Angantýr Lv 10^VIII (Heiðr 45)

Þú skalt eiga         ok una lengi;
hafðu á hulðu         Hjálmars bana.
Takattu á eggjum,         eitr er í báðum;
sá er manns mjötuðr         meini verri.

Þú skalt eiga ok una lengi; hafðu {bana Hjálmars} á hulðu. Takattu á eggjum, eitr er í báðum; sá er mjötuðr manns, verri meini.

You shall own and enjoy [it] for a long time; keep {the slayer of Hjálmarr} [= Tyrfingr] in its sheath. Do not touch the edges, poison is in both; that is the ruin of a man, worse than disease.

Mss: Hb(74v), R715ˣ(14v) (Heiðr)

Readings: [5] Takattu: taktu R715ˣ    [7] mjötuðr: mataðr R715ˣ    [8] meini: miklu R715ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 249, Skj BII, 269, Skald II, 140; Heiðr 1672, 95, FSN 1, 441, 522, Heiðr 1873, 221, Heiðr 1924, 32, 112, FSGJ 2, 21-2, Heiðr 1960, 19; Edd. Min. 19.

Notes: [All]: This stanza does not seem to follow on from the previous one and may be misplaced from elsewhere in the poem. — [All]: This stanza is followed in R715ˣ by the following:

Ek mun hirða         ok í hönd nema
hvassan mæki,         er mik hafa látið.
Uggik eigi þat,         úlfa grennir,
hvat synir mínir        síðan telja.

Prose Order: Ek mun hirða hvassan mæki ok nema í hönd, er látið mik hafa. Uggik þat eigi, grennir úlfa, hvat synir mínir telja síðan. Translation: I will guard the sharp sword and take it in hand, when I am allowed to have it. I do not fear, feeder of wolves [WARRIOR], what my sons reckon later. This seems to be the result of scribal confusion, since it comprises slightly variant versions of ll. 1-5 of Herv Lv 16 (Heiðr 40) and ll. 7-8 of Herv Lv 18 (Heiðr 44), with only l. 6 being new. Cf. Andrews (1920, 98), who suggests the stanza to be genuine, noting that repetition occurs elsewhere in the dialogue between Hervǫr and Angantýr and that its restoration ‘would preserve the alternation of stanzas between the two speakers’; this alternation is not completely regular, however, and repetition does not occur elsewhere in the rest of the dialogue between Hervǫr and Angantýr to the same extent. — [3] á hulðu ‘in its sheath’: Can also mean ‘in secret, in hiding’, but likely refers to the legend related earlier in the saga that Tyrfingr will cause a man’s death every time it is unsheathed. — [4]: See Note to Heiðr 36/8. — [6] eitr ‘poison’: Hjálm Lv 4/8 (Ǫrv 14), which appears in the R and U redactions of Heiðr, describes Tyrfingr’s tip as herðr í eitri ‘hardened in poison’ (see also Note there). In Ket 36/7 the edges of a sword are said to be eitrherðar ‘poison-hardened’ (see Note there), while eitrblandinn ‘mixed with poison’ is used of sword-edges in HjǪ 20/5 (and similarly, though not a cpd, in Hyndl 49/7).

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. Heiðr 1672 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1672. Hervarar Saga på Gammel Gotska. Uppsala: Curio.
5. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
6. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
7. Andrews, A. Le Roy. 1920. ‘Studies in the Fornaldarsǫgur Norðrlanda – Continued’. MP 18, 93-100.
8. 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.
9. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
10. Internal references
11. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 367. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=23> (accessed 24 April 2024)
12. 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.
13. Not published: do not cite ()
14. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 40 (Hervǫr, Lausavísur 16)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 400.
15. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 44 (Hervǫr, Lausavísur 18)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 403.
16. Richard L. Harris (ed.) 2017, ‘Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis 20 (Margerðr, Lausavísa 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 513.
17. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 36 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 20)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 590.
18. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 14 (Hjálmarr inn hugumstóri, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 827.