ǪrvOdd Lv 6^VIII (Ǫrv 36)

Þit skuluð hlýða         hróðri mínum,
Sigurðr ok Sjólfr,         sessunautar.
Ykr á ek gjalda         greypan verka,
hróðr harðsnúinn,         huglausum tveim.

Sigurðr ok Sjólfr, þit sessunautar skuluð hlýða hróðri mínum. Ek á gjalda ykr tveim huglausum greypan verka, harðsnúinn hróðr.

Sigurðr and Sjólfr, you two bench companions must listen to my praise poetry. I have to pay back you two thoughtless fellows for [your] coarse composition, impudent poetry.

Mss: 7(54v), 344a(21r-v), 343a(77r), 471(88v) (Ǫrv)

Readings: [3] Sigurðr ok Sjólfr (‘s. ok s.’): ‘sig’ ok s.’ 344a, ‘sig’ ok snö’ 343a, ‘sig’. ok si’ 471    [5] á ek: er at 471    [6] verka: so all others, om. 7    [8] tveim: ‘tveimr’ 344a, ‘ij’ 343a

Editions: Skj AII, 297-8, Skj BII, 317, Skald II, 169; Ǫrv 1888, 160, Ǫrv 1892, 78-9, FSGJ 2, 312; Edd. Min. 66.

Context: Oddr now drinks off his horn and fills one for each of Sjólfr and Sigurðr. He speaks the following two stanzas.

Notes: [2] hróðri mínum ‘my praise poetry’: Oddr means that his rivals should now listen to him praising his own exploits instead of exaggerating their own. — [3]: Where they spell out the name Sjólfr (rather than abbreviating it) all mss give some form of the rising diphthong [jo], but all previous eds, except for Edd. Min., restore a two-syllable Sæólfr (OWN *saiwi-wulfaʀ ‘sea-wolf’) in all places where this pers. n. occurs. The situation appears more complex, however, with the Sjólfr form metrically necessary in the present line and in Ǫrv 37/1 and 53/3, the disyllabic form clear in one instance (Ǫrv 40/2), and both forms possible in the remainder (Ǫrv 43/1, 45/1 and 58/8). — [7] harðsnúinn hróðr ‘impudent poetry’: Normally hróðr means ‘praise, praise poetry’, as it does in l. 2 above, but here it seems to have a more general sense, as what Sjólfr and Sigurðr have recited about Oddr is hardly praise. Harðsnúinn ‘impudent’ means lit. ‘hard-twisted’. — [8] huglausum ‘thoughtless’: This adj. also bears the connotation ‘faint-hearted, cowardly’ (cf. LP: huglauss).

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.
8. Internal references
9. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 37 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 7)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 850.
10. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 40 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 853.
11. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 43 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 10)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 856.