ǪrvOdd Ævdr 26^VIII (Ǫrv 96)

Fundum um síðir         fyrir í sundi
þegna nýta,         Þórð ok Hjálmar.
Fréttu fyrðar,         þeir er fyrir váru,
hvárt frið vildim         eða á för halda.

Fundum um síðir nýta þegna, Þórð ok Hjálmar, fyrir í sundi. Fyrðar fréttu, þeir er váru fyrir, hvárt vildim frið eða halda á för.

At length we found able men, Þórðr and Hjálmarr, before [us] in the sound. The men, who were there beforehand, asked whether we wanted peace or to continue our journey.

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

Readings: [1] Fundum: Fundu 471;    um síðir: síðan 173ˣ    [7] frið vildim: vér vildum frið 343a, vildum frið 471, 173ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 310, Skj BII, 329, Skald II, 176, NN §2604C; Ǫrv 1888, 201, FSGJ 2, 348.

Notes: [All]: In the prose saga, Oddr and his men encounter a viking named Hálfdan in the Götaälv skerries, followed by another viking named Sóti, before they meet Þórðr and Hjálmarr. See Ǫrv 48/3 and Note to [All]. In the prose saga (Ǫrv 1888, 58-65) the two parties engage in trials of strength for two days before eventually deciding to combine forces. — [4] Þórð ok Hjálmar ‘Þórðr and Hjálmarr’: Þórðr stafngláma ‘Prow-gleam’ and Hjálmarr inn hugumstóri ‘the Great-minded’. According to the prose saga, Oddr and his companions meet them on a headland somewhere in Sweden. — [7] frið vildim ‘we wanted peace’: All mss have the 1st pers. pl. pret. indic. vildum here, but eds have normalised to the subj. form after the conj. hvárt ‘whether’. The word order has been changed here, as in Ǫrv 81/7, in order to avoid alliteration on <f> falling in metrical position 4 in a Type B/E line. — [8] eða halda á för ‘or to continue our journey’: The meaning of this line is uncertain. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) translates eller at flygte (?) ‘or to flee’, while Kock (NN §2604C) understands the line to mean ‘continue with our raiding’. In the prose saga the two parties decide that it is pointless to continue fighting and that they would be better off combining forces.

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. Ǫrv 1888 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1888. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Leiden: Brill.
7. Internal references
8. Not published: do not cite (Hjálm^VIII)
9. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 48 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Lausavísur 15)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 861.
10. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 81 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Ævidrápa 11)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 896.