK 307, ÍF Edd. II, 425.
Context: The Goths and Huns meet in battle. Eventually Hervǫr, the leader of the Goths, is killed, whereupon Ormarr and the rest of the troop flee. The Huns harry widely in the land of the Goths. Ormarr rides to Angantýr and speaks this stanza.
Notes: [3-4]: To restore alliteration Skj B, Skald, Heiðr 1960 and Edd. Min. all add in mæra ‘the renowned’ after öll, Edd. Min. placing öll in square brackets. There is no ms. support for this emendation here, but cf. Heiðr 94/1-2 hrís þat it mæra, | er Myrkviðr heitir ‘that renowned forest, which is called Myrkviðr’ (and see Note there). ÍF Edd. takes Sviðin er ǫll Myrkheiðr (see following Note) to be l. 3, assuming another l. 4 to be lost. — [4] heiðr Myrkviðar ‘Myrkviðr’s heath’: Ms. 203ˣ’s original reading was Myrkheiðar heiðr ‘Myrkheiðr’s heath’; the correction is in another hand. R715ˣ reads just ‘Mirk heiðr’, which NK follows, but if it is a p. n. it is not otherwise known or mentioned elsewhere (cf. Jón Helgason 1967, 234). Heiðr 1672 emends to Mork oc heidar ‘borderland and heath’. — [5] Gotþjóð ‘the land of the Goths’: See Note to Heiðr 94/16.
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