HervH Lv 2^VIII (HjǪ 24)

Allt ferr eptir einu,         †er margs vita frægra
vitar til vina list†         af Nistils fólki.
Fyrr skyldir þú hanga         á hávum gálga
en í †glaumtigum†;         gakk þú ei framar hóti.

Allt ferr eptir einu, †er margs vita frægra vitar til vina list† af fólki Nistils. Þú skyldir hanga á hávum gálga fyrr en í †glaumtigum†; gakk þú ei hóti framar.

Everything goes in the same way, … from the people of Nistill. You ought to hang on the high gallows sooner than in … ; do not go one bit further.

Mss: 109a IIIˣ(272v), papp6ˣ(52v), ÍBR5ˣ(94) (HjǪ)

Readings: [2] frægra: om. ÍBR5ˣ    [3] vitar: vita papp6ˣ, om. ÍBR5ˣ;    til: crossed out in another hand papp6ˣ;    vina: vinum corrected from vina in another hand papp6ˣ;    list: list with ‑ir written above the line in another hand papp6ˣ, lits ÍBR5ˣ    [4] af Nistils fólki: ok vala tafni fæþa corrected from af nistils folka or falka above the line in another hand papp6ˣ    [7] glaumtigum: ‘glaumtyum’ papp6ˣ, ‘glantygium’ ÍBR5ˣ    [8] gakk þú: so ÍBR5ˣ, gakk þá 109a IIIˣ, gakktu papp6ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 337, Skj BII, 358, Skald II, 193-4, NN §3297; HjǪ 1720, 46, FSN 3, 490, FSGJ 4, 215, HjǪ 1970, 38, 93-4, 154.

Context: Hervǫr warns Hǫrðr again of her father’s powers immediately after HjǪ 23, the stanza being introduced with ok enn kvað hón ‘and she spoke again’.

Notes: [All]: Once again, as with the previous two stanzas, this one is textually corrupt, and it is very difficult to make sense of ll. 2-3 and 7. Kock (NN §3297) observes that the stanza’s verse-form is aberrant. Previous eds have emended ll. 2-4 in the following way, drawing on the annotations in papp6ˣ; so Skj B and FSGJ, and, with small differences, Skald: eigi mart vitum frægra, | virðar vinna listir | ok val tafni fæða ‘we do not know much more famous, men perform sports and feed the hawk with carrion’. There is no way of knowing whether these conjectures had any ms. authority. — [1] allt ferr eptir einu ‘everything goes in the same way’: Lit. ‘in one [way]’.  Most likely a proverbial utterance; cf. LP: fara 6, and cf. Guðmundur Jónsson (1830, 32): Allt fer einhvörnvegin. — [4] Nistils ‘of Nistill’: Derived from nist m. ‘brooch, pin’, the noun is a diminutive, usually referring to a woman, sometimes to a man, familiar in rímur (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8, 277). Here, however, it appears to be used as a pers. n. in an application that is unclear. — [7] †glaumtigum† ‘…’: All mss have difficulty with whatever word or words underlie this form. It is probably related in some way to the noun glaumr ‘noise, revelry, merriment’, and it seems clear that Hervǫr is warning the heroes not to enter her father’s hall on any account. Most eds have emended the line to en í glaum inn ganga (Skj B), en í glaum inn at ganga (Skald) or en í glauminn ganga (FSGJ). — [8] gakk þú ei hóti framar ‘do not go one bit further’: Cf. HjǪ 19/1.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
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. Finnur Jónsson. 1926-8. Ordbog til de af samfund til udg. af gml. nord. litteratur udgivne Rímur samt til de af Dr. O. Jiriczek udgivne Bósarímur. SUGNL 51. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
8. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
9. Guðmundur Jónsson. 1830. Safn af íslenzkum orðskviðum, fornmælum, heilræðum, snilliyrðum, sannmælum og málsgreinum: Samanlesið og í stafrofsröð sett. Copenhagen: Møller.
10. HjǪ 1720 = Peringskiöld, Johann, ed. 1720. Hialmters och Olvers saga, Handlande om trenne Konungar i Manahem eller Sverige, Inge, Hialmter, och Inge, samt Olver Jarl och om theras uthresor til Grekeland och Arabien. Stockholm: Horn.
11. HjǪ 1970 = Harris, Richard L., ed. 1970. ‘Hjálmþérs saga: A Scientific Edition’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Iowa.
12. Internal references
13. Richard L. Harris (ed.) 2017, ‘Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis 19 (Hjálmþér Ingason, Lausavísur 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 511.
14. Richard L. Harris (ed.) 2017, ‘Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis 23 (Hervǫr Hundingjadóttir, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 516.