Note to ǪrvOdd Ævdr 9VIII (Ǫrv 79)
[All]: This stanza needs to be read ironically to reflect the speaker’s (Oddr’s) distaste for the raiding of the other members of the party, and this point of view is signalled by the repeated use of the adj. ho(r)skr ‘wise’ in ll. 1 and 6. According to the saga prose (Ǫrv 1888, 24-7), the party sees Saami huts (gammar) on the coast as they travel north to Permia. The crew on Guðmundr’s ship go ashore, rob the huts and terrify the Saami women, but Oddr does not allow his crew to do so. Oddr is invited to join a similar raiding party the following day, but refuses to participate. His attitude on this occasion is to be contrasted with the alacrity with which he engages in raiding on the Permians (see the following stanza), and is doubtless attributable to his awareness of his family’s kinship with the Saami through his father’s mother Hrafnhildr Brúnadóttir (cf. GrL and Ket).
References
- Bibliography
- Ǫrv 1888 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1888. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Leiden: Brill.
- Internal references
- 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ketils saga hœngs’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 548. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=71> (accessed 19 April 2024)
- 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Gríms saga loðinkinna’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 288. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=76> (accessed 19 April 2024)