Innsteinn Innkv 3^VIII (Hálf 18)

Þér er orðinn         Óðinn til gramr,
er þú Ásmundi         allvel trúir.
Hann mun alla         oss um véla,
nema þú vitrari         viðsjár fáir.

Óðinn er orðinn þér til gramr, er þú trúir Ásmundi allvel. Hann mun oss alla um véla, nema þú fáir vitrari viðsjár.

Óðinn has become too angry with you, since you trust Ásmundr so well. He will betray us all, unless you acquire wiser wariness.

Mss: 2845(36r) (Hálf)

Editions: Skj AII, 259, Skj BII, 279, Skald II, 146; Hálf 1864, 17, Hálf 1909, 101-2, FSGJ 2, 110, Hálf 1981, 117-18, 180; Edd. Min. 33­­-4.

Context: This stanza is introduced by the words: Innsteinn kvað ‘Innsteinn said’.

Notes: [1-2] Óðinn er orðinn þér til gramr ‘Óðinn has become too angry with you’: Cf. Heiðr 112/4, gramr er yðr Óðinn ‘Óðinn is angry with you’. Both here and in Hálf 35/5-6 Innsteinn invokes the name of the god Óðinn, who is widely represented in Old Norse myth, especially in fornaldarsögur, as the god of battle, who not only confers victory on his favourites, but may sometimes withdraw his favour from them (cf. Turville-Petre 1964, 52-4; Marold 1972, 27-8). Here Innsteinn suggests that the god will turn against Hálfr and the Hálfsrekkar because Hálfr allows himself to trust Ásmundr uncritically. In Hálf 35/5-8 Innsteinn interprets the Hálfsrekkar’s defeat as Óðinn’s evil doing. — [7] vitrari ‘wiser’: This word is hardly legible in the ms. and has been variously interpreted by earlier eds (see Hálf 1981, 117-18). Jón Helgason (1955b, xxii) suggested either ‘uitrarí’ or ‘uittrarí’ as possible readings, but inspection under ultra-violet light has shown that it cannot be ‘uitrarí’, as there are too many vertical pen strokes discernible. — [8] viðsjár ‘wariness’: The f. noun viðsjá ‘wariness, cautiousness’ is nowhere else used with the verb fá ‘get, acquire’ and may be either gen. sg. or acc. pl.. Finnur Jónsson (LP: viðrsjǫ́, viðsjǫ́) describes the meaning of the word as ævnen, handlingen at tage sig i agt for ‘the capability, the act of being wary of’, giving it a slightly more concrete nuance, which makes its use with the verb fá seem more plausible.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. 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.
4. Turville-Petre, Gabriel. 1964. Myth and Religion of the North. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
5. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
6. 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.
7. Marold, Edith. 1972. ‘Das Walhallbild in den Eiríksmál und den Hákonarmál’. MS 5, 19-33.
8. Hálf 1981 = Seelow, Hubert, ed. 1981. Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka. RSÁM 20. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar.
9. Jón Helgason, ed. 1955b. The Saga Manuscript 2845, 4to. Manuscripta Islandica 2. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
10. Hálf 1864 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1864. Saga af Hálfi ok Hálfsrekkum. Norrøne Skrifter af sagnhistorisk Indhold 1. Christiania (Oslo): Det Nordiske Oldskriftselskab.
11. Hálf 1909 = Andrews, A. Le Roy, ed. 1909. Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka. ASB 14. Halle: Niemeyer.
12. Internal references
13. Hubert Seelow (ed.) 2017, ‘Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka 35 (Innsteinn Gunnlaðarson, Innsteinskviða 15)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 332.
14. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 112 (Gizurr Grýtingaliði, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 482.