Herv Lv 9^VIII (Heiðr 26)

Hervarðr, Hjörvarðr,         Hrani, Angantýr,
vek ek yðr alla         undir viðar rótum,
hjálmi ok með brynju,         hvössu sverði,
rönd ok með reiði,         roðnum geiri.

Hervarðr, Hjörvarðr, Hrani, Angantýr, ek vek yðr alla undir rótum viðar, hjálmi ok með brynju, hvössu sverði, rönd ok með reiði, roðnum geiri.

Hervarðr, Hjǫrvarðr, Hrani, Angantýr, I wake you all under the roots of the tree, with helmet and with mail-shirt, with sharp sword, with shield and with war-gear, with decorated spear.

Mss: Hb(74r), 2845(65r), R715ˣ(13r) (Heiðr)

Readings: [1] Hervarðr: so 2845, Hervaðr ok Hb, ‘hieruardur og’ R715ˣ    [2] Hrani: so 2845, ‘hran’ Hb, ‘hrani og’ R715ˣ    [3] vek: so 2845, R715ˣ, vel Hb    [5] hjálmi: með hjálmi corrected from hjálmi in the hand of JR R715ˣ;    með: om. R715ˣ;    brynju: brynjum 2845    [6] hvössu: so R715ˣ, ‘hvorsv’ Hb, ‘hꜹsv’ 2845    [7] reiði: om. 2845, reiða corrected from reiði in the hand of JR R715ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 245, Skj BII, 265, Skald II, 138, NN §3179; Heiðr 1672, 91, FSN 1, 434, 519-20, Heiðr 1873, 214-15, 316, Heiðr 1924, 22-3, 107-8, FSGJ 2, 15-16, Heiðr 1960, 14; Edd. Min. 15.

Notes: [1-2] Hervarðr, Hjörvarðr, Hrani, Angantýr ‘Hervarðr, Hjǫrvarðr, Hrani, Angantýr’: The four eldest of the sons of Arngrímr. These lines are repeated at the beginning of Heiðr 28 and also occur in Ǫrv 5/1-2. — [3] yðr alla ‘you all’: Ǫrv ch. 30 (Ǫrv 1888, 106) states that the brothers were buried all together under one mound. — [4]: A similar line occurs in Skí 35/5. — [5-8]: These lines are more likely to refer to Hervǫr herself (cf. Heiðr 37/5-8) than to the sons of Arngrímr, though either is possible since we are told that the latter were buried með ǫllum vápnum (Heiðr 1960, 10) ‘with all their weapons’. Cf. Heiðr 88, which lists the weapons of Hervǫr’s grandson, Hlǫðr Heiðreksson, with some similarity. — [8] roðnum ‘decorated’: Probably a variant form, required for alliteration, of hroðinn, p. p. of hrjóða, rather than roðinn ‘reddened, smeared with blood, bleeding’ (p. p. of rjóða). Cf. LP (1860): hrjóða. Hrjóða usually means ‘clear, empty (of ships)’, but could apparently also imply ‘decorate, adorn, paint’, cf. réð hrjóða ‘painted’ ÞjóðA Magnfl 18/5^II (and see Note there); hroðit sigli, probably ‘adorned brooch’ Sigsk 49/6 (NK 215); and the cpd gullroðinn ‘gilt’ (see Fritzner: gullroðinn). Cf. also the Old English p. p. hroden ‘adorned’, e.g. hroden hildecumbor ‘adorned battle-banner’, Beowulf l. 1022 (Beowulf 2008, 36). Though it is conventional in Old Norse poetry to describe weapons reddened with blood, the meaning ‘decorated’ accords better with Heiðr 37/5, where Hervǫr is described with grafinn geirr ‘graven spear’, and makes better sense, since at this point in the saga she has not recently been involved in fighting or battle.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. LP (1860) = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1860. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis. Copenhagen: Societas Regia antiquariorum septentrionalium.
6. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
7. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
8. Heiðr 1672 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1672. Hervarar Saga på Gammel Gotska. Uppsala: Curio.
9. Beowulf 2008 = Fulk, Robert D., Robert E. Bjork and John D. Niles, eds. 2008. Klaeber’s Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg. 4th rev. edn of Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed. Fr. Klaeber. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.
10. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
11. 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.
12. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
13. Ǫrv 1888 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1888. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Leiden: Brill.
14. 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.
15. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
16. Internal references
17. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ǫrvar-Odds saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 804. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=35> (accessed 1 May 2024)
18. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 75 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 28)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 442.
19. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 84 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 37)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 451.
20. Not published: do not cite (HlǫðH^VIII)
21. Not published: do not cite ()
22. Not published: do not cite ()
23. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Magnússflokkr 18’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 85-6.
24. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 88 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 7)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 457.
25. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 5 (Hjálmarr inn hugumstóri, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 816.
26. Not published: do not cite ()