Humli Lv 2^VIII (Heiðr 101)

Vel skulum þér, Hlöðr,         herlið búa
ok framliga         hildi heyja
með tólfvetra mengi         ok tvævetrum fola.
Svá skal Húna         her um safna.

Hlöðr, skulum búa þér herlið vel ok heyja hildi framliga með mengi tólfvetra ok [með] tvævetrum [mengi] fola. Svá skal um safna her Húna.

We shall prepare the war-troop well for you, Hlǫðr, and wage war boldly, with a multitude of twelve-year-olds and [with] a two-year-old [multitude] of foals. Thus shall the army of the Huns be assembled.

Mss: 203ˣ(110v), R715ˣ(32v) (Heiðr)

Readings: [1] skulum: skulum vér R715ˣ    [3] framliga: so R715ˣ, ‘fra̋nliga’ 203ˣ    [4] hildi: so R715ˣ, hildir 203ˣ    [5] ‑vetra: vetra corrected from vetra gömlu with gömlu underlined 203ˣ, ‘var goml’ R715ˣ;    mengi: ‘mein̄ge’ 203ˣ, ‘m̄n̄gi’ R715ˣ    [7] Húna: ‘hrvna’ R715ˣ    [8] um: so R715ˣ, af 203ˣ;    safna: ‘sanna’ R715ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 253-4, Skj BII, 273, Skald II, 142, NN §3185; Heiðr 1672, 166-7, FSN 1, 496, Heiðr 1873, 275, Heiðr 1924, 147, FSGJ 2, 59, Heiðr 1960, 52 (Heiðr); Edd. Min. 6, NK 306, ÍF Edd. II, 424.

Context: The stanza follows directly on from the previous one.

Notes: [3-4]: Previous eds have made various conjectural attempts at alliteration across these lines. Jón Helgason (1967, 232) highlights some other examples of this alliterative pattern in fornyrðislag, but only from later poetry. — [5-6]: The implication is that absolutely all resources will be drawn on, with warriors and horses utilised from the youngest possible age. Foote and Wilson (1980, 116) suggest ‘there are some signs that in an earlier period [than extant written laws] boys of twelve were accepted as full-grown members of society’. — [5] með tólfvetra mengi ‘with a multitude of twelve-year-olds’: Both mss indicate the word gömlu ‘old’ after tólfvetra (lit. ‘of twelve years’), but this has been deleted by means of underlining in 203ˣ. It makes an already hypermetrical line more so and is not required for sense.  — [6] ok [með] tvævetrum [mengi] fola ‘and [with] a two-year-old [multitude] of foals’: The syntax of this line depends on understanding the noun mengi ‘multitude’ (dat.) from l. 5, here, however, qualified by the adj. tvævetrum ‘two-year-old’ (also dat.), with both tólfvetra ‘of twelve-year-olds’ and fola ‘of foals’ in the gen. pl.

References

1. Bibliography
2. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Foote, Peter G. and D. M. Wilson. 1980. The Viking Achievement. 2nd edn. Great Civilizations Series. London: Sidgwick & Jackson.
6. 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.
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. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
10. 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.
11. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
12. Jón Helgason, ed. 1967. Kviður af Gotum og Hunum: Hamðismál, Guðrúnarhvöt, Hlöðskviða. Reykjavík: Heimskringla.
13. Internal references
14. 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 26 April 2024)