Note to Gestumbl Heiðr 13VIII (Heiðr 60)
[4] ofarliga ‘high up’: The mss have ‘ovarlega’, which could be read óvarliga ‘unwarily’, but this gives less good sense (though is preferred by Ettmüller 1861, 37, with the gloss unverhofft ‘unexpectedly’). Emendation of <v> to <f> is reasonable, since <f> would be pronounced [v] when intervocalic (see ANG §36, cf. §42), and is made by most other eds, following Bugge (Heiðr 1873; Bugge notes this was the suggestion of Svend Grundtvig). Kock (Skald) emends to ofárliga and in NN §2834 translates mycket tidigt (resp. snabbt) ‘very early (or swiftly)’, comparing árflognir (NN §3397C) ‘early flyer’, i.e. ‘raven’ (LP). Although the bird-of-prey imagery would fit well with what has been conjectured for the next line (see Note to l. 5), it is less clear why an arrow would be described as as early flier. The meaning ‘swiftly’ might make more sense in the present context, however, and is attested elsewhere in poetry, although the cpd (with the prefix of- ‘too, excessively’ (= ‘very’ in Kock’s interpretation)) would be a hap. leg.
References
- Bibliography
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
- Ettmüller, Ludwig. 1861. Altnordisches Lesebuch nebst kurzgefasster Formenlehre und Wörterbuch. Zürich: Meyer & Zeller.
- Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.