Anon (StSt) 1^VIII (StSt 1)

Kominn er Sturlaugr         inn starfsami
horn at sækja         ok hringa fjölð.
Hér er í húsi         at höfuðblóti
gull ok gersímar;         grimt er oss í hug.

Sturlaugr inn starfsami er kominn at sækja horn ok fjölð hringa. Gull er hér í húsi ok gersímar at höfuðblóti; grimt er oss í hug.

Sturlaugr inn starfsami (‘the Industrious’) has come to fetch the horn and a multitude of rings. Here in the building there is gold and treasures for a major sacrifice; our mood is ugly.

Mss: 335(7v), 589f(9r) (StSt)

Readings: [1] Sturlaugr: ‘st’’ 335, 589f    [2] inn: ‘[…]’ 589f    [3] sækja: so 589f, ‘sæka’ 335    [4] fjölð: ‘fiolgd’ 589f    [6] at höfuðblóti (‘at hofd bloti’): höfuðblót mikit 589f

Editions: Skj AII, 341-2, Skj BII, 364, Skald II, 196-7; StSt 1694, 50, FSN III, 627-8, FSGJ III, 141-2, StSt 1969, 21, 206, 349.

Context: Sturlaugr and his party have travelled in Bjarmaland (Permia) and further to the Vína (Dvina) river when they see a gleaming temple (hof allglæsiligt) ahead of them. Sturlaugr and a companion, Hrólfr nefja ‘Beaknose’, enter the temple in quest of an aurochs horn, which Sturlaugr has been charged to fetch by King Haraldr gullmuðr. They see it filled with poison, but gleaming as if golden on a table in front of an icon of the god Þórr. Thirty women inside the temple speak the following threatening kviðlingr ‘snippet of poetry’ when they see Sturlaugr.

Notes: [All]: The general scenario of a hero questing in an exotic north-eastern European setting (in this case Bjarmaland), together with a pagan temple in which a temple priestess is actively engaged in blót and is hostile to the hero is reminiscent of the Bjálkaland episode of Ǫrv (see Ǫrv 59-70 and the Introduction to those stanzas, as well as Lassen 2009, 268-71). — [5] í húsi ‘in the building’: I.e., in the temple (hof). Some mss, like 1006ˣ, read í horni ‘in the horn’, implying that Sturlaugr is looking for treasure in the aurochs horn. This reading, which was adopted by FSN and FSGJ, is likely to be based on a scribal error, influenced by horn in l. 3. Zitzelsberger (StSt 1969) presents 335’s reading as í horni, but this ed. (along with Skj A) reads it as í húsi. He translates (StSt 1969, 349) ‘Here are in the horn | at the temple sacrifice | gold and precious things |’. — [6] at höfuðblóti ‘for a major sacrifice’: Finnur Jónsson in Skj A reads here ‘oc hofs bloti’, commenting in a note that the line in 335 is somewhat unclear, especially hofs, in which the last <s> is rather large (næppe hofuð ‘hardly höfuð’). In spite of his disclaimer, this ed. reads the final letter as <d> or possibly <ð>, as does Zitzelsberger (StSt 1969, 21). FSN and FSGJ adopt at hofblóti ‘for the temple sacrifice’. Ms. 589f and some other mss read höfuðblót mikit ‘a large major sacrifice’, and this reading is preferred by StSt 1694, Skj B and Skald.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
4. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
5. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
7. Lassen, Annette. 2009. ‘Skurðgoð, trégoð, hofgyðjur og heiðinglig hof: En gruppe hedenske elementer og deres kontekst i Ǫrvar-Odds saga, Sturlaugs saga starfsama og Bósa saga’. In Ney et al. 2009, 255-79.
8. StSt 1694 = Gudmund Olofz-Son, ed. 1694. Sagann af Sturlauge hinum Starf-sama. Eller Sturlög then Arbetsammes Historia fordom på gammel Göthiska skrifwen och nu på Swenska uthålkad [sic]. Uppsala: privately printed.
9. StSt 1969 = Zitzelsberger, Otto J., ed. 1969. The Two Versions of Sturlaugs saga starfsama: A Decipherment, Edition and Translation of a Fourteenth-Century Icelandic Mythical-Heroic Saga. Düsseldorf: Triltsch.
10. Internal references
11. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ǫrvar-Odds saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 804. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=35> (accessed 23 April 2024)
12. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 59 (Gyðja, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 874.