Skinnhúfa Lv 1^VIII (HjǪ 45)

Sax hefir þú, Ölvir,         slík eru vápn færi,
bana veitti Bendli,         barstu þat ór helli.
Brá ek hilmis sonum         í hana líki;
forðaðak ykru fjörvi;         fegri em ek nú hóti.

Þú hefir sax, Ölvir, færi vápn eru slík, veitti Bendli bana, barstu þat ór helli. Ek brá sonum hilmis í líki hana; forðaðak fjörvi ykru; ek em nú hóti fegri.

You have a sword, Ǫlvir, there are few weapons like it, it gave death to Bendill <giant>, you bore it out of a cave. I changed the sons of a king into the bodies of roosters; I saved your lives; now I am a little more beautiful.

Mss: 109a IIIˣ(281r), papp6ˣ(59v), ÍBR5ˣ(104) (HjǪ)

Readings: [3] veitti: so papp6ˣ, veittir 109a IIIˣ, ÍBR5ˣ;    Bendli: so papp6ˣ, ‘bedu’ 109a IIIˣ, ‘belu’ ÍBR5ˣ    [4] barstu: so ÍBR5ˣ, bartu 109a IIIˣ, barst papp6ˣ;    helli: hellir papp6ˣ    [7] forðaðak: forðaði papp6ˣ;    ykru: ykkr papp6ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 341, Skj BII, 363, Skald II, 191; HjǪ 1720, 73-4, FSN 3, 513, FSGJ 4, 238, HjǪ 1970, 60, 110, 178.

Context: A young woman, who turns out to be Hildisif Ptólómeusdóttir, reminds Ǫlvir of the episode when, as Skinnhúfa, she helped him obtain her giant captor’s sword, the only weapon that could kill him. She thus makes clear her former, enchanted, identity to him and to the saga audience.

Notes: [2] færi ‘few’: Lit. ‘fewer’. — [3] veitti Bendli bana ‘it gave death to Bendill <giant>’: The diminutive bendill (from band ‘band, bond’) occurs only here apparently as a giant-name; elsewhere it is found among heiti for ‘seed, grain’ (Þul Sáðs 2/5^III and Note), the equivalent of ModIcel. bendill, ModNorw. bendel ‘a band of straw around a sheaf of corn’ (AEW: bendill). ÍBR5ˣ’s belu may recall the name of the giant Beli, whom the god Freyr killed with a hart’s horn (SnE 2005, 31). The giant of HjǪ is not given a name in the prose text. — [5-6] ek brá sonum hilmis í líki hana ‘I changed the sons of a king into the bodies of roosters’: This incident occurs much earlier in the saga, when Hjálmþér and Ǫlvir become lost in a storm and find themselves in a cave inhabited by a hostile giant. Skinnhúfa, who is also in the cave, disguises the heroes as roosters and then directs Hjálmþér to kill the giant with his own sword when he is asleep and gives that sword to Ǫlvir.

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. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
5. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
6. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
7. 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.
8. HjǪ 1970 = Harris, Richard L., ed. 1970. ‘Hjálmþérs saga: A Scientific Edition’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Iowa.
9. Internal references
10. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 488. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=49> (accessed 25 April 2024)
11. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sáðs heiti 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 986.