Herv Lv 12^VIII (Heiðr 31)

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.

text and translation

notes and context

This stanza poses problems of reconstruction in several places. Tolkien (Heiðr 1960, 15 n. 5) suggests there was originally a stop at the end of the first half-stanza; this is likely correct, but the extant ms. evidence now requires l. 5 to be taken with l. 4. See also following Notes. — [1]: Ms. R715ˣ has the reading chosen here (with ei for eigi ‘not’), but this appears to have been crossed out in the hand of Jón Rugman. Ms. 2845 agrees with the first four words; Hb includes mér in l. 1, but this is extrametrical (see also Andrews 1920, 97). Kock (Skald) takes the reading of Hb, Seg einsatt mér ‘Speak clearly to me’, from the adj. einsær ‘only choice’ (Fritzner, LP: einsær). He points out in NN §3182 that einsætt appears elsewhere in poetry with the meaning ‘evident, clear’; see e.g. Gamlkan Has 43/8^VII, Nj 16//2^V, Arngr Gd 15/6^IV. This is an acceptable alternative. The reading of the present edn is chosen since 2845 and R715ˣ are almost in agreement and the sense fits the context more closely: Angantýr has told an untruth in the previous stanza, saying he does not have Tyrfingr. — [4]: Edd. Min. ends the sentence after this line (see Note [All] above): sem þú hafir eigi! ‘If you don’t have [it]!’. — [5-6]: Edd. Min. rearranges these lines to read trauðr ertu at veita | Tyrfing hvassan ‘you are reluctant to grant sharp Tyrfingr’. All mss agree that Tyrfing comes before the rest of the long-line, however, and hvassan is purely conjectural.

readings

• [1] Segir: so 2845, seg Hb, ‘seiger’ R715ˣ
• [1] þú: ‘þu’ R715ˣ
• [1] eigi: so 2845, ein Hb, ‘ey’ R715ˣ
• [1] satt: so 2845, satt mér Hb, satt mér R715ˣ
• [2] áss: so R715ˣ, oss Hb, 2845
• [3] haugi: haugi sitja 2845
• [4] hafir: so R715ˣ, hefir Hb, hafir(?) 2845
• [5] með þér: om. 2845
• [6] Trautt: trauðr 2845
• [6] er þér: ertu 2845
• [6] at veita: om. 2845
• [7] arfa: arf 2845, R715ˣ
• [7] þínum: at veita 2845, Angantýr R715ˣ
• [8] einar bænir: eingabarni 2845, R715ˣ

sources

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.

• AM 544 4° (Hb) — 74r/19 - 74r/20

  seg þú ein satt mér,
  — svá láti oss þik
  heilan í haugi —
  sem þú hefir eigi
  Tyrfing með þér.
  Trautt er þér at veita
  arfa þínum
  einar bænir.

  Seg þv ein satt mer sva lati oss þig heilan i havgi sem þv hefir eigi | tyrfing með þer travtt er þer at veita arfa þinvm einar bꝍnir

  (HA)

  images
Close

• GKS 2845 4° (2845) — 65r/22 - 65v/2

  Segir þú eigi satt,
  — svá láti oss þik
  heilan í haugi sitja —
  sem þú hafir eigi
  Tyrfing .
  trauðr ertu
  arf at veita
  eingabarni .

  images
Close

• UppsUB R 715x (R715x) — 13v/15 - 13v/18

  †seiger þu ey† satt mér,
  — svá láti áss þik
  heilan í haugi —
  sem þú hafir eigi
  Tyrfing með þér.
  Trautt er þér at veita
  arf Angantýr
  eingabarni .

  images
Close

editions and texts