ǪrvOdd Lv 14^VIII (Ǫrv 47)

Sjólfr, vartu eigi         suðr á Skíðu,
þar er konungar         kníðu hjálma.
Óðum dreyra,         svá at í ökla tók;
víg vakða ek;         vartu eigi þar.

Sjólfr, vartu eigi suðr á Skíðu, þar er konungar kníðu hjálma. Óðum dreyra, svá at tók í ökla; ek vakða víg; vartu eigi þar.

Sjólfr, you were not south at Skien, where kings struck helmets. We waded in blood so that it came up to our ankles; I aroused fighting; you were not there.

Mss: 7(54v), 344a(21v), 343a(77r), 471(89r) (Ǫrv)

Readings: [2] Skíðu: so 343a, skiði 7, 471, skeiði 344a    [3] þar er: so 343a, þar 7, þar sem 344a, þá er 471;    konungar: kappar 344a    [4] kníðu: knúðu 344a, 343a, 471;    hjálma: hildi 344a, ‘hialmara’ 471    [6] at: om. 471;    í: om. 344a    [7] vakða ek: vá ek mörg 344a    [8] vartu: ok vartu 344a

Editions: Skj AII, 300, Skj BII, 319-20, Skald II, 170; Ǫrv 1888, 163, Ǫrv 1892, 82, FSGJ 2, 316; Edd. Min. 68.

Context: After delivering Ǫrv 45 and 46, Oddr returns to his seat and his rivals empty their horns. They then bring Oddr refilled horns and hand them to him, but are by now so affected by drink that they cannot speak. Oddr drains his horns and presents Sjólfr and Sigurðr with new ones, carrying them over and speaking the following two stanzas.

Notes: [All]: This stanza refers to a short episode in the saga (Ǫrv 1888, 86-9; Ǫrv 1892, 45-6) immediately following Oddr’s and Hjálmarr’s encounter with the viking Skolli in England. They sail from there south to Skien according to 344a and the younger mss, but east to Norway and to the Götaälv (við Elfina) according to 7, and there they fight a battle with two kings, one named Hlǫðver, the other Haki (the latter named only in the younger mss), who had thirty ships. Ten ships attack the heroes as they are lying close to the shore, and, in a tough fight, the heroes prevail, but then they are attacked by the other twenty. Eventually, both kings and their armies are killed, but most of Oddr’s force is killed too. — [2] Skíðu ‘Skien’: If this, the reading of 343a, is adopted, the stanza refers to Skien (ON Skíða), a place in Telemark, southern Norway, but if Skíði, the reading of 7 and 471 is followed, then the location of the action mentioned here is on the island of Skye (ON Skíð) in the Hebrides. Most mss of the saga text (Ǫrv 1888, 54, 55, 57, 86, 87) support the former reading, in that the p. n. Skíða is mentioned several times, both in the story of Oddr’s encounter with the viking Sóti and in connection with what happens shortly after his dealings with another viking, Skolli, in Northumberland (see Ǫrv 44 Note to [All]). After this, according to 344a, Oddr’s party sailed south to Skien (ok sigldu þaðan suðr til Skíðu, Ǫrv 1888, 86). The reading Skíðu is adopted by Edd. Min. and in Ǫrv 1888 and 1892, as well as in the present edn. On the other hand, it is just possible that an earlier version of the story extended Oddr’s adventures in the British Isles to the island of Skye. Skj B and Skald prefer this view, and read Skíði here. — [4] kníðu ‘struck’: This is the reading of 7, from knýja ‘knock, press, strike, beat against’. All the other mss have the later form knúðu, inf. knýða, with the same meaning (cf. ANG §§163.2 and 513.2 and Anm. 2). — [4] hjálma ‘helmets’: Skj B and Skald adopt the reading of 344a, hildi, ‘battle’, Skj translating kníðu hildi as kæmpede ‘they fought’. — [7] ek vakða víg ‘I aroused fighting’: Finnur Jónsson produces a composite line, presumably to ‘improve’ the metre, combining readings from 7 and 344a, víg vakðak mǫrg ‘I provoked many fights’, and in this he is followed by Skald.

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. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
5. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
6. 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.
7. Ǫrv 1888 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1888. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Leiden: Brill.
8. Ǫrv 1892 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1892a. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek 2. Halle: Niemayer.
9. Internal references
10. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 44 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 11)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 857.
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.