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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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ǪrvOdd Lv 8VIII (Ǫrv 40)

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.

Ǫrvar-OddrLausavísur
789

Slóttu við meyjar         málþing, Sæólfr,
meðan loga létum         leika of kynnum.
Unnum harðan         Hadding drepinn,
ok Ölvi var         aldrs um synjat.

Slóttu málþing við meyjar, Sæólfr, meðan létum loga leika of kynnum. Unnum harðan Hadding drepinn, ok Ölvi var um synjat aldrs.

You carried on assignations with girls, Sjólfr, while we made flames play around families. We killed the hardy Haddingr and Ǫlvir was deprived of life.

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

Readings: [1] Slóttu: Sjólfr 7, sótti 344a;    við: láttu um 7;    meyjar: meyja 7, ‘meygiar’ 344a    [2] mál‑: malm‑ 7;    Sæólfr: saman 7, 344a    [3] meðan loga létum: Sjólfr meðan 344a    [4] leika: svíra 344a;    of kynnum: so 471, ‘um kyni’ 343a, um konung 7, hjuggum 344a    [6] Hadding: hilding 7, Hunding 344a, 471    [7] ok: so all others, þá 343a;    Ölvi: hans félögum 7    [8] aldrs: aldr 7, 344a;    um: of 7, 344a, 471

Editions: Skj AII, 298-9, Skj BII, 318, Skald II, 169, FF §36; Ǫrv 1888, 161, Ǫrv 1892, 79-80, FSGJ 2, 313-14; Edd. Min. 67.

Context: Oddr drains the two horns offered by Sjólfr and Sigurðr and they return to their seats. Then he stands up and carries a horn to each of them, reciting the following two stanzas.

Notes: [All]: Ms. 343a has been taken here as main ms., because there are grounds for thinking that ll. 1-2 in 7 have been affected by scribal dittography from the following stanza, Ǫrv 41/1-2, and there are also other inferior readings in this ms. Ms. 344a’s text is also inferior to those of 343a and 471. — [2] málþing ‘assignations’: Lit. ‘speech-meetings’. Ms. 7’s reading málmþing ‘weapon-meetings [BATTLES]’ rather than the málþing ‘speech-meetings’ of all the other mss is inappropriate in the context of Sjólfr’s supposed dalliance with girls. — [2] Sæólfr ‘Sjólfr’: The older, disyllabic form of the name is required here for metrical reasons in a Type A2k-line (cf. Gade 1995a, 117-23). — [4] of kynnum ‘around families’: Meaning that Oddr and his companions burn members of families in their halls or houses, not normally regarded in early Scandinavia as a praiseworthy act. This is the reading of 471, which is also preferred by Skj B which, however, understands kynni in the sense ‘dwelling, home’ (LP: kynni 3). A slightly different sense is adopted here, in line with ONP: kynni 2 ‘family, lineage’, although the use of the pl. is unusual. All other eds adopt 7’s um konung ‘around the king’, which is unmetrical and seems to be a lectio facilior. The incident to which this stanza refers is unknown. — [6] Hadding ‘Haddingr’: A well-known name in Old Norse mythical-heroic literature, although the identity of the Haddingr involved in this incident is uncertain. Two Haddingjar are named in Ǫrv 5/6 as among the berserk brothers that fought against Oddr and Hjálmarr on Samsø. See Note to this line. Both 344a and 471 give the hero’s name as Hundingr, attested from the Helgi poems of the Poetic Edda (Kommentar IV, 102), as a sea-king name (SnE 1998, II, 481) and as an ethnic name, Hunding, as in the Old English Wīdsīð 23, while 7 has the common noun hilding, ‘chief, hero’. — [7] Ölvi ‘Ǫlvir’: A common pers. n., though its exact referent here (if it has one) is unknown.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
  3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  4. 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.
  5. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  6. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
  7. Kommentar = See, Klaus von et al. 1997-2012. Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda. 7 vols. Heidelberg: Winter.
  8. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  9. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
  10. 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.
  11. Ǫrv 1888 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1888. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Leiden: Brill.
  12. FF = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1922. Fornjermansk forskning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 18:1. Lund: Gleerup.
  13. Ǫrv 1892 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1892a. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek 2. Halle: Niemayer.
  14. Internal references
  15. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 41 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 9)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 854.
  16. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 5 (Hjálmarr inn hugumstóri, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 816.
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