Hróksv Hrkv 25^VIII (Hálf 75)

Ván væri mér         vitra manna,
snarpra seggja,         ef vér saman ættum,
því at ek fann ekki mey         margsvinnari
hvergi landa         en Haka dóttur.

Væri mér ván vitra manna, snarpra seggja, ef vér ættum saman, því at ek fann ekki margsvinnari mey hvergi landa en {dóttur Haka}.

I would expect wise people, smart men, if we had offspring together, for I did not find a more intelligent girl in any country than {the daughter of Haki} [= Brynhildr].

Mss: 2845(38v) (Hálf)

Editions: Skj AII, 268, Skj BII, 291, Skald II, 153; Hálf 1864, 39, Hálf 1909, 130, FSGJ 2, 131, Hálf 1981, 196; Edd. Min. 48.

Notes: [All]: Hrókr’s expectation of wise and smart descendants from a marriage with Brynhildr is doubtless to be understood in the light of the intelligence conveyed in the saga prose (Hálf 1981, ch. 11, 197, ll. 11-13) that dóttir Hróks ins svarta ok Brynhildar var Gunnlǫð, móðir Hrómundar Gripssonar ‘the daughter of Hrókr the Black and Brynhildr was Gunnlǫð, the mother of Hrómundr Gripsson’. Hrómundr Gripsson is mentioned in a number of Old Icelandic texts (for details, see Hálf 1909, 131-2 n. 19) and was the subject of a saga, now lost in its medieval form, which was performed at a wedding at Reykjahólar in 1119 (Brown 1952, 18). According to Anon Mhkv 7/4^III, Hrómundr þótti garpr ok slœgr ‘Hrómundr seemed bold and cunning’. — [5]: As it stands, this line is unmetrical, though it could be emended to give a metrical line (e.g. þvít mey fannkat or þvít mey fannk ei).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
4. 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.
5. Hálf 1981 = Seelow, Hubert, ed. 1981. Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka. RSÁM 20. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar.
6. Brown, Ursula, ed. 1952. Þorgils saga ok Hafliða. London: Oxford University Press.
7. Hálf 1864 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1864. Saga af Hálfi ok Hálfsrekkum. Norrøne Skrifter af sagnhistorisk Indhold 1. Christiania (Oslo): Det Nordiske Oldskriftselskab.
8. Hálf 1909 = Andrews, A. Le Roy, ed. 1909. Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka. ASB 14. Halle: Niemeyer.
9. Internal references
10. Roberta Frank (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Málsháttakvæði 7’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1221.