Note to Svart Skauf 19VIII
[All]: Here begins the first part of the fox’s ævikviða ‘life poem’, in which he recounts the events that caused his wounds (sts 19-29). The content of this and the following stanzas has a parallel in Grettis saga, where Grettir’s friend, the cave-dweller Hallmundr, who had been wounded when attempting to steal fish, returns home to his cave, and his daughter asks why he is covered in blood (Gr, ÍF 7, 203): … hann sagði allt sem farit hafði. ‘Skaltu nú heyra til,’ sagði hann, ‘en ek mun segja frá athǫfnum mínum, ok mun ek kveða þar um kvæði, en þú skal rísta eptir á kefli’ ‘… he told everything that had happened. “Now you must listen,” he said, “and I shall tell you about my dealings, and I shall compose a poem about it, and you must carve it on a rune stick”’. Svartr must have been familiar with such episodes and parodied them consciously. See also HallmGr HallkvV (Gr) and ǪrvOdd Ævdr (Ǫrv), especially Ævdr 70/5-6 (Ǫrv 140) fjölð er at segja | frá förum mínum ‘there is much to tell about my travels’.
References
- Bibliography
- ÍF 7 = Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar. Ed. Guðni Jónsson. 1936.
- Internal references
- 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ǫrvar-Odds saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 804. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=35> (accessed 4 May 2024)
- 2022, ‘ Anonymous, Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar’ 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. 640-806. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=70> (accessed 4 May 2024)
- Margaret Clunies Ross (forthcoming), ‘ Ǫrvar-Oddr, Ævidrápa’ 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=2999> (accessed 4 May 2024)
- Jonathan Grove (forthcoming), ‘ Hallmundr, Hallmundarkviða’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3025> (accessed 4 May 2024)
- Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 140 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Ævidrápa 70)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 946.