Note to Hfr ErfÓl 26a^I

[1-4]: This helmingr is transmitted not only by the kings’ sagas but also by the sagas of Icelanders, in this case Hallfr (ÍF 8, 155), albeit with a different text of ll. 1-2 (cf. the similar case of Eskál Lv 1-2). The ms. transmission is further complicated by the fact that Hallfr is interpolated into ÓT as well as being preserved separately. The two helmingar are printed as separate entities in Skj and Skald, as ErfÓl 26 and 28/1-4. This edn regards them as variants, but prints them separately in order to reflect their textual differences and their different prose contexts. The version printed here is preserved within the main text of ÓT, while the Hallfr version is printed in SkP V, Poetry from the Sagas of Icelanders, as Hfr ErfÓl 26b^V (Hallfr 7). This edn thus adopts the position of Krijn (1931, 121), who argues that the Hallfr version is a variant of ErfÓl 26a/1-4. She points out that orðinn, the p. p. of verða ‘to become’, has a different meaning in each version, meaning ‘lost’ here, but ‘become’ in st. 26/4b^V (þanns vas orðinn ‘who had become’). Fidjestøl (1982, 58-9) suggests that misunderstanding of the unusual sense of orðinn in st. 26a/4 might have been the impetus for oral variation. The view of the texts as variants in fact goes back to Árni Magnússon (761bˣ, 175v), who wrote st. 26b/1-2 alongside st. 26a/1-2.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. Fidjestøl, Bjarne. 1982. Det norrøne fyrstediktet. Universitet i Bergen Nordisk institutts skriftserie 11. Øvre Ervik: Alvheim & Eide.
4. SkP V = Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Ed. Tarrin Wills, Kari Ellen Gade and Margaret Clunies Ross. 2022.
5. ÍF 8 = Vatnsdœla saga. Ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson. 1939.
6. Krijn, S. A. 1931. ‘Halfred Vandraedaskald’. Neophilologus 16, 46-55, 121-31.
7. Internal references
8. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=60> (accessed 25 April 2024)
9. 2022, ‘ Anonymous, Hallfreðar saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 873-914. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=63> (accessed 25 April 2024)
10. Margaret Clunies Ross 2012, ‘ Einarr skálaglamm Helgason, Lausavísur’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 330. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1182> (accessed 25 April 2024)
11. Kate Heslop (ed.) 2022, ‘Hallfreðar saga 7 (Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Erfidrápa Óláfs Tryggvasonar 26b)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 881.
12. Kate Heslop (ed.) 2012, ‘Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Erfidrápa Óláfs Tryggvasonar 26a’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 437.
13. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Erfidrápa Óláfs helga 26’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 696.