ǪrvOdd Lv 27^VIII (Ǫrv 62)

Hirði ek eigi,         þótt heitir þú,
fárgjarnt höfuð,         Freys reiði mér.
Veit ek í eldi         ásu brenna;
tröll eigi þik;         trúi ek guði einum.

Ek hirði eigi, þótt þú, fárgjarnt höfuð, heitir mér reiði Freys. Ek veit ásu brenna í eldi; tröll eigi þik; ek trúi guði einum.

I do not care though you, evil-inclined person, call down Freyr’s wrath upon me. I know the gods are burning in the fire; may trolls have you; I believe in one god.

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

Readings: [1] eigi: so all others, ei 7    [2] þótt heitir þú: þóttu heitir 344a, þóat hætir þú 343a, þó hætir þú 471, hvat hættir þú 173ˣ    [3] fárgjarnt: fárgjörn 344a, 343a, 471, 173ˣ;    höfuð: kona 344a, 343a, 471, om. 173ˣ    [5] Veit: menn veit 344a, inn veit 173ˣ    [6] ásu: so 471, ‘æsa’ 344a, ás ok 343a, ‘æsi’ 173ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 304, Skj BII, 322-3, Skald II, 172; Ǫrv 1888, 183, Ǫrv 1892, 91-2, FSGJ 2, 328-9; Edd. Min. 75.

Context: See Introduction to stanzas 59-70. This stanza is spoken by Oddr according to all mss.

Notes: [All]: As in the preceding stanza, the version of 7 adds four lines to this 8-line stanza, this time between ll. 4 and 5. Versions of these lines in the other mss form the second helmingr of Ǫrv 69, where all variant readings are given and discussed. The text in 7 is as follows: ‘illt er at einka vin skoluð eigi ęrr skratta blota’. This can be emended to make sense as the following lines:

illr er Óðinn         at einkavin;
skuluð eigi ér         skratta blóta.

‘Óðinn is evil as an intimate friend; you should not worship demons with sacrifice’.

The noun Óðinn has been omitted and ms. ‘ęrr’ is arguably a mistake for ér ‘you’ (pl.) See further discussion in Ǫrv 69, Note to ll. 5-8. — [4] fárgjarnt höfuð ‘evil-inclined person’: Lit. ‘head’ (cf. LP: hǫfuð 2). In 7 Oddr directs this insult to Álfr bjálki; in the other mss he insults Gyðja, so the text there reads fárgjörn kona ‘evil-inclined woman’. — [7] tröll eigi þik ‘may trolls have you’: A common cursing formula, cf. ÞjóðA Sex 20/6^II and Note. — [8] ek trúi guði einum ‘I believe in one god’: By contrast with the heathen pantheon. Or possibly ‘I believe in the one god’, an indubitably Christian idea, which, along with much else in these stanzas in their surviving form, puts paid to the notion that they can be very old. This line is also in málaháttr rather than fornyrðislag.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. 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.
4. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
5. 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.
6. Ǫrv 1888 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1888. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Leiden: Brill.
7. Ǫrv 1892 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1892a. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek 2. Halle: Niemayer.
8. Internal references
9. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Sexstefja 20’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 134-5.
10. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 69 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 32)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 884.