AngH Lv 9^VIII (Heiðr 111)

Kendu at Dylgju         ok á Dúnheiði,
ok á þeim öllum         Jassarfjöllum.
Þar opt Gotar         gunni háðu,
ok fagran sigr         frægir vágu.

Kendu at Dylgju ok á Dúnheiði, ok á öllum þeim Jassarfjöllum. Þar háðu Gotar opt gunni, ok frægir vágu fagran sigr.

Tell [them] at Dylgja and on Dúnheiðr, and on all the Jassarfjǫll. There the Goths often waged war, and the renowned ones won a fine victory.

Mss: 203ˣ(111v), R715ˣ(34v) (Heiðr)

Readings: [1] at: so R715ˣ, á 203ˣ    [4] Jassar‑: so R715ˣ, ‘Josur‑’ corrected from Jassar in another hand 203ˣ    [5] Þar: báru 203ˣ, bar R715ˣ    [6] gunni: geir 203ˣ, gun R715ˣ    [8] vágu: so R715ˣ, fengu 203ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 255, Skj BII, 274-5, Skald II, 143, FF §20; Heiðr 1672, 174, FSN 1, 501, Heiðr 1873, 282-3, Heiðr 1924, 152, FSGJ 2, 63-4, Heiðr 1960, 55 (Heiðr); Edd. Min. 9-10, NK 309, ÍF Edd. II, 427.

Context: The stanza is introduced, Angantýr konungr kvað ‘King Angantýr said’.

Notes: [1-4]: Similar lines appear in Gizurr’s speech to the Huns, GizGrý Lv 5/1-4 (Heiðr 113). — [1] Dylgju ‘Dylgja’: Heiðr 1924 reports correction to ‘Dyngjo’ in another hand, both here and to the same word in GizGrý Lv 5/1 (Heiðr 113), but in both places this has since been obscured by the binding of the ms. In the prose following Heiðr 113, Gizurr says (Heiðr 1924, 153), taladi eg vid þa, og stefndi eg þeim a vigvoll a Dunheidi i Dyngiudolum ‘I spoke with them, and I summoned them to the battlefield on Dúnheiðr in Dyngjudalir’, with the spelling ‘Dingiu’ occurring in both mss. Neither Dylgja nor Dyngja have been identified as place names. The f. noun dylgja means ‘enmity’ or ‘battle’ (cf. Note to BjHall Kálffl 8/2^I), and Tolkien ‘hesitantly’ emends both stanzas and the prose to accommodate this interpretation (Heiðr 1960, 55-6 and xxiv). Dyngja f. means ‘woman’s chamber’, ‘heap’ (ModIcel. ‘shield volcano’), but neither of these meanings help resolve the mystery of what or where is meant. — [2] Dúnheiði ‘Dúnheiðr’: Again, the location has not been identified. The Dún is usually the Danube (cf. Þul Á 2/3^III and Note; cf. Note to Dýna ‘Dvina’ in the same line), the cpd then literally meaning ‘Danube-heath’. — [3]: Jón Helgason (1967, 240) notes this line er ólíklegt til að vera rétt ‘is unlikely to be correct’, like several eds (Skj B; Heiðr 1960; Edd. Min.) objecting to the idea of fighting á ‘on’ mountains as opposed to near or under them. Heiðr 1960 emends the line to orrostu undir and translates (together with l. 4) ‘below the hills of Ash | shall you call them to fight’. His suggested line appears as GizGrý Lv 5/3 (Heiðr 113), the first four lines of which have echoes of the first four of this stanza. Other eds make various small emendations, but since the mss agree on the reading presented here, anything else remains conjecture. — [4] Jassarfjöllum (dat. pl.) ‘the Jassarfjǫll’: Much (1889) identified these mountains with the range now known as Hrubý Jeseník (ModGer. Gesenke) in the Czech Republic, meaning ‘(High) Ash Mountains’. No more convincing identifications have been forthcoming.

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. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. 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.
6. Heiðr 1672 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1672. Hervarar Saga på Gammel Gotska. Uppsala: Curio.
7. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
8. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
9. FF = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1922. Fornjermansk forskning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 18:1. Lund: Gleerup.
10. 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.
11. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
12. Jón Helgason, ed. 1967. Kviður af Gotum og Hunum: Hamðismál, Guðrúnarhvöt, Hlöðskviða. Reykjavík: Heimskringla.
13. Much, Rudolf. 1889. ‘Askibourgion Oros’. ZDA 33, 1-13.
14. Internal references
15. 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 26 April 2024)
16. Alison Finlay 2012, ‘ Bjarni gullbrárskáld Hallbjarnarson, Kálfsflokkr’ 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. 877. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1119> (accessed 26 April 2024)
17. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 113 (Gizurr Grýtingaliði, Lausavísur 5)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 482.