Hjǫrleifr Lv 1VIII (Hálf 3)
Hubert Seelow (ed.) 2017, ‘Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka 3 (Hjǫrleifr konungr, Lausavísa 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 306.
introduction
These two stanzas form an exchange between King Hjǫrleifr and a spirit being who is identified by the king’s men as intent upon polluting the water they are about to draw from a spring. The king speaks Hálf 3 to the spirit and threatens him with a burning spear; in Hálf 4 the spirit retaliates by prophesying the end of the good fortune of Hjǫrleifr’s wife Hildr. Although the second helmingr of this stanza is defective, the prophecy appears to concern Hildr, Hjǫrleifr and a fire, and this links the episode with the main saga narrative and looks forward to the scene at King Hreiðarr’s court, where Hjǫrleifr is bound between two fires and only Hildr’s quick-thinking help saves him from death.
text and translation
Gakk þú frá brunni — glettzt lítt* við mik,
þræll herfiligr — þíns innis til.
Mun ek senda þér sveiðanda spjót,
þat er gyrja mun granir þínar.
Gakk þú frá brunni til innis þíns; glettzt lítt* við mik, herfiligr þræll. Ek mun senda þér sveiðanda spjót, þat er mun gyrja granir þínar.
‘Go [away] from the spring to your abode; provoke me little, wretched scoundrel. I shall send you a burning spear, which will stain your whiskers. ’
notes and context
Returning from a viking expedition, King Hjǫrleifr, his wife Hildr in mjóa ‘the Slender’, and their retinue spend the night on their ship off the coast of southern Finnmǫrk (Finnmark). The men light a fire on the shore and two of them go to fetch water from a spring. The stanza is preceded by the words: Þar sáu þeir brunnmiga ok sögðu Hjörleifi kóngi. Síðan heitir kóngr broddspjót í eldi ok skaut til hans. Kóngr kvað … ‘There they saw a brunnmigi (‘spring-pisser’) and told king Hjǫrleifr. Then the king heats a pike in the fire and shot at him. The king said …’. The stanza is followed by the words Þá tóku þeir vatn, en þussinn skauzt inn í bjargit ‘Then they took water, but the giant slipped away into the rock’.
The concept of a being that pollutes springs or streams by urinating in them is attested in Scandinavian folklore (cf. CVC: brunn-migi). It is sometimes imagined as a fox spirit, although here the being is called þuss ‘giant’ or ‘troll’. The cpd brunnmigi ‘spring-pisser’ appears only in the prose preceding this stanza and in Þul Grýlu 1/8III, where most of the other heiti in the stanza are terms for foxes.
readings
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.
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GKS 2845 4° (2845) — 33r/14 - 33r/16
imagesGeck þú frá brunni
— †gletta líttu† við mik,
þræll herfiligr —
þíns innis til.
Mun ek senda þér
sveiðanda spjót,
þat er gyrja mun
granir þínar.Geck þu fra brunni gletta líttu uid mig þræll ǀ herfiligur þíns ínnis til man eg senda þer sueidanda spíot þat er gyría ǀ mun granir þinar
(HS)
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