Cite as: Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 101 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Ævidrápa 31)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 912.

Höfðu jarls liðar         útnes hroðit, rógþings vanir         sem refar hundum.

Unnum vit Hjálmarr,         er hinig fórum, eldi ok usla         eytt langskipum.

Liðar jarls, vanir {rógþings} sem refar hundum, höfðu hroðit útnes. Vit Hjálmarr unnum eytt langskipum eldi ok usla, er fórum hinig.

The jarl’s troops accustomed {to the strife-assembly} [BATTLE] like foxes to dogs, had cleared the outlying headland. Hjálmarr and I destroyed the longships with fire and embers when we got there.

Mss: 343a(80v-81r), 471(95r), 173ˣ(62va-b) (Ǫrv)

Readings: [1] liðar: niðar 173ˣ    [3] vanir: vinir 471    [4] hundum: so 173ˣ, húðum 343a, hurðum 471    [5] Unnum: unnu 471    [6] hinig: hingat 471;    fórum: so 471, fór 343a, 173ˣ    [7] usla: so 471, ‘husla’ 343a, ‘orla’ 173ˣ    [8] eytt: við 173ˣ;    langskipum: so 471, 173ˣ, skipum 343a

Editions: Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], E. 10. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Ǫrvar-Oddssaga IX 31: AII, 311, BII, 330, Skald II, 177, NN §§2605, 2994B; Ǫrv 1888, 202, FSGJ 2, 349-50.

Notes: [All]: The relationship of this stanza to events reported in the prose saga is rather tenuous, but it probably concerns a passage (Ǫrv 1888, 66-7) in which Oddr and Hjálmarr and their men take on a group of berserks in Selund (ModDan. Sjælland, ModEngl. Zealand). Oddr becomes separated from Hjálmarr when he pursues the berserks on land, while Hjálmarr clears their ship. — [3] vanir rógþings ‘accustomed to the strife-assembly [BATTLE]’: The battle-kenning rógþing ‘strife-assembly’ is not well formed, because the determinant róg- is synonymous with the referent ‘battle’. Similarly, in the previous stanza (Ǫrv 100/4), the ruler-kenning dróttinn lýða ‘the lord of men’ suffers from the same fault, suggesting that knowledge of how to build kennings was waning at the time when these stanzas were achieving the forms in which they have been recorded. — [4] sem refar hundum ‘like foxes to dogs’: The simile here suggests that the unidentified jarl’s troops are used to being attacked by more aggressive warriors, among whom Oddr doubtless includes himself and his men. It is not clear from the prose text who ‘the jarl’s troops’ are, as the episode concerns a group of berserks.