Cite as: Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 10 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 822.
context: In both Ǫrv and Heiðr this stanza is attributed to Oddr. It follows almost immediately from Ǫrv 9, and is introduced with the words Oddr segir ‘Oddr says’ (Heiðr) or Þá segir Oddr enn svá ‘Then Oddr speaks again thus’ (Ǫrv).
notes: This stanza is a riposte or correction to Hjálmarr’s prediction in the previous stanza. Oddr asserts that the situation will be the opposite of what Hjálmarr imagines, viz. the berserks will be the ones to die (be Óðinn’s guests) and they two will survive. Hence, ll. 3-6 represent a variation on ll. 5-8 of Ǫrv 9 in both the Heiðr and Ǫrv mss. Lines 1-2 differ in the two traditions, and that of the sole Ǫrv ms. at this point, 344a, is obviously corrupt. A later hand has tried to correct it. Boer (Ǫrv 1888, 1892) read En ek þvíat einu | orþi hnekti (hnektak Ǫrv 1892), translating with a prose order En ek hnekta því eino orðe ‘Aber ich wies solches nur mit diesem anspruch zurück’ (Ǫrv 1892, 103), ‘But I dismissed this with a single claim’. See further, for this emended text, Boer’s discussion (1892b, 124 and n. 1). Edd. Min. has a similar text in square brackets based on 344a. Both Skj (A and B) and Skald follow the Heiðr text of this stanza, as does the present edn.
texts: ‹Heiðr 3›,
‹Ǫrv 10›
editions: Skj Anonyme digte og vers [XIII]: E. 10. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Ǫrvar-Oddssaga III 6 (Oddr - AII, 291; BII, 312); Skald II, 166; Heiðr 1924, 10-11, 98, Heiðr 1960, 6; Ǫrv 1888, 99, Ǫrv 1892, 53-4, FSGJ 2, 254; Edd. Min. 63.
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