ǪrvOdd Lv 13^VIII (Ǫrv 46)

Sigurðr, vartu eigi,         er á Selund feldak
bræðr bölharða         Brand ok Agnar,
Ásmund, Ingjald,         Álfr var inn fimti.
En þú heima látt         í höll konungs,
skrökmálasamr,         skauð hernumin.

Sigurðr, vartu eigi, er feldak á Selund bölharða bræðr Brand ok Agnar, Ásmund, Ingjald, Álfr var inn fimti. En þú, skrökmálasamr, látt heima í höll konungs, hernumin skauð.

Sigurðr, you were not [there] when on Sjælland I felled the harm-hard brothers Brandr and Agnarr, Ásmundr, Ingjaldr; Álfr was the fifth. But you, babbler of lies, lay at home in the king’s hall, you forcibly taken cunt.

Mss: 7(54v), 344a(21v), 343a(77r), 471(89r), 173ˣ(53v) (ll. 1-8) (Ǫrv)

Readings: [1] Sigurðr: so all others, ok Sigurðr 7;    eigi: ei 173ˣ    [2] er: om. 344a, 343a, 173ˣ;    Selund: Sælundi 344a, 343a, Sælǫndum 173ˣ    [3] bræðr bölharða: bræðr mjök bölharða 344a, bræðr í böð harða 343a, bræðr böðharða 471, er ek bræðr felda 173ˣ    [4] Agnar: Angarr 173ˣ    [5] Ingjald: Ingjall 344a    [6] Álfr var: Álf 344a;    fimti: fimta 344a    [7] látt: sazt 173ˣ    [8] konungs: kominn 173ˣ    [9] skrökmála‑: ‘skrokmæla’ 471    [10] skauð: ‘skud’ 344a

Editions: Skj AII, 300, Skj BII, 319, Skald II, 170; Ǫrv 1888, 162-3, Ǫrv 1892, 81, FSGJ 2, 316; Edd. Min. 68.

Context: As for Ǫrv 45.

Notes: [All]: In this stanza Oddr accuses Sigurðr of not being present when he, in company with Ásmundr and Hjálmarr, fought on the Danish island of Selund (ModDan. Sjælland, ModEngl. Zealand) against five berserk brothers, Brandr, Ásmundr, Agnarr, Ingjaldr and Álfr. According to the saga, Oddr killed all the brothers without suffering a single wound (Ǫrv 1888, 66-7; Ǫrv 1892, 35-6). — [All]: This stanza has ten lines, instead of the usual eight, and most eds regard ll. 5-6 as a later insertion; however, they are present in all mss and the names correspond to those of the five berserk brothers in the prose saga. Ms. 173ˣ has ll. 5-6 but omits ll. 9-10. — [3] bölharða ‘harm-hard’: This is the reading of 7 and 344a. The cpd is a hap. leg. and its meaning is presumably that the berserk brothers were tough when faced with the rigours of battle. Skj B and Skald prefer the reading of 471 (supported by that of 343a), böðharða ‘battle-hard’, a cpd attested from several skaldic poems (cf. LP: bǫðharðr). — [9] skrökmálasamr ‘babbler of lies’: Lit. ‘falsehood-talkative’. This hap. leg. cpd echoes the kynmálasamr ‘marvellously talkative’ of Ǫrv 45/7. — [10] hernumin skauð ‘you forcibly taken cunt’: A very strong insult. Skauð is often translated ‘wretch, coward, good-for-nothing’ (cf. Skj B’s translation and LP: skauð), and undoubtedly the general implication of the term is that a man referred to in such language is unmanly. However, skauð, a f. noun, has the specific sense of the internal female genitalia (cf. OE sceað, ModEngl. sheath, Lat. vagina) and Fritzner: skauð 1 gives citations of the term’s pejorative use when applied to a man. In combination with the adjectival p. p. hernumin ‘captured, taken by force’ there is no doubt of the pejorative implication of skauð, as the verb hernema is frequently used of women captured in raids or fighting and forced to become men’s concubines; see Fritzner: hernema 2 and the use of the same p. p. in Ǫrv 50/7.

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. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
6. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
7. 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.
8. Ǫrv 1888 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1888. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Leiden: Brill.
9. Ǫrv 1892 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1892a. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek 2. Halle: Niemayer.
10. Internal references
11. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 45 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 12)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 858.
12. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 50 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 17)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 864.