ǪrvOdd Ævdr 24^VIII (Ǫrv 94)

Várum allir         vetr þann saman,
gulli gladdir         ok gamanmálum.
Drógu fyrðar,         þegar frerum létti,
skrautligar heldr         skeiðr at vatni.

Várum allir saman þann vetr, gladdir gulli ok gamanmálum. Fyrðar drógu heldr skrautligar skeiðr at vatni, þegar létti frerum.

We were all together that winter, gladdened with gold and entertaining words. Men dragged rather splendid warships down to the water, as soon as the frosts let up.

Mss: 343a(80v), 471(94v), 173ˣ(62rb) (Ǫrv)

Readings: [3] gladdir: glaðir 173ˣ    [6] frerum: frostrum 173ˣ    [7] skrautligar heldr: so 173ˣ, heldr skautligar 343a, heldr skrautligar 471

Editions: Skj AII, 310, Skj BII, 329, Skald II, 176; Ǫrv 1888, 201, FSGJ 2, 347.

Notes: [All]: This stanza corresponds to the beginning of the next episode of the prose saga (Ǫrv 1888, 50-1), in which Oddr and his men spend the winter with Oddr’s father Grímr on Hrafnista, at the end of which Oddr announces his wish to undertake a viking expedition, and his father agrees to provide him with three ships (four in the younger mss). — [3-4] gladdir gulli ok gamanmálum ‘gladdened with gold and entertaining words’: Cf. a similar formula describing Oddr’s sojourn with his father before his journey to Permia in Ǫrv 77/7-8. — [6] þegar létti frerum ‘as soon as the frosts let up’: Lit. ‘as soon as it let up from the frosts’. Skj B and Skald emend to þegar er ‘as soon as’, but the rel. particle is not necessary and is not in any ms.; cf. NS §265 Anm. 2a. — [7] heldr skrautligar ‘rather splendid’: The 173ˣ reading has been adopted here, as it gives a metrical Type D4/E-line; the reading of 471 (and by implication 343a) has heldr in anacrusis in a Type C-line.

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. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
5. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
6. Ǫrv 1888 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1888. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Leiden: Brill.
7. Internal references
8. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 77 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Ævidrápa 7)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 893.