Vargeisa Lv 1^VIII (HjǪ 4)

Vargeisa ek heiti;         heyr þú, vísis son,
        viltu, at ek þér í sinni sé?
Allra þinna         tel ek þik þurfa munu
        vel trúra vina.

Ek heiti Vargeisa; heyr þú, son vísis, viltu, at ek sé þér í sinni? Ek tel þik munu vel þurfa allra trúra vina þinna.

I am called Vargeisa; listen, son of a king, do you want me to be of help to you? I reckon you will indeed have need of all your true friends.

Mss: 109a IIIˣ(267v), papp6ˣ(48r), ÍBR5 4°ˣ(88) (HjǪ)

Readings: [3] at: sjálf added above the line in another hand papp6ˣ;    sinni: á sinni et liðsinna written around the line in another hand papp6ˣ    [5] tel ek: ek tel ÍBR5 4°ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 334, Skj BII, 354, Skald II, 191; HjǪ 1720, 28, FSN 3, 474, FSGJ 4, 198-9, HjǪ 1970, 24-5, 83, 138.

Context: The stanza follows immediately after HjǪ 3.

Notes: [All]: Cf. Hjálmþérsrímur III, 21 (Finnur Jónsson 1905-22, II, 22). — [All]: In this stanza, composed in ljóðaháttr, Vargeisa’s friendly and genteel approach to Hjálmþér belies her unfortunately monstrous appearance, if not nature. — [1] Vargeisa: The etymological sense of this name, if it has one, remains elusive. The first element is probably intended to allude to the word vargr ‘wolf, outlaw’, and its f. counterpart vargynja, and, if so, the second element of the cpd may be eisa ‘glowing coals, embers’. Alternatively, the second element may recall the verb geisa ‘rage’, but then the sense of the first element is uncertain (var- in compounds like varhugi ‘wariness, heed’ seems unsuitable).

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. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
5. Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1905-22. Rímnasafn: Samling af de ældste islandske rimer. 2 vols. SUGNL 35. Copenhagen: Møller.
6. HjǪ 1720 = Peringskiöld, Johann, ed. 1720. Hialmters och Olvers saga, Handlande om trenne Konungar i Manahem eller Sverige, Inge, Hialmter, och Inge, samt Olver Jarl och om theras uthresor til Grekeland och Arabien. Stockholm: Horn.
7. HjǪ 1970 = Harris, Richard L., ed. 1970. ‘Hjálmþérs saga: A Scientific Edition’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Iowa.
8. Internal references
9. Richard L. Harris (ed.) 2017, ‘Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis 3 (Hjálmþér Ingason, Lausavísur 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 495.