Note to Hregg Lv 1VIII (GHr 1)
[All]: The verse-form of all three of Hreggviðr’s stanzas is fornyrðislag and their theme is vengeance. Each stanza begins with the same line, Glez Hreggviðr ‘Hreggviðr rejoices’. Hreggviðr must be desyllabified as Hreggviður in each instance to achieve metrical regularity (Types D and C). Repetition of lines, whether at the beginning or end of the stanza or from one stanza to another, as here, seems often to characterise the poetry of draugar ‘revenants’ in Old Norse; in the lausavísa GunnHám Lv 14V (Nj 29) spoken by the dead Gunnarr from his mound in Njáls saga (Nj), when urging his kinsmen to vengeance, the last two lines repeat the same words.
References
- Internal references
- 2022, ‘ Anonymous, Njáls 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. 1220-1313. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=55> (accessed 12 May 2024)
- R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2022, ‘Njáls saga 29 (Gunnarr Hámundarson, Lausavísur 14)’ 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. 1256.