Gestumbl Heiðr 13^VIII (Heiðr 60)

Hvat er þat undra,         er ek úti sá
        fyrir Dellings durum?
Ofarliga flýgr,         †armlod gellr,
        harðar eru hillm†.
Heiðrekr konungr,         hyggðu at gátu.

Hvat undra er þat, er ek sá úti fyrir durum Dellings? Flýgr ofarliga, †armlod gellr, harðar eru hillm†. Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.

What is the wonder that I saw outside before Dellingr’s doors? It flies high up … King Heiðrekr, think about the riddle.

Mss: 281ˣ(99v), 597bˣ(50r) (Heiðr)

Readings: [1-3] abbrev. as ‘hv^d er þ̄ vndra etc.’ 281ˣ, abbrev. as ‘hvad er þad vndra e^r’ 597bˣ    [4] Ofarliga: ‘ovarlega’ 281ˣ, 597bˣ    [7-8] abbrev. as ‘heid: k.’ 281ˣ, abbrev. as ‘h: K h:’ 597bˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 227, Skj BII, 246-7, Skald II, 128, NN §§2834, 3397C; Heiðr 1873, 244-5, Heiðr 1924, 67, Heiðr 1960, 81; Edd. Min. 111.

Context: See Note [All] to previous stanza.

Notes: [All]: Heiðrekr replies (Heiðr 1960, 81): ǫr er þat ‘that is the arrow’. It is unfortunate that the solution is not more elaborate, as many of the others are, since that might help in reconstructing the stanza, which cannot be made sense of without emendation. The brevity of the solution might suggest that the stanza was already corrupt or difficult to interpret when it was set into its prose context. — [1]: See Note to Heiðr 55/1. — [4] ofarliga ‘high up’: The mss have ‘ovarlega’, which could be read óvarliga ‘unwarily’, but this gives less good sense (though is preferred by Ettmüller 1861, 37, with the gloss unverhofft ‘unexpectedly’). Emendation of <v> to <f> is reasonable, since <f> would be pronounced [v] when intervocalic (see ANG §36, cf. §42), and is made by most other eds, following Bugge (Heiðr 1873; Bugge notes this was the suggestion of Svend Grundtvig). Kock (Skald) emends to ofárliga and in NN §2834 translates mycket tidigt (resp. snabbt) ‘very early (or swiftly)’, comparing árflognir (NN §3397C) ‘early flyer’, i.e. ‘raven’ (LP). Although the bird-of-prey imagery would fit well with what has been conjectured for the next line (see Note to l. 5), it is less clear why an arrow would be described as as early flier. The meaning ‘swiftly’ might make more sense in the present context, however, and is attested elsewhere in poetry, although the cpd (with the prefix of- ‘too, excessively’ (= ‘very’ in Kock’s interpretation)) would be a hap. leg. — [5] †armlod gellr† ‘…’: Skj B does not attempt reconstruction of these lines. The second word, gellr, is the 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of gjalla ‘scream, shriek’, but the first cannot be normalised to a known Old Norse word. Bugge (Heiðr 1873) suggested emendation to arnhlióð ‘eagle-shriek’, which has also been adopted (with variant spellings) in Skald, Edd. Min. and Heiðr 1960. This word is unattested but has a parallel in varg(h)ljóð ‘wolf-howl’ (Fritzner: vargljóð; LP: varghljóð), found in HHund I 41/3 (NK 136); Bugge (Heiðr 1873, 245 n. 2) also compares vápnhljóð ‘weapon-sound’, see e.g. Okík Magn 1/4^II. — [6] †harðar eru hillm†: Again Skj B does not attempt reconstruction. Kock (Skald; NN §2834) suggests harðárr er um hjálm ‘[it] is a harsh messenger about helmets’, giving illþræll ‘wicked slave’, hollvinr ‘loyal friend’ and ítrmaðr ‘glorious man’ as parallels for the otherwise unattested cpd harðárr. The suggestions of other eds are purely conjectural.

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. 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.
6. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
7. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
8. 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.
9. Ettmüller, Ludwig. 1861. Altnordisches Lesebuch nebst kurzgefasster Formenlehre und Wörterbuch. Zürich: Meyer & Zeller.
10. 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.
11. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
12. 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.
13. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
14. Internal references
15. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 55 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 417.
16. Not published: do not cite ()
17. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Oddr kíkinaskáld, Poem about Magnús góði 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 32.