Angantýr Lv 2^VIII (Heiðr 30)

Grófat mik faðir         né frændr aðrir.
Þeir höfðu Tyrfing         tveir, er lifðu;
varð þó eigandi         einn um síðir.

Faðir grófat mik né aðrir frændr. Þeir tveir, er lifðu, höfðu Tyrfing; þó varð einn eigandi um síðir.

A father did not bury me, nor other kinsmen. The two who lived had Tyrfingr, though one became the owner in the end.

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

Readings: [1] Grófat mik: Gróf ei mik 2845, gróf mik ei R715ˣ;    faðir: so 2845, faðir niðr Hb, faðir corrected from faðir niðr R715ˣ    [5] varð þó: urðu 2845    [6] einn: so R715ˣ, ein Hb, enn 2845

Editions: Skj AII, 246, Skj BII, 266, Skald II, 138; Heiðr 1672, 92, FSN 1, 436, 520, Heiðr 1873, 216, 317, Heiðr 1924, 24-5, 109, FSGJ 2, 17, Heiðr 1960, 15; Edd. Min. 16.

Notes: [All]: Two half-lines appear to have been lost from this stanza, probably after l. 2. Though fornyrðislag stanzas need not conform to an eight-line standard, there seems to be something missing from the sense. Skj B, Skald and Edd. Min. all indicate this by means of a dashed line or lines where the missing ones are presumed to be, while Heiðr 1960 mentions it in a note. Bugge (Heiðr 1873, 216 n.) proposed the missing lines to have implied det var vore Banemænd (el. Fiender), som lagde os i Haug ‘it was our slayers (or enemies) who laid us in the mound’. — [1] faðir grófat mik ‘a father did not bury me’: Ǫrv ch. 27 (Ǫrv 1888, 101) relates the vow between the duelling parties that the victors should bury the slain with all of their weapons and other precious possessions. The line is unmetrical as it stands; changing the word order to faðir grófat mik would result in a metrical line but would go against the readings of all mss. Hb and R715ˣ at one time shared the reading Grófat mik faðir niðr ‘A father did not bury me beneath’, thus giving it some claim to authenticity, but the niðr has been crossed out in R715ˣ and is also unmetrical. — [3] Tyrfing ‘Tyrfingr’: The first appearance of the sword-name in the poetry of Heiðr. Tyrfingr appears as a heiti for sword in the þulur in SnE (Þul Sverða 7/6^III; SnE 1998, I, 120) and is used with the meaning ‘sword’ in Arn Hardr 2/3^II. LP: Tyrfingr suggests derivation from torf ‘turf’, with tyrfingr meaning jordfunden ‘found in the ground’, a meaning which would be dependent on the context of these stanzas. It may alternatively be derived from the ethnic name Tervingi or from tyrfi ‘resinous fir-tree’ (see Falk 1914b, 62). Ǫrv 5/5 gives it as the pers. n. of one of the sons of Arngrímr. It is also used as a pers. n. in Ǫrv 27/3 and Hyndl 23/5. — [4-6]: Angantýr’s words are ambiguous here. The ‘two who lived’ are Hjálmarr and Ǫrvar-Oddr (cf. ǪrvOdd Lv 3/6 (Ǫrv 10) en vit tveir lifa ‘but we two will live’), though Hjálmarr only lived long enough to recite his death-song, Ǫrv 14-29. Angantýr appears to be trying to mislead Hervǫr (and cf. her response in the following stanza, Herv Lv 12 (Heiðr 31)), implying that his slayers kept the sword and that the einn ‘one’ of l. 6 is Ǫrvar-Oddr. His words are not outright untruths, though, since Hjálmarr and Ǫrvar-Oddr did have the sword in the immediate aftermath of his death, before burying it with him, and the einn could apply to Angantýr himself.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. 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.
6. Heiðr 1672 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1672. Hervarar Saga på Gammel Gotska. Uppsala: Curio.
7. Falk, Hjalmar. 1914b. Altnordische Waffenkunde. Videnskapsselskapets skrifter, II. Hist.-filos. kl. 1914, 6. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
8. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
10. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
11. Ǫrv 1888 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1888. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Leiden: Brill.
12. 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.
13. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
14. Internal references
15. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
16. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 367. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=23> (accessed 2 May 2024)
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 2 May 2024)
18. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 78 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 31)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 445.
19. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 7’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 802.
20. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Haraldsdrápa 2’ 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. 262-3.
21. Not published: do not cite ()
22. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 31 (Hervǫr, Lausavísur 12)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 392.
23. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 10 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 822.
24. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 14 (Hjálmarr inn hugumstóri, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 827.
25. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 27 (Hjálmarr inn hugumstóri, Lausavísur 17)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 841.
26. 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.