Herv Lv 4^VIII (Heiðr 17)

Bú þú mik at öllu,         sem þú hraðast kunnir,
sannfróð kona,         sem þú son myndir.
Satt eitt mun mér         í svefn bera;
fæ ek ekki hér         ynði it næsta.

Bú þú mik at öllu, sem þú kunnir hraðast, sannfróð kona, sem þú myndir son. Satt eitt mun bera mér í svefn; fæ ek ekki hér ynði it næsta.

Dress me in all respects, as quickly as you can, truly-wise woman, as you would a son. The truth alone will be brought to me in a dream; I will not get happiness here in the near future.

Mss: 2845(64v), R715ˣ(11v-12r) (Heiðr)

Readings: [1] Bú þú: breiða corrected from beiða in the hand of JR R715ˣ;    mik: om. R715ˣ;    at: Ertu at corrected from ‘at’ in the hand of JR R715ˣ    [2] sem: of sem corrected from sem in the margin in the hand of JR R715ˣ;    þú: om. R715ˣ;    hraðast: so R715ˣ, ‘h^ataz’ 2845;    kunnir: ‘ku[…]ir’ R715ˣ    [3] ‑fróð: ‑fund 2845, ‑find R715ˣ    [4] myndir: ‘munþir’ 2845, ‘m̄dir’ R715ˣ    [5] Satt: so R715ˣ, fátt 2845    [7] ekki: ei R715ˣ;    hér: om. R715ˣ    [8] ynði it: ‘nid hid’ corrected from ‘[…]d[…]’ in the hand of JR R715ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 243, Skj BII, 263, Skald II, 137, NN §2831B(d); Heiðr 1672, 86, FSN 1, 431, Heiðr 1873, 313, Heiðr 1924, 16-17, 104, FSGJ 2, 12-13, Heiðr 1960, 11-12; Edd. Min. 89.

Context: Hervǫr goes to speak to her mother, named elsewhere in the R and U redactions as Sváfa; see Note to Herv Lv 8/4 (Heiðr 25).

Notes: [1-2]: Ms. R715ˣ reads (after alteration in l. 2): Ertu at öllu | of sem hraðast ‘You are in all things too hasty’. Verelius (Heiðr 1672, 86), who accepts this reading, attributes this and the following two lines to the jarl, and only the second helmingr to Hervǫr, presumably on grounds of sense; there is no ms. support for this. — [1] bú þú ‘dress’: The annotator of R715ˣ, Jón Rugman, has altered the ms.’s beiða ‘ask’, which makes no sense in the context, to breiða ‘broad’, apparently attempting to connect it to ólpu ‘cloak’ in the previous stanza by demarcating the end of the stanza (as he sees it) with a vertical line. He then inserts Ertu ‘You are’ to begin the present stanza. — [2] hraðast ‘as quickly as you can’: Lit. ‘quickest’. The long-line lacks alliteration and the text is not sound, 2845 appearing to read hvatast (so, e.g. Heiðr 1924, 16 n. 3; Skj A) though with an ambiguous abbreviation (Heiðr 1873, 313 n. 14); the meaning is similar. Rafn (FSN 1, 432) and Tolkien (Heiðr 1960, 11) take the reading bráðast, also implying ‘speed, haste’, from a C17th ms., AM 345 4°ˣ. This, however, stems from a copy of 203ˣ and has no independent textual value (Heiðr 1924, xliv-xlv); the reading may be a scribal conjecture to restore alliteration, but results in a hypermetrical line. Skj B, Skald and Edd. Min., following Bugge (Heiðr 1873, 313), opt for bezt ‘best’. Andrews (1920, 96) suggests that bú ‘prepare’ in l. 1 may be where the corruption lies, but does not suggest an alternative. — [3] sannfróð ‘truly-wise’: The emendation was first suggested by Ettmüller (1861, 32), and has since been followed by most other eds (the earlier FSN 1, 432 has sannprúð ‘truly-magnificent’). Bugge (Heiðr 1873, 313) suggests sannreynd ‘truly-proved’, perhaps because the claim of Sváfa’s infidelity which prompted Hervǫr’s actions in this group of stanzas has been invalidated (Heiðr 14). — [4] myndir ‘would’: Emended to the pret. subj. form, as do Skj B and Skald; mundir, retained by Heiðr 1960 among others, is pret. indic.  — [7-8]: Although Heiðr 13-17 are omitted in Hb, these lines are echoed in the prose as the direct speech of Hervǫr: brott vil ek heðan, því at ekki fæ ek hér ynði ‘I wish to go away from here, because I will not get happiness here’. — [8]: Jón Rugman’s attempts to emend the text in R715ˣ (apparently to nið it næsta ‘a son in the near future’) have partially obscured the original reading, but it was likely close to the reading of 2845 (Heiðr 1924 suggests ‘indit’). On the senses of næri, næstr, see NN §2831.

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. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
5. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
7. Heiðr 1672 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1672. Hervarar Saga på Gammel Gotska. Uppsala: Curio.
8. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
9. Ettmüller, Ludwig. 1861. Altnordisches Lesebuch nebst kurzgefasster Formenlehre und Wörterbuch. Zürich: Meyer & Zeller.
10. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
11. Andrews, A. Le Roy. 1920. ‘Studies in the Fornaldarsǫgur Norðrlanda – Continued’. MP 18, 93-100.
12. 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.
13. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
14. Internal references
15. 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.
16. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 60 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 13)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 423.
17. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 61 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 14)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 424.
18. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 25 (Hervǫr, Lausavísur 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 386.