Herv Lv 15^VIII (Heiðr 38)

Maðr þóttumz ek         mennskr til þessa,
áðr ek sali yðra         sækja réðak.
Selðu mér ór haugi,         þann er hatar brynjur,
dverga smíði;         dugira þér at leyna.

Ek þóttumz mennskr maðr til þessa, áðr ek réðak sækja sali yðra. Selðu mér ór haugi, þann er hatar brynjur, smíði dverga; dugira þér at leyna.

I thought myself a human being until this, before I resolved to seek your halls. Give me from the mound that which hates mail-shirts, smith-craft of dwarfs; it will not help you to hide it.

Mss: Hb(74r), 2845(65v), R715ˣ(14r) (Heiðr)

Readings: [1] þóttumz: þótt R715ˣ;    ek: þú corrected from þú mjök in the hand of JR R715ˣ    [2] til: om. 2845;    þessa: so 2845, ‘þersa’ Hb, forna corrected from þessa in the margin in the hand of JR R715ˣ    [4] sækja: ‘seka’ 2845, tók R715ˣ;    réðak: hafðak 2845, kanna R715ˣ    [7] dverga: hlífum 2845;    smíði: hættan 2845    [8] dugira þér (‘dvgeræ þer’): Hjálmars bana 2845, dugir þér ei R715ˣ;    at leyna: om. 2845

Editions: Skj AII, 248, Skj BII, 267-8, Skald II, 139; Heiðr 1672, 93, FSN 1, 439, 521, Heiðr 1873, 219, 319, Heiðr 1924, 28-9, 110, FSGJ 2, 19, Heiðr 1960, 17; Edd. Min. 18.

Notes: [1-2] mennskr maðr ‘a human being’: Plays on Angantýr’s Kveðkat ek þik ... mönnum líka ‘I would not declare you ... to be like humans’ in ll. 1-2 of the previous stanza. — [3] sali ‘halls’: I.e. Angantýr’s grave-mound; see Note to Heiðr 14/3. — [4] réðak sækja ‘I resolved to seek’: Ms. R715ˣ’s reading, tók kanna ‘I resolved to investigate’, has basically the same sense but lacks alliteration. — [6] þann er hatar brynjur ‘that which hates mail-shirts’: I.e., destroys mail-shirts. This is not structurally a kenning, but cf. GSúrs Lv 19/7^V (Gísl) hatr brynju ‘the hatred of the mail-shirt [SWORD]’. The verb hata can mean both ‘hate’ and ‘destroy, damage’, either of which is appropriate here. The eds of CPB (CPB, I, 165) replace this line with hvassan mæki ‘the sharp sword’, which in the present edn occurs in Heiðr 25/6 and 40/3. — [7-8]: Ms. 2845 has here ll. 7-8 of the problematic Heiðr 36, a stanza otherwise omitted in that ms. Tolkien (Heiðr 1960, 79) suggests 2845’s reading could be closer to the original arrangement, because of the echoing of Hjálmars bani in l. 2 of the following stanza (Heiðr 39). The eds of Edd. Min. also prefer 2845’s reading for the present stanza. However, Hb and R715ˣ, with some minor variations, agree on the arrangement followed here. — [7] smíði dverga ‘smith-craft of dwarfs’: See Notes to Heiðr 25/6-8 and 28/8.

References

1. Bibliography
2. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
5. Heiðr 1672 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1672. Hervarar Saga på Gammel Gotska. Uppsala: Curio.
6. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
7. 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.
8. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
9. Heiðr 1960 = Tolkien, Christopher, ed. and trans. 1960. Saga Heiðreks konungs ins vitra / The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise. Nelson Icelandic Texts. London etc.: Nelson.
10. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
11. Internal references
12. 2022, ‘ Anonymous, Gísla saga Súrssonar’ 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, pp. 549-616. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=37> (accessed 30 April 2024)
13. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 72 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 25)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 438.
14. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 83 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 36)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 450.
15. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 61 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 14)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 424.
16. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2022, ‘Gísla saga Súrssonar 22 (Gísli Súrsson, Lausavísur 19)’ 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. 584.