Gyðja Lv 4VIII (Ǫrv 64)
Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 64 (Gyðja, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 879.
text and translation
Auð þættumk ek eiga nógan,
ef ek inn ágæta Álf um fyndak.
Blót gaf ek honum ok bú fjogur;
hann mun yðr alla í eld draga.
Ek þættumk eiga nógan auð, ef ek um fyndak inn ágæta Álf. Ek gaf honum blót ok fjogur bú; hann mun draga yðr alla í eld.
‘I would consider myself to have wealth enough, if I could recover the excellent Álfr. I gave sacrifices for him and four farms; he will fling you all into the fire. ’
notes and context
Gyðja continues her speech, and the stanza is introduced with þá kvað hon ‘then she said’.
There is an inconsistency between this stanza and the following one, both of which assume that Álfr bjálki is already dead, and the prose texts, which tell that, after Oddr has killed Gyðja, he finds Álfr still alive and finishes him off with his club (cf. Ǫrv 1888, 184-5). In the present stanza Gyðja, evidently assuming her husband is dead, indicates that she has conducted sacrifices and given four farms to the gods in order to try to bring Álfr back to life. Belief in reincarnation is one of the ideas ascribed to Nordic pagans by medieval Christian writers (cf. the prose comment at the end of HHund II (NK 161) that Þat var trúa í fornescio, at menn væri endrbornir ‘it was a belief in olden times that people were reborn’). Gyðja’s final claim that Álfr will fling their enemies into the fire may suggest that she imagines him as a revenant, capable of doing harm to the living.
readings
- [3] ágæta: ítra 343a, 471, 173ˣ
- [4] um: so 343a, of 344a, vin 173ˣ
- [4] fyndak: fyndek 471
- [5] gaf: gef 343a, 471, 173ˣ
- [7] yðr: om. all others
- [8] eld: elli 343a
sources
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
-
AM 344 a 4° (344a) — 23v/12 - 23v/13
imagesAuð þættumk ek
eiga nógan,
ef ek inn ágæta
Álf of fyndak.
Blót gaf ek honum
ok bú fjogur;
hann mun yðr alla
í eld draga.Aud þættumz ek eiga nogan · ef ek enn agæta alf of fyndag · blott gaf ek | honum ok bv fiorgvr · hann mun ydr alla i elld draga ·
(HA)
-
AM 343 a 4° (343a) — 78v/45 - 79r/1
Auð þættumk ek
images
eiga nógan,
ef ek inn ítra
Álf um fyndak.
Blót gef ek honum
ok bú fjogur;
hann mun yðr alla
í elli draga. -
AM 471 4° (471) — 91v - 91v
Auð þættumk ek
images
eiga nógan,
ef ek inn ítra
Álf um fyndek.
Blót gef ek honum
ok bú fjogur;
hann mun yðr alla
í eld draga. -
AM 173 folx (173x) — 57r/28 - 57r/31
Auð þættumk ek
images
eiga nógan,
ef ek inn ítra
Álf vin fyndak.
Blót gef ek honum
ok bú fjogur;
hann mun yðr alla
í eld draga. -
AM 344 b 4°x (344bx) — 30v/2 - 30v/4
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