AngH Lv 1^VIII (Heiðr 93)

Heill kom þú, Hlöðr,         Heiðreks arfi,
bróður minn,         gakk á bekk sitja.
Drekkum Heiðreks         hollar veigar,
föður okkrum,         fyrstum manna:
vín eða mjöð,         hvárt þér valdara þykkir.

Heill kom þú, Hlöðr, arfi Heiðreks, bróður minn, gakk á bekk sitja. Drekkum hollar veigar Heiðreks, föður okkrum, fyrstum manna: vín eða mjöð, hvárt þykkir þér valdara.

Welcome, Hlǫðr, heir of Heiðrekr, my brother, go to sit on the bench. Let us drink draughts of Heiðrekr, offered with good will for our father, the first of men: wine or mead, whichever seems to you preferable.

Mss: R715ˣ(31v) (Heiðr)

Readings: [2] arfi: ‘fedurz’ corrected from ‘feduz’ in another hand R715ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 251, Skj BII, 271, Skald II, 141; Heiðr 1672, 161, Heiðr 1873, 268, Heiðr 1924, 143, Heiðr 1960, 83 (Heiðr); NK 303, ÍF Edd. II, 421.

Context: See Context for previous stanza. Since that stanza is not included in R715ˣ, the present one follows directly from the prose that introduces Heiðr 92 in the R redaction.

Notes: [All]: The content of this stanza is related in prose in the R redaction, and it is omitted from Edd. Min. 2-3 n. 5 on the grounds that die nicht alt sein können ‘they [the lines] cannot be old’. The stanza is metrically irregular, with ll. 1-2, 4-6 and 8 regular fornyrðislag, ll. 3, 7 and 9 hypometrical and l. 10 hypermetrical, a fact that could point to late composition. However, Love (2013, 159-60) argues on the principle of Occam’s razor that it is more likely that an original stanza was recast into prose in R than original prose was recast into ‘novel poetry’ in U. Tolkien (Heiðr 1960, 83) feels that ‘a distinction between “old” and “late” may be misleading if pressed’. — [2] arfi ‘heir’: The ms. reading is assumed to be intended to be föðurs ‘father’s’ (Skj A; Heiðr 1672), but that reading would not make sense, since Hlǫðr is Heiðrekr’s son, not the other way round. NK and ÍF Edd. emend the line to Heiðreki fœddr ‘born of Heiðrekr’. The emendation followed here, proposed in Skj B and taken up in Skald and Heiðr 1960, is taken from Anon (Heiðr) 8/2 (Heiðr 89); cf. Anon (Heiðr) 10/2 (Heiðr 91) and Note. — [6] hollar ‘offered with good will’: Skj B and Skald emend to hallar ‘of the hall’, giving ll. 5-6 the meaning ‘we will drink the draughts of Heiðrekr’s hall’. — [10] valdara ‘preferable’: Comparative of valdr or valiðr, p. p. of velja ‘choose’ (cf. Jón Helgason 1967, 222-3). Heiðr 1672 retains the ms. reading, as here, but most eds emend to vildara ‘more desirable’, which has similar meaning but is an unnecessary change.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. 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.
6. Heiðr 1672 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1672. Hervarar Saga på Gammel Gotska. Uppsala: Curio.
7. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
8. 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.
9. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
10. Jón Helgason, ed. 1967. Kviður af Gotum og Hunum: Hamðismál, Guðrúnarhvöt, Hlöðskviða. Reykjavík: Heimskringla.
11. Love, Jeffrey Scott. 2013. The Reception of Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks from the Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century. Munich: Utz.
12. Internal references
13. 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 19 April 2024)
14. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 89 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 459.
15. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 91 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 10)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 461.
16. 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.