Cite as: Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 119 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Ævidrápa 49)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 926.
Hafða ek eigi á aldri mínum
höfuð hraustara hvergi fundit. |
Bar ek mér á herðum hjálmum grimman,
ok til Sigtúna síðan hafðak. |
Ek hafða eigi á aldri mínum hvergi fundit hraustara höfuð. Ek bar grimman hjálmum á herðum mér, ok hafðak síðan til Sigtúna.
I had not in my life anywhere found a braver warrior. I carried the man fierce to helmets on my shoulders and afterwards brought him to Sigtuna.
Mss: 343a(81r), 471(95v), 173ˣ(63vb) (Ǫrv)
Readings: [1] eigi: aldri 173ˣ [6] hjálmum: Hjálmar 173ˣ [8] hafðak: færða 173ˣ
Editions: Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], E. 10. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Ǫrvar-Oddssaga IX 49: AII, 314-15, BII, 334, Skald II, 179; Ǫrv 1888, 205, FSGJ 2, 355.
Notes: [All]: According to the saga prose (Ǫrv 1888, 106-8), Oddr carried the dead Hjálmarr down to the shore and aboard his ship. Once he reached Sweden, he lifted his dead friend onto his back and carried him, together with his mail-coat and helmet, to the king’s hall in Uppsala (not Sigtuna, as in this stanza). — [3] höfuð ‘warrior’: Lit. ‘head’. — [5]: Most eds have either cliticised bar ek (so Skj B, Skald and FSGJ) or bracketed mér (so Ǫrv 1888). — [7] til Sigtúna ‘to Sigtuna’: On this royal settlement and proto-town, see Ǫrv 21/8 and Note there.
