Hergunnr Lv 1^VIII (HjǪ 15)

Tölum ek treysti         at tala við höfþingja,
þó munum vér lítit,         þat er til vegar horfir.
Skulum til skála         skunda göngu
ok menn mildungs         merkja á seyði.

Ek treysti tölum at tala við höfþingja, þó munum vér lítit, þat er horfir til vegar. Skulum skunda göngu til skála ok merkja menn mildungs á seyði.

I trust in my powers of speech to talk with chieftains, yet we [I] will [do] little that leads to honour. We shall speed our course to the hall and observe the prince’s men on the fire.

Mss: 109a IIIˣ(270v), ÍBR5ˣ(91) (HjǪ)

Readings: [3] munum: ‘numum’ ÍBR5ˣ    [4] þat er: þat 109a IIIˣ, ÍBR5ˣ;    vegar: vega 109a IIIˣ, vegs ÍBR5ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 335, Skj BII, 356, Skald II, 192, NN §2615; FSN 3, 483, n. 1, HjǪ 1970, 32, 89, 147.

Context: The grotesque sea-ogress Hergunnr (lit. ‘War-battle’) urges her sisters on to the ‘hall’, in fact only a tent, to see Hjálmþér’s men burn.

Notes: [All]: This stanza is omitted in papp6ˣ, and hence in the eds that are based on this ms. FSN reproduces the text in a footnote. — [3] munum vér ‘we [I] will [do]’: Ms. ÍBR5ˣ reads the verb as numum, which is probably to be understood as a metathesised version of munum ‘we will’, though a main verb has to be supplied silently in this interpretation. Kock (NN §2615) takes issue with the implicit assumption in Skj B that vér ‘we’ bears alliteration, as well as with the slightly emended numum of ÍBR5ˣ to námum ‘we learnt’, which gives the sense ‘yet I have learnt [only] a little of what pertains to honour’, that is, by litotes, Hergunnr will not play by the rules of martial combat though she can chat up warriors well enough. Kock emends ll. 3-4 to read: þó vinnum vér lítit | þats til vegar horfir, ‘though we [I] bring about little that leads to honour’. — [4] þat er ‘that’: Both mss omit the rel. particle er, a common feature of C14th syntax in the combination demonstrative + rel. particle (cf. NS §261). The particle has been restored here to normalise the text to the period 1250-1300. — [4] til vegar ‘to honour’: Ms. 109a IIIˣ’s reading vega is emended to give a regular gen. form of vegr ‘honour’. Ms. ÍBR5ˣ has the alternative gen. sg. vegs, but this produces an unmetrical line.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
7. HjǪ 1970 = Harris, Richard L., ed. 1970. ‘Hjálmþérs saga: A Scientific Edition’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Iowa.