Eystk Útkv 1^VIII (Hálf 48)

Sjálft mun letja         slíks at freista;
Hálfs eru rekkar         hverjum meiri.
Þik veit ek manna         miklu fremstan,
einn snjallastan,         er þú átta vátt.

Sjálft mun letja at freista slíks; rekkar Hálfs eru meiri hverjum. Ek veit þik miklu fremstan manna, einn snjallastan, er þú vátt átta.

It is self-evidently futile to try such a thing; Hálfr’s champions are superior to everyone. I know you [to be] by far the foremost of men, one of the most valiant, because you slew eight men.

Mss: 2845(37v) (Hálf)

Editions: Skj AII, 264, Skj BII, 285-6, Skald II, 150, NN §3190; Hálf 1864, 30, Hálf 1909, 118, FSGJ 2, 122, Hálf 1981, 131, 189; Edd. Min. 73.

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

Notes: [1-2] sjálft mun letja at freista slíks ‘it is self-evidently futile to try such a thing’: Lit. ‘it will dissuade itself from trying such’. The meaning of ll. 1-2 is difficult to grasp, particularly the sense of sjálft ‘itself’ in l. 1. Some eds have considered emending sjálft ‘itself’ to sjálfr m. nom. sg. ‘self’. Edd. Min. in a footnote queries whether l. 1 should not read sjálfr mun [ek] letja ‘I myself will dissuade’, while Andrews (Hálf 1909) translates gerade davon will ich abraten ‘I will just advise against it’ but does not alter the text. Here it is proposed that sjálft means something like ‘self-evidently’ and refers back to Útsteinn’s proposal in st. 47 that Eysteinn might consider bringing on more warriors for him to fight, since he has now finished off all the sons of Úlfr. Eysteinn’s response recognizes the futility of such a move, given the evident superiority of the Hálfsrekkar as warriors.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
5. 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.
6. Hálf 1981 = Seelow, Hubert, ed. 1981. Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka. RSÁM 20. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar.
7. Hálf 1864 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1864. Saga af Hálfi ok Hálfsrekkum. Norrøne Skrifter af sagnhistorisk Indhold 1. Christiania (Oslo): Det Nordiske Oldskriftselskab.
8. Hálf 1909 = Andrews, A. Le Roy, ed. 1909. Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka. ASB 14. Halle: Niemeyer.
9. Internal references
10. Hubert Seelow (ed.) 2017, ‘Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka 19 (Hálfr Hjǫrleifsson, Innsteinskviða 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 320.