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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon (Heiðr) 6VIII (Heiðr 87)

Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 87 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 6)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 456.

Anonymous LausavísurLausavísur from Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks
567

The section of Heiðr which contains this group of stanzas concerns the saga’s fourth generation: Heiðrekr’s sons, the half-brothers Hlǫðr and Angantýr. After defeating the Hunnish king Humli, Heiðrekr captured his daughter Sifka (Heiðr 1960, 26), en at ǫðru sumri sendi hann hana heim, ok var hon þá með barni ‘but the next summer he sent her back home, and she was then with child’. The child is Hlǫðr, who is brought up by his maternal grandfather Humli at the court of the Huns. Angantýr’s mother is the unnamed daughter of the King of Saxland (northern Germany), to whom Heiðrekr is legitimately married.

The following stanzas relate Hlǫðr’s attempt to claim his share of the inheritance after Heiðrekr’s death and Angantýr’s accession as king of the Goths. After a couple of introductory stanzas, Hlǫðr’s arrival at Angantýr’s court, during Heiðrekr’s funeral feast, is described in detail. The public nature of the claim, the impressiveness of both parties and the ceremony of the occasion are emphasized. Hlǫðr is aggressive in his demands from the start, giving no observance to the niceties of feasting (til annars vér hingað fórum | en öl at drekka ‘we have come here for another reason than to drink ale’, HlǫðH Lv 2 (Heiðr 94)), and immediately asking for half of his father’s property. Angantýr refuses, instead offering him a third, but emphasizing how much this would actually amount to (AngH Lv 2-5 (Heiðr 95-98)). Heiðrekr’s foster-father, Gizurr Grýtingaliði ‘Retainer of the Grýtingar’, then speaks a stanza (GizGrý Lv 1 (Heiðr 99)) expressing his belief that this is a good offer for an illegitimate son.

At this point there is a jump in the action of the stanzas to Humli’s court, where, as the saga prose explains, Hlǫðr has returned having turned down Angantýr’s offer. Hlǫðr’s foster-father Humli speaks of his intention to prepare for war (Humli Lv 1-2 (Heiðr 100-1)). The action then jumps forward again to a Gothic messenger, Ormarr, the foster-father of Hervǫr Heiðreksdóttir, who is leading a Gothic troop on behalf of Angantýr. The saga prose does much of the work in explaining that Ormarr first speaks to Hervǫr (Ormarr Lv 1 (Heiðr 102)), who instructs him to ride out to challenge the approaching Huns to battle, then to Angantýr some time later (Ormarr Lv 2-4 (Heiðr 103-5)), after the Huns have killed Hervǫr and caused much destruction in the land of the Goths. Angantýr then sends his retainer, Gizurr Grýtingaliði, to ride and challenge the Huns to battle once again (Heiðr 107-115). The prose tells of hard fighting on both sides, Hlǫðr’s death at the hands of Angantýr, and the defeat of the Hunnish army. The final two stanzas express Angantýr’s regret that Hlǫðr did not accept his initial offer, and speak of the curse which has brought the situation about (AngH Lv 10-11 (Heiðr 118-19)).

Like Heiðr 25-48, the stanzas have often been considered as a long poem, which has come to be known as Hlǫðskviða ‘The Lay of Hlǫðr’ or, in English, often ‘The Battle of the Goths and the Huns’. It has been considered to be very old, at least in origin (e.g. Heiðr 1960, viii), and has been given a prominent place among eddic-style poetry not contained in the Codex Regius (GKS 2367 4°), for example being included in Edd. Min. and ÍF Edd. and in appendices to NK. In the saga setting, the verse is interspersed with narrative prose, which sometimes seems to contradict or to have misunderstood the content of the stanzas. Some of the stanzas are fragmentary and/or are now unmetrical, suggesting that certain parts of a presumed original have been lost in transmission.

Particularly in the later stanzas of this section of Heiðr there is some question of whether the fragments here set out as stanzas of verse should really be considered as poetry rather than prose interspersed with a few metrical lines. In some cases (e.g. sts 93, 96, 100, 103, 113) the word groups are mixtures of different metres (mostly fornyrðislag and málaháttr), interspersed with non-metrical lines or prose inserts (e.g. gef ek þér ‘I give you’, st. 96/5, 6, 7). In other cases, which are still set out and numbered as stanzas in this edition, the word groups do not have poetic form and are thus effectively prose (e.g. st. 116), though some are prose with alliterating staves (e.g. sts 106, 115). The position of this edition is conservative, based on conventional treatments in earlier editions, though not all editors have agreed on identifying each stanza as either verse or prose. However, the reader’s attention is drawn to the ambiguity and fluidity of the situation and to what it may imply for the preservation and indeed the transmission and reworking of legendary poetic texts.

There have been many attempts to discover a historical basis for the events related here (cf. Reifergerste 1989), which are comprehensively discussed by Tolkien (1955-6, 162), where he concludes, ‘the search for a definite, historical underlying event should be called off’. Certain correspondences with the Old English poem Wīdsīð suggest a widely known underlying legend (see e.g. Malone 1925; Tolkien 1955-6; Niles 1999; Notes to Anon (Heiðr) 6 (Heiðr 87)). There are also echoes in Book V of Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum, though in that version the Huns are at war with the Danes, led by Fróði (Saxo 2015, I, v. 7. 1-4, pp. 318-23); see also Jón Helgason 1967, 163-9). The battle between the brothers is the subject of RvHbreiðm Hl 44III.

The stanzas are not preserved in any H-redaction mss. Ms. 2845 is the basis for eight of the first ten stanzas (it does not contain AngH Lv 1 (Heiðr 92) and only part of HlǫðH Lv 2 (Heiðr 93), for which the version of the other mss is preferable). The lacuna in this ms. occurs after AngH Lv 2 (Heiðr 95), and no more is preserved of the saga in 2845 or its copies. Shortly before this, part-way through HlǫðH Lv 2 (Heiðr 93), 203ˣ, which up to here has followed the R redaction, switches to its U-redaction exemplar (see Introduction to the saga above). It becomes the main ms. for the remaining stanzas. Most are also contained in R715ˣ, except as indicated in the Mss line.

As well as their inclusion in the editions of the saga listed in the Introduction, the stanzas have been edited in Skj, Skald, Edd. Min 1-12, NK 302-12, CPB, I, 348-52 and ÍF Edd., II, 416-30 (R and U versions printed separately; introduction pp. 168-75). Of these all but CPB are cited routinely. Since FSN is based only on 345, a copy of 203ˣ, it is usually excluded from consideration in the Notes below. A Modern Icelandic edition by Jón Helgason has a detailed introduction and some useful Notes (Jón Helgason 1967, 147-246).

Ár kváðu Humla         fyrir her ráða,
Gizur Gautum,         Gotum Angantý,
Valdar Dönum,         en Völum Kíar;
Alrekr inn frækni         enskri þjóðu.

Ár kváðu Humla ráða fyrir her, Gizur Gautum, Angantý Gotum, Valdar Dönum en Kíar Völum; Alrekr inn frækni enskri þjóðu.

Long ago they said Humli ruled over the people, Gizurr the Gautar, Angantýr the Goths, Valdarr the Danes, and Kíarr the Valir; Alrekr inn frœkni (‘the Brave’) [ruled] the English people.

Mss: 2845(73r) (Heiðr)

Readings: [4] Angantý: ‘ang’ 2845    [8] enskri: enskri enskri 2845

Editions: Skj AII, 250, Skj BII, 270, Skald II, 140-1; FSN 1, 490, Heiðr 1873, 265-6, Heiðr 1924, 85, FSGJ 2, 52, Heiðr 1960, 46 (Heiðr); Edd. Min. 105, ÍF Edd. II, 417.

Context: The stanza provides a temporal setting for the action of this part of the saga and is introduced (Heiðr 1960, 46): Þá réðu þessir konungar lǫndum, sem hér segir ‘Then these kings ruled the lands, as it says here’. It precedes the introduction of Hlǫðr Heiðreksson, who was brought up in the court of King Humli, his maternal grandfather, mentioned in l. 1.

Notes: [All]: This stanza is not always counted as part of the entity designated Hlǫðskviða (see Introduction). — [All]: As has often been noted, this stanza bears some resemblance to the Old English poem Wīdsīð, which includes an eighteen-line catalogue of rulers and their peoples (ll. 18-35), e.g. (ll. 18-19) (Malone 1962, 23): Ætla weold Hunum, Eormanric Gotum, | Becca Baningum, Burgendum Gifica ‘Attila ruled the Huns, Eormanric the Goths, Becca the Banings, Gifica the Burgundians’. Although Attila and Eormanric (ON Atli and Jǫrmunrekkr) are chosen as the ‘archetypical’ leaders of the Huns and Goths respectively (cf. Niles 1999, 182-8), later in the poem the narrator speaks of visiting Heaþoric ond Sifecan, Hliþe ond Incgenþeow (l. 116), which have been compared to Heiðr’s Heiðrekr, Sifka(?) (Hlǫðr’s mother), Hlǫðr and Angantýr. On further connections with Wīdsīð see e.g. Heiðr 1960, xxv-xxviii, Malone (1925). — [2] fyrir her ‘over the people’: Skj B, Skald, FSGJ, Heiðr 1960 and ÍF Edd. adopt the reading Húnum ‘the Huns’, from a marginal addition in Holm papp 120 folˣ. This ms. is a copy of Verelius’ edn of Heiðr (Heiðr 1672) with extensive annotations, most of which demonstrably stem from a ms. of the same class as 203ˣ (Andrews 1914, 83-5), by Guðmundur Ólafsson (1652-95), an Icelandic scribe based in Sweden (see Busch 2002, 14-27). This gives good sense, since Humli is indeed king of the Huns, although it is not necessary to emend here. — [3] Gautum ‘the Gautar’: People from Götaland (ON Gautland), Sweden. — [4] Gotum ‘the Goths’: The Goths are not straightforward to place historically. Tacitus (Germania 1967, 473) places them trans Lugios ‘beyond the Lugii’, to the north and west of what is now Poland, but more influential in medieval times would have been the mid-sixth-century account of Jordanes’ Getica, which places their origins in ‘Scandza’, in Oceani arctoi salo posita insula magna … haec a fronte posita est Vistulae fluminis ‘a great island situated in the northern ocean … it is situated at the mouth of the river Vistula’ (Mommsen 1882, §1, III). Whether Jordanes means Skåne or Scandinavia is not certain (Swanson 2006, 169), but the original audiences of Heiðr and presumably even the earliest projected audiences of Hlǫðskviða, would have understood the ‘Goths’ of heroic legend to have had an East Scandinavian connection. On the historical Goths see further Heather (1991 and 1998) and Wolfram (1990), and on the traditions about them found in heroic legends including Hlǫðskviða and the Old English poem Wīdsīth see Schramm (1998). — [4] Angantý ‘Angantýr’: One of the main protagonists of the action of the following stanzas and the last main section of Heiðr; great-grandson of Angantýr Arngrímsson, who features earlier in the saga and is one of the participants in the dialogue constituting Heiðr 25-47. — [5]: The same line is found in Guðr II 19/1, where Valdarr is one of the hopefuls attempting to win the hand of Guðrún after the death of Sigurðr. — [6]: In the prose introduction to Vǫl (NK 116) Ǫlrún, one of the three swan-maidens or valkyries married to Vǫlundr and his brothers (Ǫlrún is married to Egill) is said to be Kíars dóttir af Vallandi ‘the daughter of Kíarr of Valland’ (cf. Vǫl 15/3-4). The name Kíarr is apparently used as a generic term for ‘ruler’ in Edáð Bdr 2/4I, and may derive from Lat. cæsar (LP: Kíarr (not in AEW)). — [7] Alrekr inn frækni ‘Alrekr inn frækni (“the Brave”)’: Otherwise unknown as a ruler of England, but an Alrekr inn frækni is listed in a genealogy in Flat (1860-8, I, 25), said to be part of the dynasty þat heitir Skilfinga ætt edr Skiolldunga ætt ‘that is called the Skilfingar family or Skjǫldungar family’, and Þjóð Yt 10/1I lists a Swedish king Alrekr (see Note there). The acc.-inf. construction used in ll. 2-6 switches here (for no clear reason) to the use of the nom. Skald emends l. 7 to the acc. Alrek enn frækna to maintain consistency.

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. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
  6. 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.
  7. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
  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. ÍF = Íslenzk fornrit.
  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. Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
  13. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
  14. Germania 1967 = Much, Rudolf, ed. 1967. Die Germania des Tacitus. 3rd edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
  15. 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.
  16. Mommsen, Theodorus, ed. 1882. Iordanis. Romana et Getica. Monumenta Germaniae Historica 5.1. Berlin: Weidmann. Rpt. 1961.
  17. Busch, Kay. 2002. ‘Grossmachtstatus und Sagainterpretation: Die schwedischen Vorzeitsagaeditionen des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts’. Diss. Univ. Erlangen-Nürnberg.
  18. Andrews, A. Le Roy. 1914. ‘Studies in the Fornaldarsǫgur Norðrlanda II: The Hervarar Saga’. MP 11, 363-78.
  19. Heather, Peter. 1991. Goths and Romans 332-489. Oxford Historical Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  20. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
  21. Jón Helgason, ed. 1967. Kviður af Gotum og Hunum: Hamðismál, Guðrúnarhvöt, Hlöðskviða. Reykjavík: Heimskringla.
  22. Malone, Kemp. 1925. ‘Widsith and the Hervararsaga’. PMLA 40, 769-813.
  23. Malone, Kemp, ed. 1962. Widsith. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger. First published 1936. London: Methuen.
  24. Swanson, Alan. 2006. ‘Re-inventing the Goths: The Trajectory of an Idea’. In Suntrup et al. 2006, 167-85.
  25. Tolkien, Christopher. 1955-6. ‘The Battle of the Goths and the Huns’. SBVS 16, 141-63.
  26. Wolfram, Herwig. 1990. History of the Goths. New, rev. edn trans. by Thomas J. Dunlap. Berkeley: University of California Press. Orig. pub. as Geschichte der Goten. 1979. 2nd edn 1980. Munich: Beck.
  27. Niles, John D. 1999. ‘Widsith and the Anthropology of the Past’. Philological Quarterly 78, 171-213.
  28. Saxo 2015 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2015. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes. Trans. Peter Fisher. Oxford Medieval Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
  29. Schramm, Gottfried. 1998. ‘Wanderwege des Hunnenschlachtstoffes und das Schicksal seiner osteuropäischen Szenerie’. skandinavistik 28, 118-38.
  30. Internal references
  31. 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 29 March 2024)
  32. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Flateyjarbók’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=44> (accessed 29 March 2024)
  33. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 72 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 25)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 438.
  34. Not published: do not cite (HlǫðHVIII)
  35. Not published: do not cite ()
  36. Not published: do not cite ()
  37. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 44’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1052.
  38. Edith Marold (ed.) 2012, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Ynglingatal 10’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 25.
  39. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 87 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 6)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 456.
  40. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 92 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 11)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 461.
  41. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 93 (Angantýr Heiðreksson, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 462.
  42. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 94 (Hlǫðr Heiðreksson, Lausavísur 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 463.
  43. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 95 (Angantýr Heiðreksson, Lausavísur 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 466.
  44. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 99 (Gizurr Grýtingaliði, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 471.
  45. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 100 (Humli konungr, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 472.
  46. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 102 (Ormarr, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 474.
  47. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 103 (Ormarr, Lausavísur 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 475.
  48. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 118 (Angantýr Heiðreksson, Lausavísur 10)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 486.
  49. Not published: do not cite ()
  50. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 107 (Angantýr Heiðreksson, Lausavísur 7)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 478.
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