HlǫðH Lv 2^VIII (Heiðr 94)

Til annars vér hingat fórum         en öl at drekka,
þiggja af þjóðan         þínar veigar,
nema ek hálft hafa alt,         þat er Heiðrekr átti:
al ok af oddi,         einum skatti,
kú ok af kálfi,         kvern þjótandi,
þý ok af þræli         ok þeirra börnum,
hrísi því inu mæta,         er Myrkviðr heitir,
gröf þá ina helgu,         er stendr á Gotþjóðu,
stein þann inn fagra,         er stendr á stöðum Danpar,
hálfar herborgir,         er Heiðrekr átti,
lönd ok lýða         ok ljósa bauga.

Vér fórum hingat til annars en at drekka öl, þiggja veigar þínar af þjóðan, nema ek hafa hálft alt, þat er Heiðrekr átti: al ok af oddi, einum skatti, kú ok af kálfi, þjótandi kvern, þý ok af þræli ok þeirra börnum, því inu mæta hrísi, er heitir Myrkviðr, þá ina helgu gröf, er stendr á Gotþjóðu, þann inn fagra stein, er stendr á stöðum Danpar, hálfar herborgir, er Heiðrekr átti, lönd ok lýða ok ljósa bauga.

We have come here for another [reason] than to drink ale, to receive from the prince your draughts, unless I have half of all that Heiðrekr owned: of awl and of weapon-point, of singular treasure, of cow and of calf, of resounding handmill, of bondwoman and of slave, and of their children; of that excellent forest which is called Myrkviðr, that holy grave, which stands in the land of the Goths, that fair stone, which stands on the banks of the Dnieper, half the war-fortifications which Heiðrekr owned, lands and people and bright rings.

Mss: R715ˣ(31v), 2845(73v) (ll. 5-6, 9-10, 7-8, 11-22) (Heiðr); also used selectively: 203ˣ(110r) (ll. 5-22) (Heiðr)

Readings: [3] af: ef R715ˣ    [5] nema: hafa vil 203ˣ, 2845;    hafa: om. 203ˣ, 2845    [6] Heiðrekr: ‘Heid’ R715ˣ, Heiðrek 203ˣ, ‘heidrr’ 2845    [7] al: so 2845, af al R715ˣ, 203ˣ;    ok af: ‘[…]’ 2845;    ok: so 203ˣ, í R715ˣ;    af: om. R715ˣ    [9] ok: so 203ˣ, 2845, í R715ˣ    [11] þý: so 203ˣ, 2845, því R715ˣ;    ok: so 203ˣ, 2845, om. R715ˣ    [12] börnum: so 203ˣ, bænum R715ˣ, barni 2845    [13] hrísi: hrís 2845;    því: þat 2845;    inu: it 2845;    mæta: mæra corrected from mæta in another hand 203ˣ, meira 2845    [14] Myrkviðr: Mirkviðir 203ˣ, 2845;    heitir: heita 203ˣ, 2845    [15] helgu: góðu 2845    [16] Gotþjóðu: ‘got þiőda’ 203ˣ, ‘gautu þiodar’ 2845    [17] stein: so 2845, steininn R715ˣ, stein corrected from steininn in another hand 203ˣ;    inn: so 203ˣ, 2845, om. R715ˣ;    fagra: meira 2845    [18] Danpar: ‘Dampnar’ 203ˣ, ‘damp ꜳr’ 2845    [19] herborgir: so 203ˣ, ‘her bar’ R715ˣ, herváðir 2845JH    [20] er: þær er 2845JH;    átti: ‘ati’ 2845JH    [21] lönd: so 2845, landi 203ˣ, landa 203ˣ;    ok lýða: om. 2845

Editions: Skj AII, 251-2, Skj BII, 271-2, Skald II, 141, NN §§1204, 2376, 2044; Heiðr 1672, 162, FSN 1, 493, Heiðr 1873, 268-70, Heiðr 1924, 87-8, 143-4, FSGJ 2, 55-6, Heiðr 1960, 48-9, 83 (Heiðr); Edd. Min. 3, NK 304, ÍF Edd. II, 419-20, 422.

Context: In the U redaction this stanza follows directly from the previous one. In R, which does not contain that stanza, Angantýr welcomes Hlǫðr in prose and invites him to drink; Hlǫðr replies that he has come for another reason (Heiðr 1960, 48) en at kýla vǫmb vára ‘than to fill our bellies’.

Notes: [All]: This stanza is a mixture of fornyrðislag and málaháttr. The R redaction contains a somewhat different version of this stanza, without the first four lines (the content of which are rendered into prose), with lines in different order and with some variant readings. The R version is presented here as an alternate stanza:

Hafa vil ek hálft alt,        þat er Heiðrekr átti:
kú ok af kálfi,        kvern þjótandi,
al ok af oddi,        einum skatti,
þý ok af þræli        ok þeirra barni,
hrís þat it meira,        er Myrkvið*r heitir,
gröf þá inu góðu,        er stendr á Gota þjóðar,
stein þann inn meira,        er stendr á stǫðum Danpar,
hálfar herváðir,       þær er Heiðrekr átti,
lönd ok lýða        ok ljósa bauga.

Prose Order: Ek vil hafa hálft alt, þat er Heiðrekr átti: kú ok af kálfi, þjótandi kvern, al ok af oddi, einum skatti, þý ok af þræli ok þeirra barni, þat it meira hrís, er heitir Myrkvið*r, þá inu góðu gröf, er stendr á Gota þjóðar, þann in meira stein, er stendr á stǫðum Danpar, hálfar herváðir, þær er Heiðrekr átti, lönd ok lýða ok ljósa bauga. Translation: I wish to have half of all that Heiðrekr owned: of cow and of calf, of resounding handmill, of awl and of weapon-point, of singular treasure, of bondwoman and of slave, and of their child; that great forest which is called Myrkviðr, that good grave which stands in the land of the Goths, that great stone which stands on the banks of the Dnieper, half the war-garments which Heiðrekr owned, lands and people and bright rings. — [All]: Ms. 203ˣ, as 2845, does not contain ll. 1-4 and has the same l. 5 as 2845, but seems to become a U-redaction ms. from l. 7, as it follows the order of the lines in R715ˣ rather than in 2845. Skj B and Skald do not print ll. 1-4 and prefer 2845’s reading for l. 5, but subsequently follow the order of U without explanation. Jón Helgason (1967, 224) suggests that the scribe of 2845 confused átti at the end of l. 6 with skatti at the end of l. 8, copying ll. 9-10 after átti instead of skatti. — [All]: The unusual length of the stanza is demanded by the syntax, since the list is without a main verb after l. 5. The syntax of the list is inconsistent, however: in ll. 7-12 the first object is in the acc. case (parallel with hálft alt …) and the second (with prep. af ‘of, from’) in the dat. case. Line 13 is also in the dat., but 15, 17, 19 and 21 switch back to the acc. Though the Old Norse constructions do not use the gen. case, ModE. ‘of’ has been used here for the Translation for the sake of idiom. Other eds, most of which take 2845 as the main ms., prefer to create two separate stanzas of eight and ten lines respectively (the second beginning at hrís þat (a variant of l. 13 in the present edn, or l. 9 of the R redaction). — [4] af ‘from’: Following a suggestion by Jón Helgason (Heiðr 1924, 143 n. 2), Heiðr 1960 emends the line to þigg ek ei, þjóðann ‘I do not accept, prince’ and ÍF Edd. II, 422 þigga ek, þjóðann ‘I do not accept, prince’. However, the slightly less intrusive change ef > af gives good sense, assuming that þiggja is in apposition with drekka with the sense ‘we have come here for another reason than to receive ...’. The emendation is also made in Heiðr 1672. — [5]: From this point 203ˣ switches to copying from a U-redaction exemplar, and has independent textual value. — [7] al ok af oddi ‘of awl and of weapon-point’: Used pars pro toto for tools and weapons. Alr is a hap. leg. in poetry. — [8] einum ‘singular’: LP: einn 1 suggests the translation en, udelt ‘whole, undivided’, tentatively adopted in Skj B and Heiðr 1960. Bugge (Heiðr 1873, 269 n. 7), however, suggested enestaaende, udmærket ‘unique, exceptional’, which is perhaps preferable in terms of sense; cf. DOE: ān A5, Beowulf l. 1885 (Beowulf 2008, 63) þat wæs ān cyning ‘that was an exceptional king’. — [11, 13] gröf; stein ‘grave; stone’: The gröf ‘grave’ is presumably a sacred or ritual place; the steinn ‘stone’ may be too (see Heiðr 1960, xxv). Kock (NN §§2376, 2044) compares MHG stein ‘castle’ and suggests that meaning here, but a sacred stone (ARG I, 347-9; cf. Guðr III 3/4) would be possible in the context (cf. Heiðr 1956, 85 n.) A boundary marker would also be plausible. — [13-14] því inu mæta hrísi, er heitir Myrkviðr ‘that excellent forest, which is called Myrkviðr’: Ms. 2845’s reading, meira ‘great’ in place of mæta ‘excellent’, is assumed by most eds to be an error for mæra ‘renowned’; cf. Akv 5/7-8 (NK 241) hrís þat iþ mœra, | er meðr Myrcvið kalla ‘that renowned forest, which men call Myrkviðr’. Hrís usually means ‘brushwood’, but its sense is extended here and in the Akv instance (cf. LP: hrís). Myrkviðr is lit. ‘dark forest’ and can be both a specific p. n. and a generic term, used to refer to various border forests (Eggers 2002, 460-1) or forested areas; cf. Eskál Vell 26/3^I and Note. Though 2845 and 203ˣ agree on the pl. Myrkviðir heita ‘are called Myrkviðir’, the sg. is more likely in terms of sense and accords with instances of the p. n. elsewhere in the corpus, and is necessary to agree with the sg. l. 13. — [16] Gotþjóðu ‘in the land of the Goths’: The term can refer to either the people (cf. Heiðr 102/3) or land of the Goths, as here and in Heiðr 103/5 (LP: Gotþjóð). The p. n. also appears in Ghv 8/6 and 16/4. — [18] stöðum Danpar ‘the banks of the Dnieper’: The same stanza in Akv which echoes ll. 1-2 here (see Note to ll. 13-14) refers to staði Danpar, recently translated by Carolyne Larrington (2014, 205) as ‘farms on the Dnieper’. The present translation, taking stöðum to be the dat. pl. of the f. noun stǫð ‘landing place’, follows Tolkien (1955-6, 157). The relation of the name Danpr to the Gothic name of the river Dnieper, appearing as Danaper in Jordanes’ Getica (Mommsen 1882, §5, cf. Danaber §52), was first noted by P. A. Munch (1967 [1880], 174-5) and has since received general acceptance (Tolkien 1955-6, 157). — [19-20]: Wear to 2845 has made these lines very difficult to read; the Readings and Transcription have been taken from Heiðr 1924. — [21-22]: These lines are placed within square brackets in Skj B and omitted altogether in Skald, presumably to further increase the regularity of the stanza (cf. Note to [All] above), but they occur in all three mss (albeit partially in 2845). — [22] ljósa bauga ‘bright rings’: Repeated with poignant effect in AngH Lv 9/8 (Heiðr 117).

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. 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. 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.
8. Heiðr 1672 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1672. Hervarar Saga på Gammel Gotska. Uppsala: Curio.
9. Beowulf 2008 = Fulk, Robert D., Robert E. Bjork and John D. Niles, eds. 2008. Klaeber’s Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg. 4th rev. edn of Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed. Fr. Klaeber. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.
10. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
11. ARG = Vries, Jan de. 1956-7. Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte. 2 vols. 2nd edn. Berlin: de Gruyter.
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. Mommsen, Theodorus, ed. 1882. Iordanis. Romana et Getica. Monumenta Germaniae Historica 5.1. Berlin: Weidmann. Rpt. 1961.
15. Eggers, Martin. 2002. ‘Myrkviðr’. In RGA, 20, 460-1.
16. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
17. 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.
18. Jón Helgason, ed. 1967. Kviður af Gotum og Hunum: Hamðismál, Guðrúnarhvöt, Hlöðskviða. Reykjavík: Heimskringla.
19. Munch, P. A. 1967 [1880]. Norrøne gude- og heltesagn. Rev. edn by Anne Holtsmark. [Oslo]: Universitetsforlaget.
20. Tolkien, Christopher. 1955-6. ‘The Battle of the Goths and the Huns’. SBVS 16, 141-63.
21. Larrington, Carolyne, trans. 2014. The Poetic Edda. Rev. edn. Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
22. Internal references
23. 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 2 May 2024)
24. Not published: do not cite ()
25. Not published: do not cite ()
26. Edith Marold (ed.) 2012, ‘Einarr skálaglamm Helgason, Vellekla 26’ 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. 315.
27. 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.
28. 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.
29. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 111 (Angantýr Heiðreksson, Lausavísur 9)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 481.
30. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 117 (Gizurr Grýtingaliði, Lausavísur 7)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 485.
31. Not published: do not cite ()