Anon (Vǫls) 5^VIII (Vǫls 25)

Út gekk Sigurðr         annspjalli frá,
hollvinr lofða,         ok hnípaði,
svá at ganga nam         gunnarfúsum
sundr of síður         serkr járnofinn.

Sigurðr gekk út frá annspjalli, hollvinr lofða, ok hnípaði, svá at járnofinn serkr nam ganga sundr of síður gunnarfúsum.

Sigurðr went out from that conversation, the loyal friend of men, and drooped with grief, so that the iron-woven mail-shirt broke asunder at the sides of the battle-keen man.

Mss: 1824b(36v) (Vǫls)

Editions: ; FSN I, 197, Vǫls 1906-8, 77, FSGJ I, 187, Vǫls 1965, 56 (Vǫls ch. 31); NK 323, ÍF Edd. II, 323.

Context: This stanza is cited at the end of an agonised exchange between Brynhildr and Sigurðr, in which she accuses him of deceiving her and causing her to break her oath of vowing to marry the man who rode through the flame wall to her or else to die. In the prose immediately before the stanza, Sigurðr says he will leave Guðrún and marry Brynhildr, if this will make her change her mind, but she rebuffs him and he leaves. This is the only one of the stanzas edited here to be sourced in the prose text to a named poem. It is introduced by svá segir í Sigurðarkviðu ‘so it says in Sigurðarkviða’.

Notes: [2] annspjalli ‘that conversation’: Annspjall or andspjalli (cf. ANG §291.2) seems to mean ‘conversation, colloquy’ in this context, though it can also mean ‘reply’ (as in Heiðr 90a/8) or ‘comforting words’ (Guðr I 12/6). The variant form annspilli/andspilli has a similar range of meanings; cf. LT: and-spilli. The cpd seems to be largely confined to heroic poetry in eddic metres (cf. Kommentar VI, 958). — [3] hollvinr lofða ‘the loyal friend of men’: The phrase could conceivably be understood as a ruler-kenning. Hollvinr occurs with reasonable frequency in skaldic encomia; cf. Arn Hryn 16/6^II, Hfr ErfÓl 5/8^I and, particularly comparable with the present instance, Mark Eirdr 23/3^II hollvinr herjar ‘loyal friend of the people [JUST RULER]’. — [4] hnípaði ‘drooped with grief’: Most eds, following an original suggestion by Björner (cf. NK 323 n.), have emended the ms.’s hnípaði to hnipnaði, on the grounds that the verb hnípa ‘let one’s head hang, be downcast, sad or sorrowful’ is unlikely to have a 3rd pers. pret. sg. form hnípaði. While it is true that the 3rd pers. sg. pret. hnípti has been recorded several times both in prose and poetry (cf. ONP: hnípa; Anon Óldr 25/5^I), one cannot entirely rule out an alternate form hnípaði. The closely related verb hnipna, with the same meaning, occurs only in poetry of the Codex Regius dealing with the Volsung legends, and only in the 3rd pers. sg. pret. hnipnaði (so Sigsk 13/2, Guðr II 7/1 (both instances of Gunnarr) and Guðr II 5/5 of the horse Grani). Hnipna is not listed in ONP. — [6] gunnarfúsum ‘of the battle-keen man’: Cf. Brot 9/7. Either a cpd adj. or a noun phrase (cf. Kommentar VI, 960).

References

1. Bibliography
2. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. 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.
4. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
5. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
6. Kommentar = See, Klaus von et al. 1997-2012. Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda. 7 vols. Heidelberg: Winter.
7. LT = La Farge, Beatrice and John Tucker. 1992. Glossary to the Poetic Edda, based on Hans Kuhn’s Kurzes Wörterbuch. Skandinavistische Arbeiten 15. Heidelberg: Winter.
8. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
9. Vǫls 1965 = Finch, R. G., ed. and trans. 1965. The Saga of the Volsungs. London: Nelson.
10. Vǫls 1906-8 = Olsen, Magnus, ed. 1906-8. Vǫlsunga saga ok Ragnars saga loðbrókar. SUGNL 36. Copenhagen: Møller.
11. Vǫls = Vǫlsunga saga.
12. Internal references
13. Kate Heslop (ed.) 2012, ‘Anonymous Poems, Óláfs drápa Tryggvasonar 25’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1056.
14. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Hrynhenda, Magnússdrápa 16’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 202-3.
15. Not published: do not cite ()
16. Not published: do not cite ()
17. Not published: do not cite ()
18. Jayne Carroll (ed.) 2009, ‘Markús Skeggjason, Eiríksdrápa 23’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 452-3.
19. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 90 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 9)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 459.