Cite as: Hubert Seelow (ed.) 2017, ‘Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka 54 (Hrókr inn svarti, Hrókskviða 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 348.
Höfðu vér allir haukmanna lið,
hvar sem fróðhugaðr frama kostaði. |
Gengum vér í gegnum með grá hjálma
fullstór öll fóstrlönd níu. |
Höfðu[m] vér allir lið haukmanna, hvar sem fróðhugaðr kostaði frama. Vér gengum með grá hjálma í gegnum öll níu fullstór fóstrlönd.
We all had a host of hawk-like men, wherever the wise-minded one tried his luck. We went with grey helmets through all nine vast homelands.
Mss: 2845(38r) (Hálf)
Editions: Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], E. 6. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Hálfssaga IX 4: AII, 265, BII, 287, Skald II, 151, NN §3192; Hálf 1864, 32, Hálf 1909, 120-1, FSGJ 2, 125, Hálf 1981, 133, 191; Edd. Min. 44.
Notes: [2] lið ‘a host’: Some eds (Hálf 1864, Edd. Min., Skj B, Skald) replace the ms. reading lið by lund ‘mind, temperament’, probably because there is an adj. hauklundaðr/hauklundr/hauklyndr ‘with a hawk-like temperament’ (see LP: hauklundaðr), but it is not necessary to emend to obtain good sense. — [7-8] í gegnum öll níu fullstór fóstrlönd ‘through all nine vast homelands’: Here fullstór ‘vast’ is construed as a n. acc. pl. adj. agreeing with níu fóstrlönd ‘nine homelands’, as in Hálf 1864 and FSGJ. Other eds have emended one or both of these words because the line as it stands is hypometrical; Edd. Min. has fullstórir menn ‘very powerful men’, in apposition to vér ‘we’ (l. 5); Skj B has fullstórir ǫll, taking fullstórir with vér and ǫll with an emended folklǫnd (see below, Note to l. 8); Skald prints fullstórum ǫll, understanding fullstórum as ‘very powerfully’ (cf. NN §3192), while Hálf 1909 emends to fullstóra ǫld, which Andrews translates as durch die große welt ‘through the vast world’. — [8] fóstrlönd ‘homelands’: Bugge’s emendation fólklönd, in which he is followed by Skj B and Skald, seems unnecessary; according to Fritzner: fóstrland, this noun is synonymous with fóstrjörð, which can simply mean ‘land’. Fóstrland is used in poetry in the sense ‘homeland, native land’; cf. Hharð Lv 10/6II, Anon Pl 55/2VII and Anon Líkn 33/4VII.
