Note to StarkSt Vík 32^VIII (Gautr 40)

[All]: This stanza refers to an episode in Starkaðr’s early life, also probably alluded to in the use of the word tjálgur ‘branches’ in Vík 5/2 (Gautr 13). This episode is known to Saxo (Saxo 2015, I, vi. 5. 2, pp. 378-9) and the composer of the prose Gautr (Gautr 1900, 11-13), as well as to the composer of the redaction of Heiðr in UppsUB R715ˣ, though in each case the story is slightly different, the main difference being that in some accounts an older, additional generation of giantlike beings with the names of Starkaðr and Stórvirkr precedes that of the Starkaðr central to Gautr and Vík. Saxo reports that Starkaðr was thought to have been born a giant with six arms. The god Þórr cut off four of them to give Starkaðr human form. Line 4 of this stanza claims he originally had eight arms, and the beginning of Heiðr according to R715ˣ gives the same number (Heiðr 1924, 90; Heiðr 1960, 67), but attributes this peculiarity to the older Starkaðr Áludrengr (see below). Vetrl Lv 1/3^III lists Starkaðr as one of the giants that Þórr attacked and slew. Earlier in the prose text of Gautr (Gautr 1900, 12) the connection of Starkaðr’s giant family with Þórr is established, though the motif of the god’s tearing off Starkaðr’s extra arms is not mentioned. It is told there that Starkaðr’s father Stórvirkr was the son of an exceedingly wise giant named Starkaðr Áludrengr, and a woman named Álfhildr, daughter of King Álfr of Álfheimr, whom he abducted from her father. Þórr killed Starkaðr senior at the insistence of King Álfr because of this abduction. A similar account appears in the R715ˣ version of Heiðr (Heiðr 1924, 91; Heiðr 1960, 66-7).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
3. Gautr 1900 = Ranisch, Wilhelm, ed. 1900. Die Gautrekssaga in zwei Fassungen. Palaestra 11. Berlin: Mayer & Müller.
4. 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.
5. Saxo 2015 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2015. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes. Trans. Peter Fisher. Oxford Medieval Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
6. Internal references
7. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Gautreks saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 241. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=9> (accessed 10 May 2024)
8. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 367. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=23> (accessed 10 May 2024)
9. Margaret Clunies Ross (forthcoming), ‘ Starkaðr gamli Stórvirksson, Víkarsbálkr’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3118> (accessed 10 May 2024)
10. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2017, ‘Vetrliði Sumarliðason, Lausavísa 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 425.
11. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Gautreks saga 13 (Starkaðr gamli Stórvirksson, Víkarsbálkr 5)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 259.