Note to Hjálm Lv 8VIII (Ǫrv 18)
[All]: Many previous eds have argued that 2845’s order of the sts Hjálm Lv 8 (Ǫrv 18) and Lv 9 (Ǫrv 19) – the order presented here and in Skj and Skald – is less good than the order of R715ˣ, where they are reversed (cf. Heiðr 1924, lxviii; Heiðr 1960, 9 n. 2, 74-5). While one can argue that Hjálmarr’s gesture of taking off his arm-ring and asking the hearer to take it to Ingibjǫrg suggests his end is fast approaching, and while Lv 9 seems to revert to an earlier stage of his life when he left the court and undertook viking adventures, each of the stanzas is in fact self-contained and they could be combined in various ways. As Lönnroth (1971, 12) has pointed out, there is no narrative development in Hjálmarr’s death-song, just an intensification of its melodramatic mood.
References
- Bibliography
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
- Heiðr 1960 = Tolkien, Christopher, ed. and trans. 1960. Saga Heiðreks konungs ins vitra / The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise. Nelson Icelandic Texts. London etc.: Nelson.
- Lönnroth, Lars. 1971. ‘Hjálmar’s Death-Song and the Delivery of Eddic Poetry’. Speculum 46, 1-20. Rpt. with postscript in Lönnroth 2011, 191-218.
- Internal references
- Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 18 (Hjálmarr inn hugumstóri, Lausavísur 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 832.
- Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 19 (Hjálmarr inn hugumstóri, Lausavísur 9)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 833.