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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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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.

HervǫrLausavísur
456

Munkat ek ganga         gistingar til,
því at ek engan kann         eyjarskeggja.
Segðu hraðliga,         áðr heðan líðir:
hvar eru Hjörvarði         haugar kendir?

Ek munkat ganga til gistingar, því at ek kann engan eyjarskeggja. Segðu hraðliga, áðr líðir heðan: hvar eru haugar kendir Hjörvarði?

I will not go to lodging, because I know no island-beard. Say quickly, before you pass from here: where are the mounds named after Hjǫrvarðr?

Mss: Hb(73v), 2845(65r) (ll. 3-6, 1-2, 7-8), R715ˣ(12v) (Heiðr)

Readings: [1] Munkat ek: Munka ek 2845, Mun ek ei R715ˣ    [3] engan: engi 2845, R715ˣ    [5] hraðliga: elligar 2845, R715ˣ    [6] heðan líðir: vit skiljum 2845, R715ˣ    [7] Hjörvarði: Hjörvarðs 2845, Hervarði R715ˣ    [8] kendir: ‘kiende[…]’ R715ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 244, Skj BII, 263, Skald II, 137; Heiðr 1672, 89, FSN 1, 433, 519, Heiðr 1873, 212, 314, Heiðr 1924, 19, 105, FSGJ 2, 13-14, Heiðr 1960, 12; Edd. Min. 13.

Context: The speaker is clearly Hervǫr, although this is indicated in the prose only in R715ˣ.

Notes: [1] munkat ek ganga ‘I will not go’: A similar half-line, Munca ec ganga, occurrs in HHj 23/1 (NK 145). — [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. — [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. — [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. — [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. — [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).

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. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Heiðr 1672 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1672. Hervarar Saga på Gammel Gotska. Uppsala: Curio.
  7. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
  8. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
  9. 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.
  10. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
  11. Internal references
  12. 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 29 March 2024)
  13. Not published: do not cite (HjálmVIII)
  14. Not published: do not cite ()
  15. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna 23 (Friðþjófr Þorsteinsson, Lausavísur 18)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 220.
  16. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 106 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Ævidrápa 36)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 915.
  17. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 18 (Hjálmarr inn hugumstóri, Lausavísur 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 832.
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