Herv Lv 12VIII (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.
satt ‘truly’
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2. sannr (adj.; °-an; compar. -ari, superl. -astr): true
[1] satt: so 2845, satt mér Hb, satt mér R715ˣ
svá ‘so may’
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svá (adv.): so, thus
láti ‘leave’
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láta (verb): let, have sth done
áss ‘the god’
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2. Áss (noun m.; °áss, dat. ási/ás; ásar): god
[2] áss: so R715ˣ, oss Hb, 2845
þik ‘you’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
heilan ‘unharmed’
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3. heill (adj.; °heilan; compar. heilli, superl. -astr/-str): healthy, hale, hail
í ‘in’
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í (prep.): in, into
haugi ‘the mound’
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haugr (noun m.; °-s, -i; -ar): mound, cairn
[3] haugi: haugi sitja 2845
sem ‘as though’
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sem (conj.): as, which
þú ‘you’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
eigi ‘do not’
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3. eigi (adv.): not
Tyrfing ‘Tyrfingr’
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tyrfingr (noun m.): [sword]
notes
[7-8] arfa þínum einar bænir ‘one boon to your heir’: Hb’s reading is completely acceptable as it stands. However, rather than arfa, dat. sg. of arfi ‘heir’, the other mss have arf, acc. sg. of arfr ‘inheritance’ in l. 7, thus making this the direct object, and eingabarni (dat. sg.) ‘only child’ the indirect object in l. 8. Skj and Skald compromise, printing eingabarni | einar bænir, making the clause read ‘you are reluctant to grant one boon to your only child’, but displacing eingabarni from its position in the stanza as the mss have it. Following on from their emended reading of the previous lines, the eds of Edd. Min. opt for arfa þínum, | einga barni ‘to your heir, your only child’. There is no good reason not to accept the reading of the main ms., however. The line einnar bænar occurs as Ásm 5/3. In the pl., as here, einn takes on the meaning ‘only, just, alone’.
þínum ‘to your’
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þinn (pron.; °f. þín, n. þitt): your
[7] þínum: at veita 2845, Angantýr R715ˣ
notes
[7-8] arfa þínum einar bænir ‘one boon to your heir’: Hb’s reading is completely acceptable as it stands. However, rather than arfa, dat. sg. of arfi ‘heir’, the other mss have arf, acc. sg. of arfr ‘inheritance’ in l. 7, thus making this the direct object, and eingabarni (dat. sg.) ‘only child’ the indirect object in l. 8. Skj and Skald compromise, printing eingabarni | einar bænir, making the clause read ‘you are reluctant to grant one boon to your only child’, but displacing eingabarni from its position in the stanza as the mss have it. Following on from their emended reading of the previous lines, the eds of Edd. Min. opt for arfa þínum, | einga barni ‘to your heir, your only child’. There is no good reason not to accept the reading of the main ms., however. The line einnar bænar occurs as Ásm 5/3. In the pl., as here, einn takes on the meaning ‘only, just, alone’.
einar ‘one’
(not checked:)
1. einn (num. cardinal; °f. ein, n. eitt; pl. einir; superl. debil. -asti(Anna238(2001) 155³²)): one; alone
[8] einar bænir: eingabarni 2845, R715ˣ
notes
[7-8] arfa þínum einar bænir ‘one boon to your heir’: Hb’s reading is completely acceptable as it stands. However, rather than arfa, dat. sg. of arfi ‘heir’, the other mss have arf, acc. sg. of arfr ‘inheritance’ in l. 7, thus making this the direct object, and eingabarni (dat. sg.) ‘only child’ the indirect object in l. 8. Skj and Skald compromise, printing eingabarni | einar bænir, making the clause read ‘you are reluctant to grant one boon to your only child’, but displacing eingabarni from its position in the stanza as the mss have it. Following on from their emended reading of the previous lines, the eds of Edd. Min. opt for arfa þínum, | einga barni ‘to your heir, your only child’. There is no good reason not to accept the reading of the main ms., however. The line einnar bænar occurs as Ásm 5/3. In the pl., as here, einn takes on the meaning ‘only, just, alone’.
bænir ‘boon’
(not checked:)
bœn (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): request, prayer
[8] einar bænir: eingabarni 2845, R715ˣ
notes
[7-8] arfa þínum einar bænir ‘one boon to your heir’: Hb’s reading is completely acceptable as it stands. However, rather than arfa, dat. sg. of arfi ‘heir’, the other mss have arf, acc. sg. of arfr ‘inheritance’ in l. 7, thus making this the direct object, and eingabarni (dat. sg.) ‘only child’ the indirect object in l. 8. Skj and Skald compromise, printing eingabarni | einar bænir, making the clause read ‘you are reluctant to grant one boon to your only child’, but displacing eingabarni from its position in the stanza as the mss have it. Following on from their emended reading of the previous lines, the eds of Edd. Min. opt for arfa þínum, | einga barni ‘to your heir, your only child’. There is no good reason not to accept the reading of the main ms., however. The line einnar bænar occurs as Ásm 5/3. In the pl., as here, einn takes on the meaning ‘only, just, alone’.
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
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 43/8VII, Nj 16//2V, Arngr Gd 15/6IV. 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.
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