Hildigunnr Lv 1^VIII (Ǫrv 30)

According to the prose text of Ǫrv, after the Samsø episode Oddr takes Hjálmarr’s body back to Sweden and stays there for a while, but soon embarks on new adventures, including an expedition south to Normandy, France and the Mediterranean, which culminates in his bathing in the River Jordan. Two stanzas relating to these adventures are recorded as lausavísur in ms. 7, and these are also found as ǪrvOdd Ævdr 53 and 52 (Ǫrv 123 and 122) in the younger mss. The younger mss 343a, 471 and 173ˣ now introduce a new adventure in Giantland (Risaland) that is not in either 7 or 344a, in which Oddr is snatched up by a huge vulture and transported to its eyrie to serve as food for its young. He is rescued by a giant named Hildir, who takes Oddr to meet his family. To the giant Oddr seems incredibly small and he wonders how such a child can be so intelligent.

Ǫrv 30 is in mss 343a and 471, while 173ˣ has a different version of the narrative at this point. 343a is taken as main ms.

Tuttr litli         ok toppr fyr nefi;
meiri var Goðmundr         í gær borinn!

Tuttr litli ok toppr fyr nefi; meiri var Goðmundr borinn í gær!

Tiny tot with a tuft of hair before your nose; Goðmundr was bigger, born yesterday!

Mss: 343a(70v), 471(79r) (Ǫrv)

Readings: [2] toppr: topp 471    [3] meiri var Goðmundr: ‘mei[…] v[…] h[…] god[…]’ 471

Editions: Skj AII, 296, Skj BII, 316, Skald II, 168; Ǫrv 1888, 121, FSGJ 2, 274.

Context: The giant Hildir hands Oddr over to his daughter Hildigunnr as a plaything, and she speaks Ǫrv 30 as she dandles him on her knee, comparing him with her father’s baby son Goðmundr, who was born on the previous day but is now much bigger than Oddr.

Notes: [1-2]: Neither of these lines is metrical, but l. 1 could be made so either by desyllabification of tuttr or by the insertion of the def. art. inn (tuttr inn litli). — [1] tuttr ‘tot’: This is the only instance of tuttr in Old Icelandic, but the probable alternative form tottr occurs more frequently (six citation slips in the ONP database). The sense of the Old Icelandic word is ‘dwarf, adult of small stature’ (cf. ModDan. tommel-tot ‘Tom Thumb’); according to the OED, the ModEngl. tot, meaning a tiny child, cannot be connected to the Scandinavian words and does not appear in English before the C18th. — [2] ok ‘with’: Lit. ‘and’. — [2] toppr fyr nefi ‘a tuft of hair before your nose’: An indication that Oddr is not the baby he appears from his size, but is sexually mature, as Hildigunnr notices when she looks at his face. The prose text tells that she takes him into bed with her, plays with him and later produces a son, Vignir. On the motif of sexual relations between giantesses and fornaldarsaga heroes, see McKinnell (2009b, 206-8). — [3]: In 471 this line is written on the first line of the page and the upper parts of the letters have been cut off, together with superscript abbreviations. It seems to have read meiri var hann Goðmundr.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. OED = Murray, J. A. H. et al., eds. 1884-1928. The Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon. 2nd edn 1989. Simpson, J. A. and E. S. C. Weiner, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
5. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
6. Ǫrv 1888 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1888. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Leiden: Brill.
7. McKinnell, John. 2009b. ‘The Fantasy Giantess: Brana in Hálfdanar saga Brǫnufóstra’. In Ney et al. 2009, 201-22.
8. Internal references
9. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ǫrvar-Odds saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 804. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=35> (accessed 8 May 2024)
10. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 123 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Ævidrápa 53)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 930.
11. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 30 (Hildigunnr, Lausavísa 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 843.