Angantýr Lv 8^VIII (Heiðr 41)

Heimsk ertu, Hervör,         hugar eigandi,
er þú at augum         í eld hrapar.
Heldr vil ek selja þér         sverð ór haugi,
mær in unga;         mákat ek þér synja.

Ertu heimsk, Hervör, eigandi hugar, er þú hrapar í eld at augum. Ek vil heldr selja þér sverð ór haugi, in unga mær; ek mákat synja þér.

You are foolish, Hervǫr, [but] in possession of courage, since you rush into the fire with your eyes open. I will rather give you the sword from the mound, young woman; I cannot refuse you.

Mss: Hb(74r), 2845(65v), R715ˣ(14r) (Heiðr)

Readings: [3] augum: ‘augunn’ R715ˣ    [5] Heldr vil ek: so 2845, R715ˣ, ek vil heldr Hb;    selja: sverð R715ˣ    [6] sverð: selja R715ˣ    [7] mær in: ‘mærinn’ 2845    [8] mákat: má 2845, mun R715ˣ;    þér: þér ei 2845, þik ei R715ˣ;    synja: leyna R715ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 248, Skj BII, 268, Skald II, 140, NN §2375; Heiðr 1672, 94, FSN 1, 440, 522, Heiðr 1873, 220, 320, Heiðr 1924, 30, 111, FSGJ 2, 20, Heiðr 1960, 18; Edd. Min. 19.

Notes: [1-2]: Kock (NN §2375) draws a contrast between these lines and Hamð 27/1-2 (NK 273): hug hefðir þú, Hamðir, | ef þu hefðir hyggiandi ‘you would have had courage, Hamðir, if you had wisdom’.  — [1] heimsk ‘foolish’: The word derives from heimr ‘home’ and implies inexperience or naivety (AEW, LT: heimskr). Cf. Heiðr 22/1, in which Hervǫr is described as heimskr (with the masculine inflection, since she is disguised as a man) by the shepherd. In Skj B Finnur emends to heimsks, to agree with hugar, and construes Et dumt sind har du ‘You have a foolish mind’ (though in LP: 2. eiga 8 he gives hugar eigandi and translates as modig mand ‘a brave man’, as Kock points out in NN §2375). Emendation is unnecessary, however, since the text makes sense as it stands. — [3-4] þú hrapar í eld at augum ‘you rush into the fire with your eyes open’: Idiomatic expression. — [5-6] selja þér sverð ‘give you the sword’: Skj B and Skald reverse the order of selja and sverð, which is the reading of R715ˣ, and avoid the heavy anacrusis in the B-line. This is not necessary, however, and the verbal echo in the following stanza perhaps indicates that the order retained here is original, and aesthetically preferable. — [8] ek mákat synja þér ‘I cannot refuse you’: Ms. R715ˣ has here mun ek þik ei leyna ‘I will not hide (it) from you’.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. LT = La Farge, Beatrice and John Tucker. 1992. Glossary to the Poetic Edda, based on Hans Kuhn’s Kurzes Wörterbuch. Skandinavistische Arbeiten 15. Heidelberg: Winter.
10. Heiðr 1672 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1672. Hervarar Saga på Gammel Gotska. Uppsala: Curio.
11. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
12. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
13. 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.
14. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
15. Internal references
16. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 69 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 22)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 435.
17. Not published: do not cite ()