Bjarmij Lv 1^VIII (Heiðr 14)

Logit er mart at þér         lítil of efni;
frækn með fyrðum         var faðir þinn taliðr.
Stendr Angantýs         ausinn moldu
salr í Sámsey         sunnanverðri.

Mart er logit at þér of lítil efni; faðir þinn var taliðr frækn með fyrðum. Salr Angantýs, ausinn moldu, stendr í sunnanverðri Sámsey.

Greatly are you lied to, about little substance; your father was reckoned bold among warriors. Angantýr’s hall, sprinkled with soil, stands in the southern part of Samsø.

Mss: 2845(64v), R715ˣ(11v) (Heiðr)

Readings: [2] lítil of: ef lítit corrected from ‘ef lítil’ in the hand of JR R715ˣ;    efni: om. 2845, er efni corrected from ‘er’ in the margin in the hand of JR R715ˣ    [3] frækn: so R715ˣ, frétt 2845;    fyrðum: ‘fyrðdum’ corrected from ‘frÿd’ above the line in the hand of JR R715ˣ    [4] var: om. 2845, inserted above the line in the hand of JR R715ˣ    [5] Angantýs: Angantýr 2845

Editions: Skj AII, 243, Skj BII, 262, Skald II, 136, FF § 44; Heiðr 1672, 86, FSN 1, 431, Heiðr 1873, 312, Heiðr 1924, 15-16, 103, FSGJ 2, 11-12, Heiðr 1960, 11; Edd. Min. 88.

Context: This stanza follows directly from the previous one, introduced by the words Jarl kvað ‘The jarl said’.

Notes: [2] of lítil efni ‘about little substance’: Neither ms. has a completely satisfactory reading here, and it seems a word or words were missing from the end of the line in both versions, since R715ˣ’s efni is added in the hand of the annotator, Jón Rugman (whose ef lítit er efni appears to be an attempt to make sense of something he did not understand). Nevertheless, as things stand this reading must be accepted, with of interpreted as a prep. + acc. ‘about, of’; cf. Heggstad et al. 2008: of B. 8. ‘om, over (om sak, emne)’ ‘about (a matter, subject)’. Heiðr 1956, 11 gives the line as here, while Heiðr 1960 prefers the arrangement of lítil efni, which is hypermetrical, and translates ‘with little substance’, which would require a dat. object rather than the nom./acc. pl. here. Skj B prefers to omit of/ef and emend R715ˣ’s er ‘is’, omitted in the present edn, to the pl.: lítil eru efni, translating lidet (sandt) er deri ‘little (truth) is in it’; however, this seems unlikely as a scribal error and may be discounted. Kock construes lítil of frétt, perhaps ‘little [is] news’, from 2845, pointing out the contrast mart er logit with lítil er frétt (FF §44). However, frétt seems to belong to l. 3, corresponding to R715ˣ’s frækn (which is to be preferred), which leads Kock to insert there a purely conjectural framr ‘foremost’. — [7] salr ‘hall’: Here referring to Angantýr’s grave-mound. — [7] Sámsey ‘Samsø’: A Danish island in the Kattegat.

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. Heiðr 1672 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1672. Hervarar Saga på Gammel Gotska. Uppsala: Curio.
6. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
7. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
8. FF = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1922. Fornjermansk forskning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 18:1. Lund: Gleerup.
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. Heiðr 1956 = Turville-Petre, Gabriel, ed. 1956. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Viking Society for Northern Research Text Series 2. With Notes and Glossary by G. Turville-Petre; Introduction by Christopher Tolkien. London: Viking Society for Northern Research, University College London. Rpt. 2014 with minor corrections. Exeter: Short Run Press.