Hǫrðr Lv 4VIII (HjǪ 43)
Richard L. Harris (ed.) 2017, ‘Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis 43 (Hǫrðr/Hringr, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 534.
Eyðaz ‘be destroyed’
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2. eyða (verb; °-dd-): destroy
[1] Eyðaz: lægjast corrected from Eyðaz below the line in another hand papp6ˣ
mun ‘will’
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munu (verb): will, must
sæmd ‘honour’
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sœmð (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): honour
þín ‘Your’
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þinn (pron.; °f. þín, n. þitt): your
skal ‘must’
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skulu (verb): shall, should, must
[2] ef líkr skal ek vera: ef skal ek líkr vera ÍBR5ˣ
ek ‘I’
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ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me
[2] ef líkr skal ek vera: ef skal ek líkr vera ÍBR5ˣ
vera ‘be’
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
[2] ef líkr skal ek vera: ef skal ek líkr vera ÍBR5ˣ
aumum ‘a poor’
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aumr (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): wretched, poor
ill ‘wretched’
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illr (adj.): bad, evil, unwell < illþræli (noun n.)
þræli ‘slave’
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þræll (noun m.; °þrǽls, dat. þrǽli/þrǽl; þrǽlar): slave, servant < illþræli (noun n.)
er ‘whom’
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2. er (conj.): who, which, when
notes
[4] er ekki prýðir ‘whom sobbing adorns’: In this edn ekki is understood as the m. noun ekki ‘sobbing, sorrow, grief’ but it is also possible to read it, as Finnur Jónsson does in Skj B, as hvem intet pryder ‘whom nothing adorns’, though the point of the clause in this sense is not entirely clear, whereas in the sense proposed here it adds to the image of the craven slave who can do nothing but blubber, ironic in context because Hǫrðr/Hringr was, according to the saga narrative, nobler, braver and more effective than his two companions. Ekki ‘sobbing, sorrow’ is found in rímur (cf. Finnur Jónsson 1926-8, 74).
ekki ‘sobbing’
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1. ekki (noun m.; °-a): sorrow
notes
[4] er ekki prýðir ‘whom sobbing adorns’: In this edn ekki is understood as the m. noun ekki ‘sobbing, sorrow, grief’ but it is also possible to read it, as Finnur Jónsson does in Skj B, as hvem intet pryder ‘whom nothing adorns’, though the point of the clause in this sense is not entirely clear, whereas in the sense proposed here it adds to the image of the craven slave who can do nothing but blubber, ironic in context because Hǫrðr/Hringr was, according to the saga narrative, nobler, braver and more effective than his two companions. Ekki ‘sobbing, sorrow’ is found in rímur (cf. Finnur Jónsson 1926-8, 74).
prýðir ‘adorns’
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prýða (verb): adorn
notes
[4] er ekki prýðir ‘whom sobbing adorns’: In this edn ekki is understood as the m. noun ekki ‘sobbing, sorrow, grief’ but it is also possible to read it, as Finnur Jónsson does in Skj B, as hvem intet pryder ‘whom nothing adorns’, though the point of the clause in this sense is not entirely clear, whereas in the sense proposed here it adds to the image of the craven slave who can do nothing but blubber, ironic in context because Hǫrðr/Hringr was, according to the saga narrative, nobler, braver and more effective than his two companions. Ekki ‘sobbing, sorrow’ is found in rímur (cf. Finnur Jónsson 1926-8, 74).
ragr ‘craven’
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ragr (adj.; °superl. -astr): [perverted, minded]
í ‘in’
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í (prep.): in, into
hverja ‘every’
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2. hverr (pron.): who, whom, each, every
taug ‘fibre’
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taug (noun f.; °dat. -u; -ir/-ar(Ridd623 28³⁰)): fishing-line, string
nema ‘only’
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2. nema (conj.): unless
vakta ‘to look after’
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vakta (verb): [account, observed]
[6] vakta: reiða corrected from vakta above the line in another hand papp6ˣ
notes
[6] vakta ‘look after’: All mss have vakta ‘look after, watch over’ here, but it does not alliterate and is a late adoption into Old Norse from Middle Low German (see AEW, ONP: vakta). The additional hand of papp6ˣ crosses out vakta and adds reiða ‘spread, toss’ above the line, and this reading has been adopted by most eds and may well have been the original one.
mat ‘food’
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matr (noun m.; °-ar, dat. -i/-; -ir): food
halr ‘fellow’
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halr (noun m.; °-s): man
inn ‘the’
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2. inn (art.): the
hrafn ‘raven’
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hrafn (noun m.; °hrafns; dat. hrafni; hrafnar): raven < hrafnsvartr (adj.)
svarti ‘black’
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svartr (adj.): black < hrafnsvartr (adj.)
í ‘in’
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í (prep.): in, into
[8] í hrævar: so with í written above the line in another hand papp6ˣ, ‘hræduar’ 109a IIIˣ, ÍBR5ˣ
notes
[8] í skrúði hrævar ‘in the clothing of a corpse’: Only papp6ˣ has hrævar ‘of a corpse’, but it is almost certainly correct, as it conforms to the saga narrative’s information that Hjálmþér carried the apparently dead Hǫrðr on his back for two days, an act that was necessary to break the spell under which King Hringr had been placed. The í ‘in’ is regarded here as an emendation, as it appears only as an additional reading in papp6ˣ. Skj B and FSGJ present hrævarskrúði as a cpd; Kock (NN §2840 and Skald) adopts the reading í hræðfarskrúði (based on 109a IIIˣ’s and ÍBR5ˣ’s ‘hræduar’) and suggests that this cpd could be derived from hræða ‘frighten’ and fǫr ‘journey’.
hrævar ‘corpse’
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hræ (noun n.; °; -): corpse, carrion
[8] í hrævar: so with í written above the line in another hand papp6ˣ, ‘hræduar’ 109a IIIˣ, ÍBR5ˣ
notes
[8] í skrúði hrævar ‘in the clothing of a corpse’: Only papp6ˣ has hrævar ‘of a corpse’, but it is almost certainly correct, as it conforms to the saga narrative’s information that Hjálmþér carried the apparently dead Hǫrðr on his back for two days, an act that was necessary to break the spell under which King Hringr had been placed. The í ‘in’ is regarded here as an emendation, as it appears only as an additional reading in papp6ˣ. Skj B and FSGJ present hrævarskrúði as a cpd; Kock (NN §2840 and Skald) adopts the reading í hræðfarskrúði (based on 109a IIIˣ’s and ÍBR5ˣ’s ‘hræduar’) and suggests that this cpd could be derived from hræða ‘frighten’ and fǫr ‘journey’.
skrúði ‘the clothing’
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skrúði (noun m.; °-a): decoration, apparel
notes
[8] í skrúði hrævar ‘in the clothing of a corpse’: Only papp6ˣ has hrævar ‘of a corpse’, but it is almost certainly correct, as it conforms to the saga narrative’s information that Hjálmþér carried the apparently dead Hǫrðr on his back for two days, an act that was necessary to break the spell under which King Hringr had been placed. The í ‘in’ is regarded here as an emendation, as it appears only as an additional reading in papp6ˣ. Skj B and FSGJ present hrævarskrúði as a cpd; Kock (NN §2840 and Skald) adopts the reading í hræðfarskrúði (based on 109a IIIˣ’s and ÍBR5ˣ’s ‘hræduar’) and suggests that this cpd could be derived from hræða ‘frighten’ and fǫr ‘journey’.
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
The prose text prefaces this stanza by stating that King Hringr becomes angry at the stanza Hjálmþér had just spoken and utters this one in response.
Compare Hjálmþérsrímur IX, 70-1 (Finnur Jónsson 1905-22, II, 65) with this stanza. — Presumably this stanza is to be understood semi-humorously, but the idea that Hjálmþér’s honour would have been destroyed if his companion was really a swineherd rather than a king depends on a set of beliefs about early Nordic society that was deeply held (cf. Meulengracht Sørensen 1983). These would normally inhibit men of high social status from consorting with the lower orders, who were deemed to be inherently cowardly and craven (ragr, l. 5). However, according to the saga, Hjálmþér had treated Hǫrðr as his trusted companion during a series of adventures and had been carrying the corpse of his supposed slave on his back for two days. In this stanza there are several allusions to the supposed slave’s cowardly and unmanly behaviour that could have dishonoured Hjálmþér.
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