GizGrý Lv 2^VIII (Heiðr 109)

Ek mun þik enskis         eyris krefja,
né skjall*anda         skarfs ór gulli.
Þó mun ek ríða         ok rönd bera
Húna þjóðum         gunni at bjóða.

Ek mun krefja þik enskis eyris, né skjall*anda skarfs ór gulli. Þó mun ek ríða ok bera rönd at bjóða þjóðum Húna gunni.

I will demand from you nothing of silver, nor chinking coin of gold. Yet I will ride and bear a shield to offer battle to the people of the Huns.

Mss: 203ˣ(111v), R715ˣ(34r-v) (Heiðr)

Readings: [1] þik: so R715ˣ, þar 203ˣ    [2] eyris: ‘eirirs’ R715ˣ    [3] né (‘nie’): nei R715ˣ;    skjall*anda: ‘skulldanda’ 203ˣ, ‘skiall danda’ R715ˣ    [4] skarfs: ‘skafst’ R715ˣ    [6] ok: í 203ˣ, R715ˣ;    rönd: rand R715ˣ    [7] Húna: ‘gotta’ apparently corrected from ‘gun̄a’ in another hand R715ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 255, Skj BII, 274, Skald II, 143; Heiðr 1672, 173, FSN 1, 500-1, Heiðr 1873, 281, Heiðr 1924, 151, FSGJ 2, 63, Heiðr 1960, 54-5 (Heiðr); Edd. Min. 9, NK 308-9, ÍF Edd. II, 427.

Context: The stanza is introduced (Heiðr 1960, 54), Gizurr gamli sagði ‘Gizurr the Old said’.

Notes: [3] skjall*anda ‘chinking’: Neither ms. gives an acceptable reading and all eds but FSN emend. The significance seems to be that the coin is weighty enough to make a ringing noise when cast against another surface: Heiðr 1873 (366) and, following it, Heiðr 1960 (55 n. 2) refer to an incident related by Saxo (Saxo 2015, I, viii. 16. 7, pp. 626-7) in which only coins which made enough noise to be heard by a tax-collector twelve rooms away would be counted towards the tribute paid by the Frisians.  — [4] skarfs ‘coin’: A hap. leg. with this meaning (LP: skarfr 2; AEW: skarfr 2). The word may be related to MLG scharf, scherf ‘half penny’, late ON skerfr ‘share, portion’. The homonym skarfr ‘cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)’ does not seem to be etymologically related (AEW: skarfr 1; Fritzner: skarfr 2). — [5-6] ríða ok bera rönd ‘ride and bear a shield’: Echoes Heiðr 103/1-2 (and see Note) and Heiðr 108/5-6. — [7-8]: As they stand, these lines lack alliteration. Following 202kˣ, which is not an independent ms. witness, all eds emend gunni ‘battle’ to herstaf, a hap. leg. Skj B translates krigsruner ‘war-runes’, Heiðr 1960 ‘war-staff”. Ms. R715ˣ’s readings (‘gotta’, presumably Gota ‘of the Goths’, apparently corrected from ‘gun̄a’ in another hand) suggest that alliteration may have been on the g- of gunni, but neither of its alternatives offers a satisfactory solution: Gizurr is on the side of the Goths, and gen. pl. gunna ‘of the battles’ makes no sense. The abbreviation ‘gun̄a’ is used elsewhere in the ms. where gumna ‘of men’ seems to be intended (cf. Heiðr 103/6), but again, this does not give good sense, though it is given in NK. Emending gunni to hildi ‘to war’ would solve the problem, but would go against both mss.

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. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
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. Heiðr 1672 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1672. Hervarar Saga på Gammel Gotska. Uppsala: Curio.
10. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
11. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
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. 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.
15. Internal references
16. 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)
17. 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.
18. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 108 (Angantýr Heiðreksson, Lausavísur 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 478.