Hildibrandr Lv 2^VIII (Ásm 2)

Tveir váru þeir,         tír*argjarnir,
Buðlanautar;         nú er brotinn annarr.
Svá höfðu dvergar         dauðir smíðat,
sem engi mun         áðr né síðan.

Þeir váru tveir, tír*argjarnir, Buðlanautar; nú er annarr brotinn. Dvergar dauðir höfðu smíðat svá, sem engi mun áðr né síðan.

They were two, eager for fame, treasures of Buðli <legendary king>; now one is broken. Dwarfs [now] dead had forged [them] in such a way that no one could before or since.

Mss: 7(43r) (Ásm)

Readings: [2] tír*ar: ‘tyrvir’ 7

Editions: Skj AII, 320-1, Skj BII, 340, Skald II, 183, FF §32; Peringskiöld 1722, 21-2 (ch. 9), FSN 2, 485 (ch. 9), Detter 1891, 99, FSGJ 1, 405-6 (ch. 9) (Ásm); CPB I, 191, Halvorsen 1951, 12; Edd. Min. 53, NK 314.

Notes: [All]: The reference is to two swords, forged by Alíus and Olíus, two dwarfs who visit King Buðli and who each fashion a sword for him. The king finds fault with that of Olíus and commands him to make another. Olíus does so and predicts that it will bring death to the king’s grandsons, whereupon the dwarfs disappear. — [2] tír*ar- ‘for fame’: The ms. reads ‘tyrvar’, which does not correspond to a known Old Norse word. Most eds emend. Kock (FF §32), drawing on the parallel phrase tírargjarn ‘eager for glory’ (Hfr Óldr 6/8^I), offers the emendation to tírar ‘for fame’ adopted here. — [6] dauðir ‘[now] dead’: Skj B emends to Dáinsleif ‘Dáinn’s legacy’, the name of a sword forged by dwarfs, that belonged to the hero Hǫgni (SnE 1998, I, 72), while Kock (Skald; cf. FF §32) emends to dáðgir ‘dynamic’, but neither emendation has any ms. support.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
6. 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.
7. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
8. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
9. Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
10. FF = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1922. Fornjermansk forskning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 18:1. Lund: Gleerup.
11. Detter, Ferdinand, ed. 1891. Zwei Fornaldarsögur (Hrólfssaga Gautrekssonar und Ásmundarsaga kappabana) nach Cod. Holm. 7, 4to. Halle: Niemeyer.
12. Halvorsen, Eyvind Fjeld. 1951. ‘On the Sources of the Ásmundarsaga kappabana’. Studia Norvegica 2, 1-57.
13. Peringskiöld, Johann, ed. 1722. Saugu Asmundar, er kallaður er Kappabani. Stockholm: Horrn.
14. Internal references
15. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ásmundar saga kappabana’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 15. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=65> (accessed 3 May 2024)
16. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2012, ‘Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Óláfsdrápa 6’ 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. 398.