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.
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.
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