Hjþ Lv 2VIII (HjǪ 3)
Richard L. Harris (ed.) 2017, ‘Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis 3 (Hjálmþér Ingason, Lausavísur 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 495.
Hver ‘Who’
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2. hverr (pron.): who, whom, each, every
er ‘is’
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
sú ‘that’
notes
[1] sú dóttir ‘that daughter’: Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) emends dóttir to drósa ‘woman’, presumably because the normal sense of dóttir ‘daughter’ seems inappropriate here, and also because he adopts drjúgt ‘greatly, very much’ in l. 2 (see below). However, dóttir may sometimes refer to women who are not family members (cf. ONP: dóttir), and this may be the case here.
dóttir ‘daughter’
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dóttir (noun f.; °dóttur, dat. dóttur/dǿtr/dóttir, acc. dóttur/dóttir, nom. dóttir/dóttur; dǿtr, gen. dǿtra (cf. [$1592$])): daughter
notes
[1] sú dóttir ‘that daughter’: Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) emends dóttir to drósa ‘woman’, presumably because the normal sense of dóttir ‘daughter’ seems inappropriate here, and also because he adopts drjúgt ‘greatly, very much’ in l. 2 (see below). However, dóttir may sometimes refer to women who are not family members (cf. ONP: dóttir), and this may be the case here.
er ‘who’
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2. er (conj.): who, which, when
um ‘in’
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1. um (prep.): about, around
[2] um nótt miðja: so ÍBR5ˣ, um nóttu 109a IIIˣ, drjugt um nætr corrected from um nótt in another hand papp6ˣ
nótt ‘of the night’
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nótt (noun f.): night
[2] um nótt miðja: so ÍBR5ˣ, um nóttu 109a IIIˣ, drjugt um nætr corrected from um nótt in another hand papp6ˣ
miðja ‘the middle’
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miðr (adj.): middle, less, hardly
[2] um nótt miðja: so ÍBR5ˣ, um nóttu 109a IIIˣ, drjugt um nætr corrected from um nótt in another hand papp6ˣ
flanar ‘flits’
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flana (verb)
[3] flanar ok flöktir: ‘flamar og flogtar’ 109a IIIˣ, ‘flaugtir og flanar’ corrected from ‘flaugtar og flamar’ in another hand papp6ˣ, ‘flamar ok floktir’ ÍBR5ˣ
notes
[3] flanar ok flöktir ‘flits and flutters about’: No ms. has exactly these words in precisely this order. The mss’ ‘flamar’, which is not an Old Norse word, has been corrected to flanar ‘flits’ from flana, which is not recorded elsewhere in Old Icelandic but occurs in Modern Icelandic in the sense ‘rush, act rashly’ (ÍO: flana) while the uncommon flǫkta or flǫkða ‘flutter, fly about’ is used particularly of birds and flies (Fritzner: flökta). ModIcel. flökta means ‘wander, flutter, flicker’ (ÍO: flökta).
ok ‘and’
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
[3] flanar ok flöktir: ‘flamar og flogtar’ 109a IIIˣ, ‘flaugtir og flanar’ corrected from ‘flaugtar og flamar’ in another hand papp6ˣ, ‘flamar ok floktir’ ÍBR5ˣ
notes
[3] flanar ok flöktir ‘flits and flutters about’: No ms. has exactly these words in precisely this order. The mss’ ‘flamar’, which is not an Old Norse word, has been corrected to flanar ‘flits’ from flana, which is not recorded elsewhere in Old Icelandic but occurs in Modern Icelandic in the sense ‘rush, act rashly’ (ÍO: flana) while the uncommon flǫkta or flǫkða ‘flutter, fly about’ is used particularly of birds and flies (Fritzner: flökta). ModIcel. flökta means ‘wander, flutter, flicker’ (ÍO: flökta).
flöktir ‘flutters about’
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flǫkða (verb)
[3] flanar ok flöktir: ‘flamar og flogtar’ 109a IIIˣ, ‘flaugtir og flanar’ corrected from ‘flaugtar og flamar’ in another hand papp6ˣ, ‘flamar ok floktir’ ÍBR5ˣ
notes
[3] flanar ok flöktir ‘flits and flutters about’: No ms. has exactly these words in precisely this order. The mss’ ‘flamar’, which is not an Old Norse word, has been corrected to flanar ‘flits’ from flana, which is not recorded elsewhere in Old Icelandic but occurs in Modern Icelandic in the sense ‘rush, act rashly’ (ÍO: flana) while the uncommon flǫkta or flǫkða ‘flutter, fly about’ is used particularly of birds and flies (Fritzner: flökta). ModIcel. flökta means ‘wander, flutter, flicker’ (ÍO: flökta).
með ‘with’
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með (prep.): with
fíls ‘an elephant’s’
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fíll (noun m.): [elephant]
hala ‘tail’
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hali (noun m.; °-a; -ar): tail
Ólík ‘unlike’
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ólíkr (adj.): unlike
þykki ‘seem’
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2. þykkja (verb): seem, think
þú ‘You’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
öðrum ‘other’
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1. annarr (pron.; °f. ǫnnur, n. annat; pl. aðrir): (an)other, second
vífum ‘women’
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víf (noun n.): woman, wife
eða ‘and’
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eða (conj.): or
hvaðan ‘where did’
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hvaðan (adv.): whence, from where
kom ‘come from’
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koma (verb; kem, kom/kvam, kominn): come
Hrauðungs ‘of Hrauðungr’
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Hrauðungr (noun m.): Hrauðungr
[8] Hrauðungs: ‘hraudinns’ 109a IIIˣ, ‘hundnis’ papp6ˣ, ‘hraudvijs’ ÍBR5ˣ
kennings
mær Hrauðungs?‘the girl of Hrauðungr ’
= GIANTESS
the girl of Hrauðungr → GIANTESS
notes
[8] Hrauðungs ‘of Hrauðungr’: This is an emendation taking account of the various ms. forms, which could be understood in at least two other ways: a) as the pers. n. Hrauðnis ‘of Hrauðnir’ or b) as the adj. hundvíss ‘very wise’, qualifying mær ‘girl’, assuming the scribe of papp6ˣ read ‘-uis’ as ‘-nis’. The latter, an adj. often collocated with the word jǫtunn ‘giant’, is the reading adopted by FSN. If either Hrauðungs or Hrauðnis is adopted, the phrase Hrauðungs or Hrauðnis mær becomes a giantess-kenning, as both proper names Hrauðungr and Hrauðnir are recorded as giant names. Hrauðnir is a sea-king in Þul Sækonunga 2/8III and a giant in Þul Jǫtna I 1/6III, while Hrauðungr is a sea-king in Þul Sækonunga 3/1III and a giant in Þul Jǫtna II 3/3III. The name Hrauðungr also appears in the prose preface to Grí as the name of the king whom Óðinn visits in disguise and it refers to a giant again in Hyndl 26/4. What is probably the same name appears in another stanza of HjǪ, 16/6, where 109a IIIˣ has the form ‘hraudings’. Skj B, Skald and FSGJ all have Hrauðungs and this form has also been adopted here, although the other possibilities are also plausible. The case for Hrauðnir is boosted considerably by the fact that this name occurs a number of times as the name of a giant in Hjálmþérsrímur II, 17, 21; IV, 26; X, 25 (Finnur Jónsson 1905-22, II, 182).
mær ‘the girl’
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mær (noun f.; °meyjar, dat. meyju; meyjar): maiden
kennings
mær Hrauðungs?‘the girl of Hrauðungr ’
= GIANTESS
the girl of Hrauðungr → GIANTESS
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
Hjálmþér and his men come to an island late one evening. Hjálmþér is standing guard outside their tents, but then walks to a hill where he hears loud crashing noises. Soon a huge female creature, named in the prose text as a finngalkn, emerges from the woods; she has a horse’s tail and hooves and a long mane; her eyes are white, her mouth large and in her huge hand she carries a beautiful sword. Hjálmþér recites this stanza, according to the saga prose, so as not to be at a loss for words.
Cf. Hjálmþérsrímur III, 20 (Finnur Jónsson 1905-22, II, 22). — This stanza follows a familiar pattern in an encounter between a fornaldarsaga hero and a supernatural figure (cf. Ket 3-7). The hero demands to know who his or her antagonist is, and in the process describes the stranger’s physical appearance. In most such encounters, the Otherworld figure is hostile, but in this case the creature, Vargeisa, who names herself in the following stanza, is friendly to Hjálmþér. In the prose text she is termed a finngálkn (or, the pre-1200 form, finngalkn), a noun that usually refers to a fabulous monster of disparate parts, part-animal and part-human (cf. ONP: finngalkn), whether classical, like the centaur, or indigenous. This is certainly the understanding of the prose text, which envisages a combination of human and horse. The stanza seems to envisage a different combination, of elephant (fíll, l. 4) and something bird-like, if the verbs flanar ok flöktar ‘flits and flutters about’ are any guide (see Note to l. 3 below).
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