Heiðv Lv 4^VIII (Hrólf 5)

Ötul eru augu         Hams ok Hrana;
eru öðlingar         undra djarfir.

Augu Hams ok Hrana eru ötul; öðlingar eru undra djarfir.

The eyes of Hamr and Hrani are fierce; the princes are wondrously bold.

Mss: 285ˣ(4v), 9ˣ(4v), 11ˣ(5r), 109a IIˣ(216r), papp17ˣ(288v) (Hrólf)

Editions: Skj AII, 231, Skj BII, 250, Skald II, 130, NN §3179; Hrólf 1960, 11; Edd. Min. 62.

Context: The sibyl completes her disclosure of the boys by revealing their pseudonyms.

Notes: [1-2]: As in Hrólf 9/3-4, l. 2 has double alliteration, and there is no alliteration between ll. 1 and 2. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B), has Hvǫss? ‘Keen’ in square brackets as a suggestion for Ötul, following an emendation proposed in a note in Edd. Min. 62. Kock (Skald; NN §3179), emends the unique name Hams to Áms for the sake of the alliteration, but says nothing about the discrepancy this creates between the verse and the prose, and he reads Hrána (with a long vowel) for the sake of the metre. — [2] Hams ok Hrana ‘of Hamr and Hrani’: These names are appropriate for men in disguise. As a common noun hamr means ‘shape’ in a context that often suggests shape-changing (cf. LP: hamr), while Hrani, possibly meaning ‘rough fellow’ (AEW: Hrani), also occurs as the name of one of the sons of Arngrímr in Heiðr 26/2. Possessing fierce eyes is frequently a sign in Old Norse mythological and heroic poetry of divine or heroic power of a kind that cannot be concealed; cf. the collocation ǫtul augu ‘fierce eyes’ in Rþ 34/7 and HHund II 4/13.

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. 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. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
7. Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
8. Hrólf 1960 = Slay, Desmond, ed. 1960a. Hrólfs saga kráka. EA B 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
9. Internal references
10. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 73 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 26)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 440.
11. Not published: do not cite ()
12. †Desmond Slay (ed.) 2017, ‘Hrólfs saga kraka 9 (Aðils konungr, Lausavísa 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 547.