Gríml Lv 4VIII (GrL 6)
Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Gríms saga loðinkinna 6 (Grímr loðinkinni, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 296.
Grímr speaks these two stanzas after he and his supporters have killed the berserk Sørkvir and his eleven berserk companions in an encounter to which Sørkvir challenged Grímr after Grímr’s twelve-year-old daughter Brynhildr has refused to marry him (FSGJ 2, 194-5). Þrǫstr (GrL 6/8) is the name of the man who bears Sørkvir’s shield and holds it in front of him when Grímr strikes the first blow (FSGJ 2, 195-6). The episode is parallel to two similar episodes in Ket (see FSGJ 2, 167-8, 173-81) where Grímr’s father Ketill hœngr does battle against two different unwanted suitors for the hand of his own daughter Hrafnhildr; in GrL 7 below Grímr expressly says that he is following the example of his father. The motif of the twelve berserks as opponents of the hero also appears in Heiðr and in Ǫrv, and there are verbal similarities between GrL 6 and three stanzas transmitted in these two sagas (Ǫrv 10) and the two stanzas named in the note on GrL 6/3-4. Heusler and Ranisch see this as evidence that GrL is borrowing from an older version of Ǫrv, which in turn was used in Heiðr: one of the twelve berserks in Heiðr is the unsuccessful suitor for the hand of a king’s daughter; he challenges the successful suitor Hjálmarr to combat (Heiðr 1924, 4-12; cf. Edd. Min. xxxvii-ix, lviii-ix, lxxxiii-iv). Ǫrvar-Oddr is said to be the son of Grímr (cf. Ket ch. 5, GrL ch. 4, Ǫrv ch. 1, FSGJ 2, 181, 198, 202).
Hér höfum fellt til foldar
tírarlausa tólf berserki.
Þó var Sørkvir þróttrammastr
þeira seggja en Þröstr annarr.
Hér höfum fellt tólf tírarlausa berserki til foldar. Þó var Sørkvir þróttrammastr þeira seggja, en Þröstr annarr.
Here we have felled twelve inglorious berserks to the ground. Yet Sørkvir was the most powerful in strength of those men, and Þrǫstr was the second.
Mss: 343a(59v); 471(60r) (GrL)
Readings: [1] höfum: höfum vér 471 [3] tírar‑: ‘[…]’ 471 [6] þróttrammastr: þroska mestr 471 [8] Þröstr: ‘þrausti’ 471
Editions: Skj AII, 288-9, Skj BII, 309-10, Skald II, 164; FSN 2, 154-5, FSGJ 2, 196, Anderson 1990, 66, 121, 448; Edd. Min. 96.
Notes: [All]: In 471 this part of the saga is written in a C17th hand on pages inserted into the ms. (cf. Anderson 1990, 71-2, 117 n. 300). — [3-4] tólf tírarlausa berserki ‘twelve inglorious berserks’: The words tírarlausir and tólf also alliterate with one another in two stanzas from Ǫrv, Ǫrv 8/7-8 and Ǫrv 9/2-3, where they also refer to twelve berserks in a similar episode (see Introduction above).
References
- Bibliography
- FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
- 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.
- Anderson, Sarah M. 1990. ‘The Textual Transmission of Two Fornaldarsögur: Ketils saga høings and Gríms saga loðinkinna’. Ph.D. thesis. Cornell University…
- Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
- Internal references
- 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 367. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=23> (accessed 4 May 2024)
- 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ǫrvar-Odds saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 804. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=35> (accessed 4 May 2024)
- 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ketils saga hœngs’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 548. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=71> (accessed 4 May 2024)
- 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Gríms saga loðinkinna’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 288. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=76> (accessed 4 May 2024)
- Not published: do not cite (KethVIII)
- Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Gríms saga loðinkinna 6 (Grímr loðinkinni, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 296.
- Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Gríms saga loðinkinna 7 (Grímr loðinkinni, Lausavísur 5)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 297.
- Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 10 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 822.
- Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 8 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 819.
- Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 9 (Hjálmarr inn hugumstóri, Lausavísur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 821.
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