AngH Lv 10^VIII (Heiðr 118)

Bauð ek þér, bróðir,         basmir óskerðar,
fé ok fjölð meiðma,         sem þik fremst tíddi.
Nú hefr þú hvárki         hildar at gjöldum
ljósa bauga         né land ekki.

Ek bauð þér, bróðir, óskerðar basmir, fé ok fjölð meiðma, sem fremst tíddi þik. Nú hefr þú at gjöldum hildar hvárki ljósa bauga né ekki land.

I offered you, brother, undivided riches, wealth and a multitude of treasures, as was most desirable to you. Now you have in reward for battle neither bright rings nor any land.

Mss: 203ˣ(112v), R715ˣ(36r) (Heiðr)

Readings: [2] basmir: blank space 203ˣ, ‘Basnir’ R715ˣ;    óskerðar: óskir tvær 203ˣ, ‘oskertar’ R715ˣ    [3] meiðma: ‘meidna’ 203ˣ, R715ˣ    [4] þik: mik 203ˣ, R715ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 256, Skj BII, 276, Skald II, 144, NN §2378; Heiðr 1672, 176, FSN 1, 508, Heiðr 1873, 289, Heiðr 1924, 155, FSGJ 2, 67, Heiðr 1960, 58 (Heiðr); Edd. Min. 12, NK 311-12, ÍF Edd. II, 430.

Context: Angantýr and his army march to Dúnheiðr and there is bitter fighting between the Goths and the Huns; a great many men are slain. After more than a week Angantýr comes to the forefront of the fighting (Heiðr 1960, 57), and skiptusk þeir brœðr hǫggum við ‘the brothers dealt blows against each other’, and Hlǫðr and King Humli are killed. Angantýr seeks out the body of his brother Hlǫðr, and speaks the stanza. 

Notes: [1-4]: Echoes, with the exception of l. 2, Heiðr 97/1-4 (see Note there), where the same emendations need to be made to þik ‘you’ and meiðma ‘treasures’ (see Notes to those words). — [1]: Ms. 203ˣ leaves a blank space after bróðir ‘brother’ to the end of the ms. line. — [2] óskerðar basmir ‘undivided riches’: Both words are hap. leg. in poetry and clearly were not well understood by the scribes. All eds emend though NK retains R715ˣ’s ‘basnir’. Óskerðr ‘undivided’ is well attested in prose (cf. ONP: óskerðr), but basmir (f. pl.; sg. *bǫsm (?)) is otherwise unknown and the meaning is uncertain; Bugge (Heiðr 1873, 367) suggested it may refer to rings (see also AEW: basmir). On the suffixes in ‑m- rather than ‑n-, which are generally accepted, see NN §2378, which also posits a relation to OE basu ‘purple, crimson’, Sanskrit bhās ‘shine’. Heiðr 97/2 has here fagrar veigar ‘fair draughts’, but this has its own problems; see Note there.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
6. 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.
7. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
8. Heiðr 1672 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1672. Hervarar Saga på Gammel Gotska. Uppsala: Curio.
9. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
10. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
11. 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.
12. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
13. Internal references
14. 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 19 April 2024)
15. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 97 (Angantýr Heiðreksson, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 469.