Hjálm Lv 6^VIII (Ǫrv 16)

Drekka í höllu         húskarlar mjöð,
menjum göfgir         at míns föður.
Mæðir marga         mungát fira,
en mik eggja spor         í ey þjá.

Húskarlar drekka mjöð í höllu, göfgir menjum at míns föður. Mungát mæðir marga fira, en spor eggja þjá mik í ey.

Retainers are drinking mead in the hall, splendid with jewels at my father’s [court]. Beer exhausts many men, but the marks of the sword blades enslave me on the island.

Mss: 2845(64r), R715ˣ(10v) (Heiðr); 344a(18r), 343a(68v), 471(75v), 173ˣ(38r) (Ǫrv)

Readings: [1] Drekka í höllu: Drekkr með jöfri 344a, 343a, 471, 173ˣ    [2] húskarlar mjöð: jarla mengi 344a, 343a, 471, 173ˣ    [3] menjum göfgir: ‘meyjum giaddir’ R715ˣ, öl glaðiga 344a, 343a, 471, 173ˣ    [4] at míns föður: at míns föðurs R715ˣ, at Uppsölum 344a, 471, 173ˣ, af Uppsölum 343a    [6] fira: so R715ˣ, 344a, 471, fenia 2845, ‘fira’ corrected from ‘þeira’ 343a, fyrða 173ˣ    [7] eggja: eggjar 343a    [8] þjá: ‘þessari’ corrected from ‘þia’ in another hand R715ˣ, þessari 173ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 293, Skj BII, 313, Skald II, 166; Ǫrv 1888, 105-6, Ǫrv 1892, 59, FSGJ 2, 262; Heiðr 1924, 13, 100, Heiðr 1960, 8; Edd. Min. 51, 52.

Context: In both Heiðr mss, this stanza follows Ǫrv 15 without intervening prose, while in the Ǫrv mss it comes towards the end of Hjálmarr’s death-song. In most of them, it is the penultimate stanza of the death-song, followed by Hjálm Lv 10 (Ǫrv 20), but this stanza is missing in 344a, so this is the final stanza of the death-song in this ms., after which Hjálmarr is said to die.

Notes: [All]: The Ǫrv mss have a completely different first helmingr of this stanza from that of the Heiðr mss. The variant text of the first helmingr is printed below. The second helmingr exhibits no significant differences. Skj B prints the Ǫrv text of the first helmingr, while Skj A gives the text according to 2845, with the Ǫrv text in the notes. Skald prints the Ǫrv text of the first helmingr and gives the Heiðr version as a separate b. stanza. Edd. Min. gives both versions separately. Ms. R715ˣ offers basic support for the text of 2845, even though at a later stage someone crossed through the original text in R715ˣ and replaced it with the text according to the Ǫrv mss (see Heiðr 1924, 100 n. 4). As Finnur Jónsson did not use R715ˣ, its basic support for the text of 2845 was not apparent in his edn.

Drekkr með jöfri         jarla mengi,
öl glaðliga         at Uppsölum.

Mengi jarla drekkr öl glaðliga með jöfri at Uppsölum.

A crowd of warriors drinks ale merrily with the prince at Uppsala.

— [All]: Skj’s and Skald’s apparent preference for the first helmingr of this stanza according to the Ǫrv mss presumably derives from their belief (doubtless following the arguments of Edd. Min. xxxix-xlii) that the contents of the helmingr were more compatible with what both Heiðr and Ǫrv tell us about Hjálmarr, who is elsewhere represented as serving the Swedish king and being a suitor for the hand of his daughter, Ingibjörg. But, as Christopher Tolkien has pointed out (Heiðr 1960, 75), the information in the Heiðr version of this stanza might represent an older version of the story of Hjálmarr, in which he had no connection with the Swedish king, and allude to the behaviour of retainers at his father’s court. Edd. Min. (xl) on the other hand argued that this information was a later intrusion into the story. Here the Heiðr text is treated as potentially old and the two are treated as genuine variants. — [3] göfgir menjum ‘splendid with jewels’: The same phrase occurs in Sigsk 67/4 (NK 218) and Hyndl 13/2 (NK 290). — [8]: As it stands, this line is hypometrical, but the older, disyllabic form of the verb, þjáa ‘enslave’, would make it metrical.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
6. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
7. Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
8. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
9. Ǫrv 1888 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1888. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Leiden: Brill.
10. Heiðr 1960 = Tolkien, Christopher, ed. and trans. 1960. Saga Heiðreks konungs ins vitra / The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise. Nelson Icelandic Texts. London etc.: Nelson.
11. Ǫrv 1892 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1892a. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek 2. Halle: Niemayer.
12. Internal references
13. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 367. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=23> (accessed 30 April 2024)
14. 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 30 April 2024)
15. Not published: do not cite ()
16. Not published: do not cite ()
17. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 15 (Hjálmarr inn hugumstóri, Lausavísur 5)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 828.
18. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 20 (Hjálmarr inn hugumstóri, Lausavísur 10)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 834.