Cite as: Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 48 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 15)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 861.
Sigurðr, vartu eigi í Svíaskerjum,
þá er Hálfdani heiptir guldum. |
Urðu randir rógmiklaðar
sverðum skornar, en hann sjálfr drepinn. |
Sigurðr, vartu eigi í Svíaskerjum, þá er guldum Hálfdani heiptir. Randir {rógmiklaðar} urðu skornar sverðum, en hann sjálfr drepinn.
Sigurðr, you were not in the skerries of the Swedes, when we repaid Hálfdan for hostilities. The shields {of the strife-increaser} [WARRIOR] were cut through with swords, and he himself was killed.
Mss: 7(54v), 344a(21v), 343a(77r), 471(89r) (Ǫrv)
Readings: [1] Sigurðr: ok Sigurðr 7 [2] í Svíaskerjum: so 343a, 471, þar í Svíaskerjum 7, Svíaskerjum í 344a [6] rógmiklaðar: so 343a, 471, rógmiklaðra 7, raun mjök lagðar 344a [7] skornar: skýfðar 344a
Editions: Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], E. 10. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Ǫrvar-Oddssaga VII 15: AII, 300, BII, 320, Skald II, 170, FF §38; Ǫrv 1888, 163, Ǫrv 1892, 82, FSGJ 2, 316-17; Edd. Min. 68-9.
Context: As for Ǫrv 47.
Notes: [All]: The events alluded to in this stanza occur in an early part of the saga (Ǫrv 1888, 50-7; Ǫrv 1892, 27-9), shortly after Oddr’s return to Hrafnista from his adventures in Permia and Risaland (Giantland). He decides to go on a viking adventure and gets his father, Grímr loðinkinni ‘Hairy-cheek’, to equip three ships for him. He then provokes a fight with a viking called Hálfdan, the commander of thirty ships, who uses the skerries in the mouth of the Götaälv (Elfarsker) as his base. Oddr and Ásmundr take Hálfdan by means of a surprise attack and kill him. There is a major discrepancy between this stanza and the prose text; in the prose, Hálfdan’s base is in the Götaälv skerries, while in the stanza it is in the skerries around the Stockholm archipelago (Svíasker). A location on the west coast of Sweden would be more logical from the perspective of an expedition mounted from Norway. — [3-4]: These lines are also
discrepant with the prose text, which represents Oddr’s attack on Hálfdan as a
completely unprovoked act of viking bravado. — [6] rógmiklaðar ‘of the strife-increaser [WARRIOR]’: The reading of 343a and 471; this hap. leg. cpd noun presumably refers to Hálfdan. Both Skj B (also LP: rógmikluðr) and Skald adopt this reading, while Edd. Min. and Ǫrv 1888 and 1892 prefer the reading of 7, rógmiklaðra ‘of the strife-increased ones’, where the cpd would have to be an adj. in gen. pl., giving a rather awkward and unprecedented kenning. — [7] skornar ‘cut through’: Ms. 344a’s skýfðar ‘shoved, pushed’ gives less good sense here.
