Anon Krm 29^VIII

Fýsumz hins at hætta.
Heim bjóða mér dísir,
þær er frá Herjans höllu
hefr Óðinn mér sendar.
Glaðr skal ek öl með ásum
í öndvegi drekka;
lífs eru liðnar vánir;
læjandi skal ek deyja.

Fýsumz hins at hætta. Dísir bjóða mér heim, þær er Óðinn hefr sendar mér frá {höllu Herjans}. Glaðr skal ek drekka öl með ásum í öndvegi; vánir lífs eru liðnar; læjandi skal ek deyja.

I wish to make an end. Dísir <minor female deities> are welcoming me home, the ones Óðinn has sent me from {the hall of Herjan <= Óðinn} [= Valhǫll]. I shall gladly drink ale with the gods in the high seat; hopes of life are past; I’ll die laughing.

Mss: R702ˣ(32r), 147(103r-v), 6ˣ(91v) (Ragn); LR(226), R693ˣ(18v)

Readings: [1] Fýsumz hins at hætta: ‘(f(y)sum[…] (h)ins at h[…]tta)’(?) 147    [2] Heim bjóða: ‘(heim (bi)oda)’(?) 147, ‘heimbiode’ LR;    mér dísir: ‘(mier disir)’(?) 147    [3] þær er: ‘(þ[…]r er)’(?) 147, sem 6ˣ, LR, R693ˣ;    frá Herjans höllu: ‘(fra herians) ha[…]lu .’(?) 147    [4] sendar: ‘send[…]’ 147    [5] Glaðr skal ek öl með ásum: ‘[…]’ 147    [6] í: ‘(j)’(?) 147    [7] lífs eru liðnar: ‘(lifs eru) lidnar’(?) 147;    vánir: ‘(stundir)’(?) 147, stundir 6ˣ, LR, R693ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 649, Skj BI, 656, Skald I, 321; Rafn 1826, 24-25, 151-2, Pfeiffer 1860, 127, CPB II, 345, Wisén 1886-9, I, 66, Krm 1891, 228, Finnur Jónsson 1893b, 91, Finnur Jónsson 1905, 157; Ragn 1906-8, 189.

Notes: [All]: This stanza resembles st. 23 in consisting of only eight lines, but differs from it, as well as from all other stanzas in Krm, in not beginning with a refrain in the first line. While in the case of st. 23 it is conceivable that two lines were lost in the course of the poem’s transmission, this is less likely to be the case here. There is a certain dramatic appropriateness in the absence of the refrain from this, the final stanza of the poem. Up to this point the speaker has been mainly concerned with events of the past, something reinforced by the pret. tense of the refrain Hjuggu vér með hjörvi ‘We hewed with the sword’, and also by the fact that in the penultimate stanza, st. 28, he looks back for the last time on his career in claiming to have taken part in fifty-one battles. Now, however, in the final stanza, his mind is on the future: on the drinking of ale after death in Valhǫll, to which the dísir are inviting him. — [1] fýsumz hins at hætta ‘I wish to make an end’:  Lit. ‘I wish for this, [namely] to make an end’. The demonstrative pron. hins ‘this’, here in the n. gen. sg., is the object of fýsumz ‘I wish’, which here takes the gen. (see LP: fýsa); and hætta ‘cease (doing), leave off’, which would normally be expected to take a dat. object, is here used absolutely (see LP: 1. hætta). — [1] fýsumz ‘I wish’:  This 1st pers. pres. tense form of fýsaz ‘wish, be inclined’ could formally be either sg. or pl. (see ANG §§543, 544: cf. Stefán Karlsson 2004, 30-1), but is surely to be understood as sg. in this instance. — [2]: Although the dísir are represented in Old Icelandic prose texts and some poetry (cf. Egill Lv 4^V (Eg 8)) as recipients of periodic sacrifices (dísablót) on the part of households of the pre-Christian period, little concrete information about them is forthcoming from poetic sources. The pl. noun dísir (sg. dís ‘woman, lady’) occurs in poetry often in the sense ‘supernatural female beings, goddesses’ (cf. LT: dís 2), and sometimes almost synonymously with valkyrjur ‘valkyries’, which seems to be the case here. Valkyrjur ‘valkyries’, whose name means ‘choosers of the slain’, were Óðinn’s handmaids whose function was to choose warriors slain in battle for admission to Valhǫll (see further SnE 2005, 30; Eyv Hák 1^I and Note there). — [3] frá höllu Herjans ‘from the hall of Herjan <= Óðinn> [= Valhǫll]’: Herjan(n) is listed as one of the names of Óðinn in Þul Óðins 2/5^III (see Note to that line), and (by Óðinn himself) in Grí 46/3. Valkyries are referred to as nǫnnur Herjans ‘ladies of Herjan’ in Vsp 30/12 (NK 7). In Guðr I 19/4 (NK 205) the term dís Herjans occurs in the meaning ‘valkyrie’ (see the previous Note), while in Anon (TGT) 12/5^III and in HaukrV Ísldr 11/5^IV the name occurs in the gen. as the determinant in a helmet-kenning and shield-kenning respectively. The origin of the name is disputed (see Lorenz 1984, 91), but a relationship of some kind with herr ‘host, army’ seems clear, and it is likely that its meaning is ‘leader of a host’. If so, it is an eminently suitable name for Óðinn, given his capacities as god of war and father of gods and men (cf. Turville-Petre 1964, 50-6), and the name Herjafǫðr ‘father of armies’ applied to him in Grí 19/1 (NK 61). AEW, ÍO: Herjann both relate the name to the tradition of Óðinn’s (or Wodan’s) leadership of the Wild Hunt, on which see Simek (1993, 372-3) and Orchard (1997, 182-3) with references. — [5-6]: The speaker is here anticipating drinking ale (ǫl) with the gods (æsir) in Valhǫll, cf. first Note to st. 25/5 above. As mentioned there, Grí 36, quoted in Gylf (SnE 2005, 30), gives the information that valkyries bring ale (ǫl) to the einherjar in Valhǫll. — [6] í öndvegi ‘in the high seat’: As noted by Heggstad et al. 2008: ǫndvegi, there were two ǫndvegi in the hall of a Norse king or chieftain: an upper one (ǫndvegi hit œðra), in which the host sat, and facing it across the table a lower one (ǫndvegi hit úœðra), which was occupied by the most distinguished of the guests. It is presumably to the latter seat that the speaker is here referring, since the former one would surely be reserved for Óðinn; cf. Note to Ragn 32/6. — [7] vánir ‘hopes’: The present ed. follows Finnur Jónsson (1905; Skj B) and Kock (Skald) in preferring this to the reading stundir ‘hours’, adopted by all earlier eds (including Finnur Jónsson 1893b). For vánir lífs ‘hopes of life’, see also GSúrs Lv 33/8^V (Gísl 36). — [8]: This line shows consonantless skothending, with each of the participating diphthongs <æ> and <ey> being followed by the glide <j> rather than by a consonant (cf. Kahle 1892, 23; Kuhn 1983, 77-8, and cf. the first Note to st. 2/10, above). — [8]: Other examples in Scandinavian tradition of heroes dying laughing are Saxo 2015, I, ii. 7. 19, pp. 134-7 and the Icelandic Bjarkarímur (Finnur Jónsson 1904b, 161), where the death of one Agnerus/Agnarr is described, as discussed in the Introduction, and, most famously, Akv 24 and Am 65, where Hǫgni Gjúkason laughs as he dies at the hands of King Atli. Mention may also be made of the manner of Hálfr Hjǫrleifsson’s death as envisaged in Innsteinn Innkv 17/5-8 (Hálf 37), and of the case in Arngrímur Jónsson’s Rerum Danicarum fragmenta ‘Fragments of Danish history’ (1596) (Jakob Benediktsson 1950-7, I, 341, cf. IV, 233), of Áli inn frœkni ‘the Bold’ who ‘breathed his last while laughing’ (ridens animam efflavit). While the laughter is unmistakably heroic in all these cases, in Akv (though not in Am) it is no doubt also motivated by Hǫgni’s knowledge that after his death and that of his brother Gunnarr the secret of the Niflung hoard’s whereabouts will never be told. — [8] læjandi ‘laughing’: While the ms. Readings vary between the spellings hlæjandi and læjandi here (cf. the first Note to st. 2/10 above), the rules of alliteration plainly require the latter reading.

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. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
5. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
6. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
7. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
8. Stefán Karlsson. 2004. The Icelandic Language. Trans. Rory McTurk. London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. Turville-Petre, Gabriel. 1964. Myth and Religion of the North. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
10. Wisén, Theodor, ed. 1886-9. Carmina Norrœnæ: Ex reliquiis vetustioris norrœnæ poësis selecta, recognita, commentariis et glossario instructa. 2 vols. Lund: Ohlsson.
11. Finnur Jónsson. 1893b. Carmina Norrœna: Rettet Tekst. Copenhagen: Nielsen & Lydiche.
12. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
13. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
14. Kahle, Bernhard. 1892. Die Sprache der Skalden auf Grund der Binnen- und Endreime. Verbunden mit einem Rimarium. Strassburg: Trübner.
15. Kuhn, Hans (1899). 1983. Das Dróttkvætt. Heidelberg: Winter.
16. LT = La Farge, Beatrice and John Tucker. 1992. Glossary to the Poetic Edda, based on Hans Kuhn’s Kurzes Wörterbuch. Skandinavistische Arbeiten 15. Heidelberg: Winter.
17. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
18. Pfeiffer, Friedrich. 1860. Altnordisches Lesebuch. Leipzig: T. O. Weigel.
19. Jakob Benediktsson, ed. 1950-7. Arngrimi Jonae opera latine conscripta. 4 vols. BA 9-12. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
20. Simek, Rudolf. 1993. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Trans. Angela Hall. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
21. Ragn 1906-8 = Olsen 1906-8, 111-222.
22. Finnur Jónsson. 1905. ‘Krákumál’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1905, 151-83.
23. Lorenz, Gottfried, ed. 1984. Snorri Sturluson: Gylfaginning. Texte, Übersetzung, Kommentar. Texte zur Forschung 48. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftlichen Buchgesellschaft.
24. Krm 1891 = 2nd edn (pp. 225-8) of Krm as ed. in Valdimar Ásmundarson 1885-9, I.
25. Saxo 2015 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2015. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes. Trans. Peter Fisher. Oxford Medieval Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
26. Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1904b. Hrólfs saga kraka og Bjarkarímur. SUGNL 32. Copenhagen: Møller.
27. Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1826. Krakas Maal eller Kvad om Kong Ragnar Lodbroks Krigsbedrifter og Heltedød efter en gammel Skindbog og flere hidtil ubenyttede Haandskrifter med dansk, latinsk og fransk oversættelse, forskjellige Læsemaader, samt kritiske og philologiske Anmærkninger. Copenhagen: Jens Hostrup Schultz; London: John and Arthur Arch.
28. Orchard, Andy. 1997. Dictionary of Old Norse Myth and Legend. London: Cassell.
29. Internal references
30. (forthcoming), ‘ Óláfr hvítaskáld Þórðarson, The Third Grammatical Treatise’ in Tarrin Wills (ed.), The Third Grammatical Treatise. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=32> (accessed 20 April 2024)
31. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=113> (accessed 20 April 2024)
32. Not published: do not cite (Hálfr^VIII)
33. Rory McTurk 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Krákumál’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 706. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1020> (accessed 20 April 2024)
34. Not published: do not cite (HaukrV Ísldr^IV)
35. Not published: do not cite ()
36. Not published: do not cite ()
37. Not published: do not cite ()
38. Not published: do not cite ()
39. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 8 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 177.
40. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Eyvindr skáldaspillir Finnsson, Hákonarmál 1’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 174.
41. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2022, ‘Gísla saga Súrssonar 36 (Gísli Súrsson, Lausavísur 33)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 608.
42. Not published: do not cite ()
43. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Óðins nǫfn’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 731. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3228> (accessed 20 April 2024)
44. Hubert Seelow (ed.) 2017, ‘Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka 37 (Innsteinn Gunnlaðarson, Innsteinskviða 17)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 333.
45. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 32 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Ragnars saga loðbrókar 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 687.