Anon (Heiðr) 3^VIII (Heiðr 22)

Heimskr þykki mér,         sá er heðra ferr,
maðr einn saman         myrkvar grímur.
Hyrr er á sveimun;         haugar opnaz;
brennr fold ok fen;         förum harðara.

Þykki mér heimskr, sá er ferr heðra, maðr einn saman myrkvar grímur. Hyrr er á sveimun; haugar opnaz; brennr fold ok fen; förum harðara.

He seems to me foolish, that one who travels here, the man alone in the murky night. Fire is flickering; mounds open; the earth burns, and the fen; let us go faster.

Mss: Hb(74r), 2845(65r), R715ˣ(12v) (Heiðr)

Readings: [2] sá: so 2845, R715ˣ, þá Hb;    heðra: heðan 2845, til hauga R715ˣ    [3] maðr einn saman: ‘all ein saman’ R715ˣ    [4] myrkvar: dökkvar R715ˣ    [5] á: sá R715ˣ;    sveimun: ‘sueīmoɴ’ 2845, ‘sueinū’ R715ˣ    [7] brennr: brenn 2845

Editions: Skj AII, 244, Skj BII, 264, Skald II, 137; Heiðr 1672, 90, FSN 1, 434, 519, Heiðr 1873, 213, 315, Heiðr 1924, 20-1, 106, FSGJ 2, 14-15, Heiðr 1960, 13; Edd. Min. 14.

Context: The speaker is the shepherd, indicated in 2845 and R715ˣ.

Notes: [1] heimskr ‘foolish’: Hervǫr is again described as heimskr in Angantýr Lv 8/1 (Heiðr 41), on that occasion by her father, Angantýr. — [4] myrkvar grímur ‘in the murky night’: Lit. ‘in the murky nights’, acc. pl. of the passage of time. The reading of R715ˣ, dökkvar grímur ‘in the dark night’, makes sense but lacks alliteration. The sense ‘night’ for gríma is poetic (cf. Þul Dœgra 1/3^III and Note); otherwise the term refers to a hood, face-covering or mask, or armour for a horse’s upper body (LP, CVC: gríma). — [5] á sveimun ‘flickering’: Hap. leg. Cf. the verb sveima ‘wander, move without fixed direction’. — [6] haugar opnaz ‘mounds open’: I.e. the burial mounds of Angantýr and his brothers. See Angantýr Lv 1 (Heiðr 29), Note to [All]. This line is also found in Angantýr Lv 3/2 (Heiðr 32), in a stanza which also mentions the fires burning on the island and warns Hervǫr to return to her ships.

References

1. Bibliography
2. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
5. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
6. Heiðr 1672 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1672. Hervarar Saga på Gammel Gotska. Uppsala: Curio.
7. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
8. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
9. Heiðr 1960 = Tolkien, Christopher, ed. and trans. 1960. Saga Heiðreks konungs ins vitra / The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise. Nelson Icelandic Texts. London etc.: Nelson.
10. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
11. Internal references
12. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 79 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 32)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 446.
13. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 76 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 29)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 443.
14. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dœgra heiti 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 914.
15. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 29 (Angantýr Arngrímsson, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 390.
16. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 32 (Angantýr Arngrímsson, Lausavísur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 393.
17. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 41 (Angantýr Arngrímsson, Lausavísur 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 401.