Heiðr Lv 3^VIII (Ǫrv 3)

Naðr mun þik höggva         neðan á fæti,
fránn ór fornum         Faxa hausi.

Naðr mun höggva þik neðan á fæti, fránn ór fornum hausi Faxa.

A snake will strike you from below on the leg, gleaming from the ancient skull of Faxi.

Mss: 7(44v) (ll. 1-4), 344a(2v), 471(62r), 343a(60v), 173ˣ(19r) (Ǫrv)

Readings: [1] Naðr mun þik höggva: naðra mun þik höggva 344a, skal þér ormr tapa 471, 173ˣ, skal þér ormr granda 343a    [2] neðan á fæti: eiturblandinn 471, 343a, með eitri blandinn 173ˣ    [3] fránn: ‘framam’ 344a    [4] hausi: ‘huasi’ 344a, hausa 173ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 289-90, Skj BII, 310-11, Skald II, 165; Ǫrv 1888, 15, Ǫrv 1892, 9, FSGJ 2, 208; Edd. Min. 93.

Context: See Introduction above.

Notes: [All]: The helmingr above is based on 7. Ms. 344a follows the same text for ll. 1-4 but adds two lines which correspond to ll. 7-8 of the version of the younger mss printed below. The three younger mss, 343a, 471 and 173ˣ, have an appreciably different, and longer, version of this stanza, labelled by Finnur Jónsson 3b. The text of this version based on 471 is edited below.

Skal þér ormr tapa         eiturblandinn
fránn ór fornum         Faxa hausi.
Naðr mun þik höggva         neðan á fæti;
þá ertu fullgamall,         fylkir, orðinn.

Eiturblandinn ormr skal tapa þér, fránn ór fornum hausi Faxa. Naðr mun höggva þik neðan á fæti; þá ertu, fylkir, fullgamall orðinn.

A serpent mixed with poison will destroy you, gleaming from the ancient skull of Faxi. A snake will strike you from below on the leg; then, you, leader, will have reached your full age.

Readings: [1] tapa: granda 343a    [2] eitur-: með eitri 173ˣ    [4] hausi: hausa 173ˣ    [6] neðan: om. 173ˣ    [7] ertu: þú ert 173ˣ

— [All]: A comparison of the shorter (7) and longer versions of this stanza shows that ll. 3-6 of the longer one simply rearrange the shorter and then expand to make a full stanza by adding ll. 1-2, which elaborate on the stanza’s essential information, and by adding ll. 7-8, which is also present in 344a. In l. 2, the cpd adj. eiturblandinn ‘mixed with poison’ requires the desyllabified form for metrical reasons, suggesting that this line at least is likely to be a composition of the C14th.  — [3] fránn ‘gleaming’: An epithet frequently used of snakes in Old Norse poetry; for examples, cf. LP: 2. fránn adj. — [4] Faxa ‘of Faxi’: Lit. ‘the maned one’, name of the horse whose skull will cause Oddr’s death.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
4. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
5. 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.
6. Ǫrv 1888 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1888. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Leiden: Brill.
7. Ǫrv 1892 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1892a. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek 2. Halle: Niemayer.