Cite as: Peter Jorgensen (ed.) 2017, ‘Ásmundar saga kappabana 10 (Ásmundr kappabana, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 23.
Þá kom inn hári Hildibrandr,
Húnakappi; hann var mér ómakr. |
Ok ek markaða meðan á hánum
herkumbl harðlig fyr hjálm neðan. |
Þá kom inn hári Hildibrandr Húnakappi; hann var mér ómakr. Ok ek markaða meðan á hánum {harðlig herkumbl} fyr hjálm neðan.
Then came the grey-haired Hildibrandr, champion of the Huns; he was not easy for me to deal with. And meanwhile I marked on him {hard war tokens} [WOUNDS] beneath his helmet.
Mss: 7(43r) (Ásm)
Editions: Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], E. 12. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Ásmundar saga kappabana II 4: AII, 322, BII, 342, Skald II, 184; Peringskiöld 1722, 23 (ch. 10), FSN 2, 487 (ch. 10), Detter 1891, 100, FSGJ 1, 408 (ch. 10) (Ásm); CPB I, 192, Halvorsen 1951, 20; Edd. Min. 87.
Context: According to the saga, after
Hildibrandr hears that Ásmundr has disposed of the eleven men, he flies into a
berserk rage, and sets out for the River Rhine to meet him.
Notes: [2] Hildibrandr: The line as it stands in the ms. is hypometrical, but if excrescent ‑u- were added in Hildibrand[u]r, the metre would be restored. — [3] Húnakappi ‘champion of the Huns’: According to Skj A, the final <i> of this word is absent, but it appears legible to this ed. — [4] ómakr ‘not easy to deal with’: Lit. ‘unequal’; cf. makara ‘more equal, more agreeable’, KormǪ Lv 9/5V (Korm 9). — [6] meðan ‘meanwhile’: Emended by Skj B and Skald to mæki ‘with a sword’. — [7-8]: The wording here is grimly playful. The cpd herkumbl usually refers to a token or mark on a helmet and can also be a heiti for helmet; see Þul Hjálms 2/2III, Hálf 9/3. A herkuml beneath the helmet, however, is in the wrong place and hence is a wound to the face.
