Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 107 (Angantýr Heiðreksson, Lausavísur 7)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 478.
Mjök várum vér margir, er vér mjöð drukkum;
nú erum vér færri, er vér fleiri skyldum.
Vér várum mjök margir, er vér drukkum mjöð; nú erum vér færri, er vér skyldum fleiri.
‘We were very many, when we drank mead; now we are fewer, when we should be more. ’
King Angantýr looks over his remaining forces and speaks the stanza.
Jón Helgason (1967, 237) draws comparison with the exchange between King Haraldr hárfagri and Þjóðólfr ór Hvíni in ch. 26 of Hkr (Hhárf, ÍF 26, 127-8): Haraldr mutters a helmingr (Hhárf Lv 1I) grumbling about the large number of warriors who have come to a feast at one of his estates, and Þjóðólfr replies in another helmingr (Þjóð Lv 1I), observing that Haraldr did not consider the number of warriors too great when they were fighting battles on his behalf (l. 4 vǫruma þá til margir ‘then we were not too many’).
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
Miok vorum | vier margir er vier miod druckumm nu erum vier færre er vier fleyri | skilldum
(HB)
Mjök várum vér margir,
er vér †mod† drukkum;
nú erum vér færri,
er vér fleiri skyldum.
miog varum vier margir er vier mod dr | uckum nu erum vier færri er vier flei | ri skilldum
(HB)
Skald II, 143; Heiðr 1672, 173, FSN 1, 500, Heiðr 1873, 280, Heiðr 1924, 150, FSGJ 2, 62, Heiðr 1960, 54 (Heiðr); Edd. Min. 8, NK 308, ÍF Edd. II, 426.
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