Herv Lv 5VIII (Heiðr 19)
Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 19 (Hervǫr, Lausavísur 5)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 379.
Munkat ‘will not’
(not checked:)
munu (verb): will, must
[1] Munkat ek: Munka ek 2845, Mun ek ei R715ˣ
notes
[1] munkat ek ‘I will not’: The appearance of the cliticised 1st pers. sg. pron. (along with the negative suffix) together with the free-standing form is typical of the late C13th and occurs frequently in the stanzas of this dialogue and elsewhere. — [1] munkat ek ganga ‘I will not go’: A similar half-line, Munca ec ganga, occurrs in HHj 23/1 (NK 145).
Munkat ‘will not’
(not checked:)
munu (verb): will, must
[1] Munkat ek: Munka ek 2845, Mun ek ei R715ˣ
notes
[1] munkat ek ‘I will not’: The appearance of the cliticised 1st pers. sg. pron. (along with the negative suffix) together with the free-standing form is typical of the late C13th and occurs frequently in the stanzas of this dialogue and elsewhere. — [1] munkat ek ganga ‘I will not go’: A similar half-line, Munca ec ganga, occurrs in HHj 23/1 (NK 145).
ek ‘I’
(not checked:)
ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me
[1] Munkat ek: Munka ek 2845, Mun ek ei R715ˣ
notes
[1] munkat ek ‘I will not’: The appearance of the cliticised 1st pers. sg. pron. (along with the negative suffix) together with the free-standing form is typical of the late C13th and occurs frequently in the stanzas of this dialogue and elsewhere. — [1] munkat ek ganga ‘I will not go’: A similar half-line, Munca ec ganga, occurrs in HHj 23/1 (NK 145).
ek ‘I’
(not checked:)
ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me
[1] Munkat ek: Munka ek 2845, Mun ek ei R715ˣ
notes
[1] munkat ek ‘I will not’: The appearance of the cliticised 1st pers. sg. pron. (along with the negative suffix) together with the free-standing form is typical of the late C13th and occurs frequently in the stanzas of this dialogue and elsewhere. — [1] munkat ek ganga ‘I will not go’: A similar half-line, Munca ec ganga, occurrs in HHj 23/1 (NK 145).
ganga ‘go’
(not checked:)
2. ganga (verb; geng, gekk, gengu, genginn): walk, go
gistingar ‘lodging’
(not checked:)
gisting (noun f.): accommodation, hospitality
til ‘to’
(not checked:)
til (prep.): to
því ‘because’
(not checked:)
því (adv.): therefore, because
at ‘’
(not checked:)
4. at (conj.): that
ek ‘I’
(not checked:)
ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me
notes
[4] engan eyjarskeggja ‘no island-beard’: The circumlocution eyjarskeggi presumably arises from a tendency, factual or stereotypical, for islanders to let their hair and beards grow rather unkempt (LP: eyjarskeggi). There are only two other instances of the word in poetry, both from fornaldarsögur: Frið 23/4 and Ǫrv 106/6; see further Note to Frið 23/4.
kann ‘know’
(not checked:)
kunna (verb): know, can, be able
eyjar ‘island’
(not checked:)
1. ey (noun f.; °-jar, dat. -ju/-; -jar): island < eyjarskeggi (noun m.)
notes
[4] engan eyjarskeggja ‘no island-beard’: The circumlocution eyjarskeggi presumably arises from a tendency, factual or stereotypical, for islanders to let their hair and beards grow rather unkempt (LP: eyjarskeggi). There are only two other instances of the word in poetry, both from fornaldarsögur: Frið 23/4 and Ǫrv 106/6; see further Note to Frið 23/4.
skeggja ‘beard’
(not checked:)
skeggi (noun m.; °-ja; -jar): [denizen, skeggi] < eyjarskeggi (noun m.)
notes
[4] engan eyjarskeggja ‘no island-beard’: The circumlocution eyjarskeggi presumably arises from a tendency, factual or stereotypical, for islanders to let their hair and beards grow rather unkempt (LP: eyjarskeggi). There are only two other instances of the word in poetry, both from fornaldarsögur: Frið 23/4 and Ǫrv 106/6; see further Note to Frið 23/4.
Segðu ‘Say’
(not checked:)
segja (verb): say, tell
notes
[5] hraðliga ‘quickly’: The other mss read elligar ‘otherwise’, which, taken in the sense ‘rather, instead’, offers an acceptable alternative in terms of meaning, but loses the alliteration with heðan in the following line.
áðr ‘before’
(not checked:)
áðr (adv.; °//): before
notes
[6] áðr heðan líðir ‘before you pass from here’: The reading of 2845 and R715ˣ, áðr vit skiljum ‘before we two part’, makes equally good sense but lacks alliteration.
heðan ‘from here’
(not checked:)
heðan (adv.): hence, from this place
[6] heðan líðir: vit skiljum 2845, R715ˣ
notes
[6] áðr heðan líðir ‘before you pass from here’: The reading of 2845 and R715ˣ, áðr vit skiljum ‘before we two part’, makes equally good sense but lacks alliteration.
notes
[6] áðr heðan líðir ‘before you pass from here’: The reading of 2845 and R715ˣ, áðr vit skiljum ‘before we two part’, makes equally good sense but lacks alliteration.
hvar ‘where’
(not checked:)
hvar (adv.): where
eru ‘are’
(not checked:)
2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
Hjörvarði ‘Hjǫrvarðr’
(not checked:)
Hjǫrvarðr (noun m.)
[7] Hjörvarði: Hjörvarðs 2845, Hervarði R715ˣ
notes
[8] kendir Hjörvarði (m. dat. sg.) ‘named afer Hjǫrvarðr’: Hjǫrvarðr is named earlier in Heiðr as the oldest after Angantýr of Arngrímr’s twelve sons, and in the R and U redactions of the saga it is he who challenges Hjálmarr inn hugumstóri ‘the Great-minded’ to the duel over the hand of Ingibjǫrg (cf. Hjálm Lv 8 (Ǫrv 18)), daughter of the Swedish king (named Ingjaldr in R, Yngvi in H and U), in which the brothers are killed. In the H redaction it is Angantýr himself who challenges, but, although in all versions of the saga it is he who ends up fighting Hjálmarr, the duel is twelve against twelve, not single combat, and it is definitely Hjǫrvarðr who is Hjálmarr’s love-rival: he speaks of Ingibjǫrg in his ‘death-song’ (Ǫrv 18), while Angantýr marries someone else soon after the challenge has been made (see also Heiðr 1960, xiii-xiv).
haugar ‘the mounds’
(not checked:)
haugr (noun m.; °-s, -i; -ar): mound, cairn
notes
[8] kendir Hjörvarði (m. dat. sg.) ‘named afer Hjǫrvarðr’: Hjǫrvarðr is named earlier in Heiðr as the oldest after Angantýr of Arngrímr’s twelve sons, and in the R and U redactions of the saga it is he who challenges Hjálmarr inn hugumstóri ‘the Great-minded’ to the duel over the hand of Ingibjǫrg (cf. Hjálm Lv 8 (Ǫrv 18)), daughter of the Swedish king (named Ingjaldr in R, Yngvi in H and U), in which the brothers are killed. In the H redaction it is Angantýr himself who challenges, but, although in all versions of the saga it is he who ends up fighting Hjálmarr, the duel is twelve against twelve, not single combat, and it is definitely Hjǫrvarðr who is Hjálmarr’s love-rival: he speaks of Ingibjǫrg in his ‘death-song’ (Ǫrv 18), while Angantýr marries someone else soon after the challenge has been made (see also Heiðr 1960, xiii-xiv).
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The speaker is clearly Hervǫr, although this is indicated in the prose only in R715ˣ.
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