Gyðja Lv 2^VIII (Ǫrv 61)

Þess hlægjumk ek,         at hefir fengna
Freys reiði þú,         fári blandna.
Hjálpi æsir         ok ásynjur,
görvöll regin,         gyðjum sínum!

Ek hlægjumk þess, at þú hefir fengna reiði Freys, blandna fári. Æsir ok ásynjur, görvöll regin, hjálpi gyðjum sínum!

I am moved to laughter at this, that you have incurred Freyr’s wrath, mixed with evil. May gods and goddesses, all divine powers, help their priestesses!

Mss: 7(56r), 344a(23v), 343a(78v), 471(91r), 173ˣ(57r) (Ǫrv)

Readings: [1] Þess hlægjumk ek: hlœgir mik þat 344a, hugr hlœgir mik 343a, hugr hlœjumz þat 471, 173ˣ    [2] at hefir fengna: er hefir þú yðr öllum 344a, at hafir fengina 343a, at hafir fengna 471    [3] þú: om. 344a    [4] fári blandna: fyrir búna 344a    [5] æsir: ‘[…]’ 471    [8] gyðjum: gyðju 344a, 343a, 471, 173ˣ;    sínum (‘.s.’): sinni 344a, 343a, 471, 173ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 303-4, Skj BII, 322, Skald II, 172; Ǫrv 1888, 183, Ǫrv 1892, 91, FSGJ 2, 328; Edd. Min. 75.

Context: See Introduction to stanzas 59-70. In 7 this stanza is introduced with the words þá kvað Álfr ‘then Álfr said’, while the remaining mss have either þá kvað gyðja ‘then the priestess said’ (344a) or þá kvað hon ‘then she said’.

Notes: [All]: As has been noted in the Introduction, 7 ascribes this stanza to Álfr bjálki, but all the other mss present it as the words of his wife Gyðja. There are substantial variations in the wording of the stanza in the ms. witnesses which reflect these differences in attribution. The most significant is that l. 8 is sg. gyðju sinni ‘their priestess’ in the majority of mss, in line with their attribution of the stanza to Gyðja herself, while 7, assigning the stanza to Álfr, has the pl. gyðjum sínum ‘their priestesses’. In all mss except 7, ll. 5-8 are repeated as a separate refrain-like helmingr at the end of the dialogue between Gyðja and Oddr, and appear below as Gyðja Lv 6 (Ǫrv 70). — [All]: Ms. 7 has four additional lines after l. 8, making a 12-line stanza. In the other mss these additional lines form the first four lines of Gyðja Lv 5 (Ǫrv 66). The text in 7 reads as follows: eða hverr eggjaði þik | austan hingat | fræknan fella | fláráðan ‘or who egged you on [to come] here from the east ... full of deceits’? The final two lines may be a variant on what appears in 344a as Ǫrv 66/3-4, feiknafullan ok fláráðan ‘one full of portents and deceits’. It is to be noted that the additional lines are introduced in the ms. by the conj. eða ‘or’, which is extrametrical. The relationship between these lines from 7 and the other mss is discussed further in the Notes to Ǫrv 66.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
4. 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.
5. Ǫrv 1888 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1888. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Leiden: Brill.
6. Ǫrv 1892 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1892a. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek 2. Halle: Niemayer.
7. Internal references
8. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 66 (Gyðja, Lausavísur 5)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 881.
9. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 70 (Gyðja, Lausavísur 6)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 885.