ǪrvOdd Ævdr 63^VIII (Ǫrv 133)

Þótta ek hæfr         at hjörregni,
þá er vér börðumz         á Brávelli.
Bað Hringr þá         hamalt fylkja
Odd inn víðförla         at orrostu.

Ek þótta hæfr at {hjörregni}, þá er vér börðumz á Brávelli. Þá bað Hringr Odd inn víðförla fylkja hamalt at orrostu.

I was thought to be fit for {sword-rain} [BATTLE], when we fought at Brávǫllr. Then Hringr ordered Oddr inn víðförli (‘the Widely-travelled’) to draw up a wedge-shaped column at the battle.

Mss: 343a(81v), 471(95v), 173ˣ(64va-b) (Ǫrv)

Readings: [1] Þótta: Þótti 173ˣ    [2] at hjörregni: á Brávelli 173ˣ    [3] þá er vér börðumz: þá vér börðumz 343a, 471, þa ek barðiz 173ˣ    [4] á Brávelli: ‘a bia velli’ 471, við buðlungs menn 173ˣ    [6] fylkja: fylgja 173ˣ    [7] Odd: Óðinn 173ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 317, Skj BII, 337, Skald II, 181; Ǫrv 1888, 207, FSGJ 2, 359.

Notes: [All]: There is no support from any of the prose versions of Ǫrv for the claim of this stanza that Oddr participated in the legendary battle at Brávǫllr (pl. Brávellir), where King Haraldr hilditǫnn ‘War-tooth’ was killed and his nephew, Sigurðr hringr ‘Ring’, king of the Swedes, won the victory. The legendary warrior Starkaðr fought on the side of the Swedes and a great many other champions participated, as told in the Brávallaþula ‘List of [participants at] Brávellir’, known to both Saxo Grammaticus (Saxo 2015, I, viii. 1. 1-5. 1, pp. 532-51) and the author of the Icelandic Fornk (ÍF 35, 60-9), based on a version of the now-lost Skjǫldunga saga. In Fornk (ÍF 35, 64), Oddr víðfǫrli is indeed named as one of the participants at the battle, fighting among the Norwegians, so it would seem that whoever composed this stanza was aware of a tradition that put Oddr at the battle. — [4] á Brávelli ‘at Brávǫllr’: A site thought to be in the province of Blekinge, Sweden. — [5-8]: These lines depend on the composer’s knowledge of the Brávellir legend. According to it, the god Óðinn was the patron of Haraldr hilditǫnn and granted him victory in every battle, teaching him all kinds of warfare. When, at Brávellir, Haraldr saw that Sigurðr hringr had drawn up his army in wedge formation, he realised that Óðinn must have taught this ploy to Hringr, and that the god must have shifted his support from Haraldr to Sigurðr. In this stanza Oddr is said to have led the wedge formation. — [7] Odd inn víðförla ‘Oddr inn víðförli (“the Widely-travelled”)’: This cognomen, in the form Víðfǫrull, is adopted by Oddr in his wanderings before he reveals his identity at the court of King Herrauðr, but only in ms. 7 (Ǫrv 1888, 139). In the other mss he calls himself Næframaðr ‘Bark-man’ (Ǫrv 1888, 130-6). He is also given the cognomen víðfǫrli in Fornk (see Note to [All] above).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. ÍF 35 = Danakonunga sǫgur. Ed. Bjarni Guðnason. 1982.
4. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
5. Fornk = Fornkonunga saga (Sǫgubrot af Fornkonungum).
6. Ǫrv 1888 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1888. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Leiden: Brill.
7. Saxo 2015 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2015. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes. Trans. Peter Fisher. Oxford Medieval Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
8. Internal references
9. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ǫrvar-Odds saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 804. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=35> (accessed 23 April 2024)