Hjþ Lv 13^VIII (HjǪ 37)

Ungr var ek heima         ok öllu skipaði
skatna liði         at skapi mínu.
Gerði þat hugnaz         alt harla vel
fylki vísum         ok velbornum sveinum.

Ungr var ek heima ok skipaði öllu liði skatna at skapi mínu. Alt þat gerði hugnaz vísum fylki ok velbornum sveinum harla vel.

When young, I was at home and marshalled all the host of men according to my mind. All that pleased the wise leader and the well-born youths very well.

Mss: 109a IIIˣ(274r), papp6ˣ(54r), ÍBR5ˣ(96) (HjǪ)

Readings: [2] öllu: so papp6ˣ, ÍBR5ˣ, ‘ollu’ or ‘allu’ 109a IIIˣ    [5] Gerði: gegndi papp6ˣ;    hugnaz: so ÍBR5ˣ, harðla vel 109a IIIˣ, full vel corrected from harla vel in another hand papp6ˣ    [6] alt harla vel: so ÍBR5ˣ, fylkir vís with vís added above the line in scribal hand 109a IIIˣ, ‘fylkers’ corrected from ‘fylkers velbornum’ papp6ˣ    [7, 8] fylki vísum ok velbornum sveinum: so ÍBR5ˣ, velbornum sveinum 109a IIIˣ, sveinum with brögnum velbornum ok buþlungs liþi written above the line in another hand papp6ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 339, Skj BII, 361, Skald II, 195; HjǪ 1720, 51, FSN 3, 495, FSGJ 4, 221, HjǪ 1970, 42, 96, 158.

Context: Hjálmþér assures Hundingi that he was used to having his way because of the respect he commanded back home.

Notes: [All]: The text of the second helmingr in 109a IIIˣ and in the original text of papp6ˣ is defective. There are only three, rather than four, verse lines and the lines themselves are unmetrical. On the other hand, the text of the second helmingr in ÍBR5ˣ is largely metrical, and has been taken as the base ms. for ll. 5-8 of this stanza. All mss are in agreement on ll. 1-4. All previous eds, with the exception of Valdimar Ásmundarson (1885-9) and HjǪ 1970, which use the ÍBR5ˣ text, have presented a text of ll. 5-8 based on the later alterations to the text of papp6ˣ, which are of unknown origin. This text is printed below:

gegndi þat fullvel      fylki vísum
brögnum velbornum      ok buðlungs liði.

Translation: that suited very well the wise prince, the well-born heroes and the ruler’s troop. Skj B and Skald have sveinum ‘youths’ instead of liði ‘troop’ in l. 8, but other eds retain liði. — [All]: The wording of the first helmingr echoes the opening line of the previous stanza Harðr muntu heima ‘You must be tough at home’ and the wording of HjǪ 33/8, at skapi mínu ‘to my mind’. As such it must be considered deliberately provocative. Line 1 is the same as Ket 22/1.

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. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
6. Valdimar Ásmundarson, ed. 1885-9. Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Sigurður Kristjánsson and Sigmundur Guðmundsson. 2nd edn of Vol. I 1891.
7. 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.
8. HjǪ 1970 = Harris, Richard L., ed. 1970. ‘Hjálmþérs saga: A Scientific Edition’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Iowa.
9. Internal references
10. Richard L. Harris (ed.) 2017, ‘Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis 33 (Hundingi konungr, Lausavísur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 524.
11. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 22 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 14)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 572.