Hallvarðr Frag 3^VIII (Frið 22)

Taktu af gólfi,         gangfögr kona,
horn hólfanda;         hef ek af drukkit.
Menn sé ek á mar,         þá er munu þurfa
hreggmóðir liðs,         áðr höfn taki.

Gangfögr kona, taktu hólfanda horn af gólfi; ek hef drukkit af. Ek sé hreggmóðir menn á mar, þá er munu þurfa liðs, áðr taki höfn.

Nicely moving woman, take [this] upside down horn from the hall-floor; I have drained it. I see storm-weary men out at sea, who will need help before they reach the harbour.

Mss: 510(93v-94r), 568ˣ(101r), 27ˣ(136r), papp17ˣ(360r), 109a IIˣ(149r), 1006ˣ(587), 173ˣ(87v) (Frið)

Readings: [1] Taktu: so 568ˣ, papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ, Gakk þú þú 510, Gakk þú 27ˣ;    af: so papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ, á 510, 568ˣ, 27ˣ    [2] gang‑: so all others, ‘ga’ 510    [3] horn: so all others, á horni 510;    hólfanda: so 568ˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ, haldandi 510, hvólfanda 27ˣ, papp17ˣ, hvólfandi 109a IIˣ    [4] af: ór 27ˣ    [6] þá: þeir papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ    [7] liðs: lið 568ˣ, 27ˣ, papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ    [8] áðr höfn taki: áðr höfnum nái 27ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 274, Skj BII, 296, Skald II, 156; Falk 1890, 78-9, Frið 1893, 19-20, 49, 74, Frið 1901, 30, Frið 1914, 18-19; Edd. Min. 100.

Context: In the A text, Hallvarðr speaks this stanza to a cup-bearer (byrlari), in the B text to a woman who had previously given him a drinking-horn.

Notes: [All]: The prose context of the A text seems to contradict the stanza, in which Hallvarðr addresses himself to a woman, not a male cup-bearer. Some of the A redaction mss urge the woman to go onto the hall-floor to collect the speaker’s empty horn, but the majority (including 568ˣ) urge her to take it away. — [3] hólfanda ‘[turned] upside down’: The younger form of the inflected pres. part. from hólfa ‘capsize, turn upside down’ has been retained here, rather than the older hválfanda or hvalfanda (see LP: hvalfa), which is favoured by Edd. Min., Skj B and Skald. — [7] liðs ‘help’: Taken with þurfa ‘need’ which requires the gen. case of what is needed. Some eds (Edd. Min.; Frið 1914) prefer lið, the same word, in the sense ‘people, host’, which must then be taken in a rather awkward syntactic construction in apposition to hreggmóðir ‘storm-weary’.

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. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
5. 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.
6. Frið 1893 = Larsson, Ludvig, ed. 1893b. Sagan ock rimorna om Friðþiófr hinn frækni. SUGNL 22. Copenhagen: Malmström.
7. Frið 1901 = Larsson, Ludvig, ed. 1901. Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna. ASB 9. Halle: Niemeyer.
8. Frið 1914 = Wenz, Gustaf, ed. 1914. Die Friðþjófssaga in ihrer Überlieferung untersucht und der ältesten Fassung kritisch herausgegeben. Halle: Niemeyer.
9. Falk, Hjalmar. 1890. ‘Om Friðþjófs saga’. ANF 6, 60-102.