ǪrvOdd Lv 31^VIII (Ǫrv 68)

Lét ek fyrstan         Frey ok Óðin,
blinda báða,         á bál fara.
Urðu æsir         undan at flýja,
hvar er í flokki         fundizk höfðum.

Ek lét Frey fyrstan ok Óðin, báða blinda, fara á bál. Æsir urðu at flýja undan, hvar er höfðum fundizk í flokki.

I caused Freyr first and [then] Óðinn, both blind, to proceed to the pyre. The gods were forced to flee away, wherever we had encountered each other in company.

Mss: 344a(23v), 343a(79r), 471(91v), 173ˣ(57v) (Ǫrv)

Readings: [1] Lét: læt 343a, 471, 173ˣ;    fyrstan: Frey 344a, frey fara 343a, 471, 173ˣ    [2] Frey ok Óðin: fystan ok Óðin 344a, fyst ok Óðin 343a, 471, 173ˣ    [4] á bál fara: á burt heðan 343a, 471, á burtu heðan 173ˣ    [5] Urðu: so all others, urðu æ 344a    [6] at flýja: at leita 343a, leita 471, at láta 173ˣ    [7] er: er í er 344a, sem 343a, 173ˣ, ‘[…]’ 471;    flokki: ‘folkroði’ 471

Editions: Skj AII, 305, Skj BII, 324, Skald II, 173, NN §2406; Ǫrv 1888, 182, FSGJ 2, 331; Edd. Min. 75.

Context: Oddr continues his response to Gyðja. This stanza follows Ǫrv 67 without any prose intervention.

Notes: [All]: Oddr again refers to his burning of the Bjálkaland temple and the wooden idols within it, which had already been mentioned in Ǫrv 60 and 62. — [1-2]: In order to obtain a metrically regular l. 1, the word order of 344a has been changed (so also Skj B and Skald) from lét ek Frey | fyrstan ok Óðin to lét ek fyrstan | Frey ok Óðin. Edd. Min. prefers the reading of the other mss, Lét ek Frey fara | fyrst ok Óðin and, in addition, their version of l. 4 á burt heðan ‘away from here’. Skj B prefers the younger mss’ reading læt ek ‘I cause’ in l. 1 to 344a’s lét ek ‘I caused’, but this seems illogical in view of the fact that Oddr has already burned the temple and its idols, according to both the saga prose and Ǫrv 60. All other eds prefer lét. — [3] báða blinda ‘both blind’: Perhaps a reference to the stereotyped depiction of Óðinn as one-eyed, although the inclusion of Freyr may suggest that the adj. blindr should be understood to refer to moral blindness and pagan error rather than the literal inability to see. — [5-6] urðu at flýja undan ‘were forced to flee away’: 343a and 471 have at leita undan ‘get away, escape’.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
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. Internal references
9. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 60 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 26)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 875.
10. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 67 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 30)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 882.