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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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StarkSt Vík 32VIII (Gautr 40)

Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Gautreks saga 40 (Starkaðr gamli Stórvirksson, Víkarsbálkr 32)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 284.

Starkaðr gamli StórvirkssonVíkarsbálkr
313233

text and translation

Sjá þykkjaz þeir         á sjálfum mér
jötunkuml         átta handa,
er Hlórriði         fyr hamar norðan
Hergríms bana         höndum rænti.

Þeir þykkjaz sjá jötunkuml átta handa á mér sjálfum, er Hlórriði rænti {bana Hergríms} höndum fyr norðan hamar.
 
‘They think they can see the giant-marks of the eight arms on myself where Hlórriði <= Þórr> tore off the arms of Hergrímr’s slayer [= Starkaðr] north of the crag.

notes and context

As for Gautr 39.

This stanza refers to an episode in Starkaðr’s early life, also probably alluded to in the use of the word tjálgur ‘branches’ in Vík 5/2 (Gautr 13). This episode is known to Saxo (Saxo 2015, I, vi. 5. 2, pp. 378-9) and the composer of the prose Gautr (Gautr 1900, 11-13), as well as to the composer of the redaction of Heiðr in UppsUB R715ˣ, though in each case the story is slightly different, the main difference being that in some accounts an older, additional generation of giantlike beings with the names of Starkaðr and Stórvirkr precedes that of the Starkaðr central to Gautr and Vík. Saxo reports that Starkaðr was thought to have been born a giant with six arms. The god Þórr cut off four of them to give Starkaðr human form. Line 4 of this stanza claims he originally had eight arms, and the beginning of Heiðr according to R715ˣ gives the same number (Heiðr 1924, 90; Heiðr 1960, 67), but attributes this peculiarity to the older Starkaðr Áludrengr (see below). Vetrl Lv 1/3III lists Starkaðr as one of the giants that Þórr attacked and slew. Earlier in the prose text of Gautr (Gautr 1900, 12) the connection of Starkaðr’s giant family with Þórr is established, though the motif of the god’s tearing off Starkaðr’s extra arms is not mentioned. It is told there that Starkaðr’s father Stórvirkr was the son of an exceedingly wise giant named Starkaðr Áludrengr, and a woman named Álfhildr, daughter of King Álfr of Álfheimr, whom he abducted from her father. Þórr killed Starkaðr senior at the insistence of King Álfr because of this abduction. A similar account appears in the R715ˣ version of Heiðr (Heiðr 1924, 91; Heiðr 1960, 66-7). — [3]: This line is in kviðuháttr. — [5-8]: This helmingr refers to an event in Starkaðr’s life which is not attested elsewhere except in the R715ˣ version of Heiðr, and there it is associated with Starkaðr Áludrengr. Ms. R715ˣ tells that a certain Hergrímr hálftrǫll ‘Half-troll’ abducted a woman named Ǫgn Álfasprengi from Jǫtunheimar, while Starkaðr Áludrengr, to whom she had been betrothed, was away in the north beyond the rivers Élivágar (cf. Vafþr 31/1, SnE 2005, 9, 10). When Starkaðr returned he challenged Hergrímr to single combat for the woman. They fought við inn efsta fors at Eiði ‘by the uppermost waterfall at Eið’ and Starkaðr killed Hergrímr though he did not get back his betrothed, who committed suicide. It is not said that Þórr had anything to do with the Hergrímr episode, as ll. 5-8 of this stanza seem to imply. However, this narrative is very similar to another, told shortly after the first in the R715ˣ version of Heiðr, in which Þórr kills Starkaðr because he abducted another woman, Álfhildr, against her father’s wishes. On this, see Note to [All] above.

sources

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.

editions and texts

Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], E. 13. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Gautrekssaga II 24: AII, 328, BII, 348, Skald II, 188, FF §29; FSN 3, 37, Gautr 1900, 33, FSGJ 4, 34; Edd. Min. 43.

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