Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 60 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 26)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 875.
Oddr brendi hof ok hörga braut
ok trégoðum týndi þínum.
Gerðu þau ekki góðs í heimi,
er þau ór eldi ösla né máttu.
Oddr brendi hof ok braut hörga ok týndi trégoðum þínum. Þau gerðu ekki góðs í heimi, er þau né máttu ösla ór eldi.
‘Oddr burned the temples and broke up the sanctuaries and destroyed your wooden gods. They did nothing good in the world, since they could not escape from the fire. ’
See Introduction to stanzas 59-70.
Oddr’s reply to his interlocutor justifies his action of burning the cult houses of Álfr and Gyðja in terms familiar to Christian apologetic for the destruction of places of pagan worship, in that they did no good in the world and were powerless to save themselves from the fire because they were just pieces of wood. Earlier in the saga (Ǫrv 1888, 9), Oddr has been represented as a ‘noble pagan’ (cf. Lönnroth 1969) who has a natural understanding of Christian beliefs and morals. While in Southern Europe, he accepted preliminary baptism as a Christian (cf. Ǫrv 37 and 123 and Notes). The terms hof ‘temple’ (l. 1) and hörgr ‘sanctuary’ (l. 2) are used exclusively in skaldic poetry to refer to places of pagan cult; cf. Anon Pl 59/2VII, Hfr Óldr 1/2I and Mark Eirdr 17/1II. — [1-2]: Line 1 is unmetrical, the alliteration falling in metrical position 4 in a D4/E-line. A change of word order to Hof brendi Oddr would restore a metrical line, but the first position emphasis of the p. n. Oddr would then be lost.
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
Oddr brenndi hof ok haurga braut ok tregoðum tyndi þinum go᷎rþu þau ekci goðs iheimi er | þau or elldi ausla ne mattu ·
(HA)
Oddr brennir hof
ok hörga braut
ok trégoðum
týndi þínum.
Gerðu þau ekki
gott í heimi,
er eigi orði
ösla máttu .
Oddr brendi hof
ok hörga braut
ok trégoðum
týndi þínum.
Gerðu þau eigi
góðs í heimi,
er þau ór eldi
ösla né máttu.
Oddr brendi hof
ok hörga braut
ok trégoðum
týndi þínum.
Gerðu þau ekki
gott í heimi,
er þau ór eldi
ösla eigi máttu .
Oddr brendi hof
ok hörga braut
ok trégoðum
týndi þínum.
Gerðu þau eigi
gott í heimi,
er þau ór eldi
ei ösla mega .
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