Note to Herv Lv 9VIII (Heiðr 26)
[8] roðnum ‘decorated’: Probably a variant form, required for alliteration, of hroðinn, p. p. of hrjóða, rather than roðinn ‘reddened, smeared with blood, bleeding’ (p. p. of rjóða). Cf. LP (1860): hrjóða. Hrjóða usually means ‘clear, empty (of ships)’, but could apparently also imply ‘decorate, adorn, paint’, cf. réð hrjóða ‘painted’ ÞjóðA Magnfl 18/5II (and see Note there); hroðit sigli, probably ‘adorned brooch’ Sigsk 49/6 (NK 215); and the cpd gullroðinn ‘gilt’ (see Fritzner: gullroðinn). Cf. also the Old English p. p. hroden ‘adorned’, e.g. hroden hildecumbor ‘adorned battle-banner’, Beowulf l. 1022 (Beowulf 2008, 36). Though it is conventional in Old Norse poetry to describe weapons reddened with blood, the meaning ‘decorated’ accords better with Heiðr 37/5, where Hervǫr is described with grafinn geirr ‘graven spear’, and makes better sense, since at this point in the saga she has not recently been involved in fighting or battle.
References
- Bibliography
- LP (1860) = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1860. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis. Copenhagen: Societas Regia antiquariorum septentrionalium.
- Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
- NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
- Beowulf 2008 = Fulk, Robert D., Robert E. Bjork and John D. Niles, eds. 2008. Klaeber’s Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg. 4th rev. edn of Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed. Fr. Klaeber. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.
- Internal references
- Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 84 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 37)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 451.
- Not published: do not cite ()
- Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Magnússflokkr 18’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 85-6.
- Not published: do not cite ()