Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Gǫngu-Hrólfs saga 1 (Hreggviðr konungr, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 299.
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gleðja (verb): gladden, rejoice
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hreggviðr (noun m.)
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af (prep.): from
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fǫr (noun f.): journey, fate; movement
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Hrolfr (noun m.): [Hrólfr, Hrólf]
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2. inn (art.): the
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hugdjarfr (adj.)
[3] hugdjarfa: so 152, 567XI α, ‘hugd[…]arfa’ 589f
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hingat (adv.): (to) here
[4] hingat til landa ‘to these lands’: Lit. ‘hither to lands’.
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til (prep.): to
[4] hingat til landa ‘to these lands’: Lit. ‘hither to lands’.
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land (noun n.; °-s; *-): land
[4] hingat til landa ‘to these lands’: Lit. ‘hither to lands’.
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munu (verb): will, must
[5] sá rekkr ‘that warrior’: Meaning Gǫngu-Hrólfr.
[5] rekkr sá: vegliga 567XI α
[5] sá rekkr ‘that warrior’: Meaning Gǫngu-Hrólfr.
[7] Eiríki ‘Eiríkr’: The viking leader, described in the saga as a sea-king, who, together with his berserks and champions, defeated and killed Hreggviðr early in the saga narrative (FSGJ 3, 167-70).
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
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allr (adj.): all
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
Shortly after a decisive battle with many casualties, and while exhausted warriors are asleep, Hrólfr goes to where King Hreggviðr’s horse, Dúlcifal, is standing, and mounts him, riding until he comes to Hreggviðr’s burial mound. It is bright moonlight. He dismounts and goes up onto the mound, where he sees Hreggviðr sitting outside below the mound, turned towards the moon. The dead king speaks this and the following two stanzas without interruption.
The verse-form of all three of Hreggviðr’s stanzas is fornyrðislag and their theme is vengeance. Each stanza begins with the same line, Glez Hreggviðr ‘Hreggviðr rejoices’. Hreggviðr must be desyllabified as Hreggviður in each instance to achieve metrical regularity (Types D and C). Repetition of lines, whether at the beginning or end of the stanza or from one stanza to another, as here, seems often to characterise the poetry of draugar ‘revenants’ in Old Norse; in the lausavísa GunnHám Lv 14V (Nj 29) spoken by the dead Gunnarr from his mound in Njáls saga (Nj), when urging his kinsmen to vengeance, the last two lines repeat the same words. — [5-6]: This edn follows the text of 589f and 152, while Skj B and Skald prefer a slightly modified version of 567XI α’s mun vegliga | vísir hefna ‘the prince will nobly take vengeance’. Both versions are acceptable if rekkr is desyllabified to rekkur.
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