Hubert Seelow (ed.) 2017, ‘Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka 52 (Hrókr inn svarti, Hrókskviða 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 346.
Vildi engi við Vifil jafnaz,
þó at Hámundar hjarðar gætti.
Sá ek öngan þar svínahirði
huglausara en Heðins arfa.
Engi vildi jafnaz við Vifil, þó at gætti hjarðar Hámundar. Þar sá ek öngan svínahirði huglausara en {arfa Heðins}.
‘No one would want to compare himself with Vifill, even though he tended Hámundr’s livestock. There I did not see any swineherd more faint-hearted than the heir of Heðinn [= Vifill]. ’
The clear implication of this refusal to compare man with man is that Vifill is so far beneath the normal standards that warriors must measure up to that even swineherds would show greater courage. Implicit here also is the notion that people not of the warrior class in early Scandinavia could not possess noble qualities.
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.
Vildi engi
við Vifil jafnaz,
þó at Hámundar
hjarðar gætti.
Sá ek öngan þar
svínahirði
huglausari
en Heðins arfa.
Villdí eíngí uid uífíl jafnazt ǀ þo at hamundar hiardar gættí sa eg aungan þar suyna hirdi huglau ǀ sari en hedins arfa
(HS)
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