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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Hjálm Lv 7VIII (Ǫrv 17)

Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 17 (Hjálmarr inn hugumstóri, Lausavísur 7)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 831.

Hjálmarr inn hugumstóriLausavísur
678

text and translation

Hvarf ek frá hvítri         hlaðs bið-Gunni
á Agnafit         útanverðri.
Saga mun sannaz,         sú er hon sagði mér,
at aptr koma         eigi mundak.

Ek hvarf frá {hvítri bið-Gunni hlaðs} á útanverðri Agnafit. Saga mun sannaz, sú er hon sagði mér, at mundak eigi koma aptr.
 
‘I went away from the white waiting-Gunnr <valkyrie> of lace-work [WOMAN] on the outer part of Agnafit. The saying will come true, that she told to me, that I would not come back.

notes and context

In both the Heiðr mss 2845 and R715ˣ, this stanza follows from Ǫrv 16 without intervening prose. In the Ǫrv mss, it follows Hjálmarr Lv 11 (Ǫrv 21) and Lv 9 (Ǫrv 19), without any prose intervention between these stanzas.

In this stanza the first couplet of 2845’s text differs from all the others, as R715ˣ and the Ǫrv mss share the same text, though it is garbled in parts. The majority version reads: Leiddi mik en hvíta | hilmis dóttir … ‘The ruler’s white daughter led me …’, the reference presumably being to the Swedish king’s daughter, Ingibjǫrg, who is mentioned in Ǫrv 18/4. In spite of its minority status, 2845’s version of the first couplet is probably an authentic variant, although it is necessary to emend two letters in bið-Gunni ‘waiting-Gunnr <valkyrie> [WOMAN]’ to produce an acceptable woman-kenning; cf. bið- as a characterising verbal element in, e.g. Hfr Hákdr 5/4III biðkvǫn Þriðja ‘the waiting wife of Þriði <= Óðinn> [= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)]’. It is true that this is the only kenning in Hjálmarr’s death-song, but there is no reason to reject it, as kennings occur from time to time in the poetry in this saga and in other fornaldarsögur.

readings

sources

Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.

editions and texts

Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], E. 10. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Ǫrvar-Oddssaga IV 5: AII, 293, BII, 313-14, Skald II, 167; Ǫrv 1888, 105-6, Ǫrv 1892, 59, FSGJ 2, 258; Heiðr 1924, 13, 100, Heiðr 1960, 8-9; Edd. Min. 50, 52.

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