RvHbreiðm Hl 6III/5 — Gunnari ‘to Gunnarr’
Ór skôru þá œrit
Atla menn til hvatla
harðir hjǫrva Nirðir
hjarta ógnarbjǫrtum.
Heldr Gunnari hœldu
hjǫrþings framir bǫrvar
— hann fekk harma sinna —
hugbyggð vegins tyggja.
Menn Atla, harðir Nirðir hjǫrva, skôru þá hjarta œrit til hvatla ór ógnarbjǫrtum. Framir bǫrvar hjǫrþings hœldu heldr hugbyggð vegins tyggja Gunnari; hann fekk harma sinna.
Atli’s men, the harsh Nirðir <gods> of swords [WARRIORS], then cut the heart much too quickly out of the battle-cheerful one [Hǫgni]. The aggressive trees of the sword-assembly [BATTLE > WARRIORS] praised very much the mind-settlement [HEART] of the slain lord to Gunnarr; he got [compensation] for his griefs.
readings
[5] Gunnari: ‘gunna …’ papp25ˣ, ‘guma …’ R683ˣ
notes
[5] hœldu ... Gunnari ‘praised ... to Gunnarr’: These readings are conjectural and follow a suggestion by Holtsmark (Hl 1941). The emendation is not entirely satisfactory, because it violates the word order in an independent clause (the finite verb appears in syntactic position 3). Such a violation seems unavoidable here, however, because the verb is clearly contained in metrical positions 5-6 and preceded by two words that apparently do not form a syntactic unit. Skj B construes helju Hǫgna seldu ‘(they) gave Hǫgni to Hel’ without support from the ms. witnesses. Kock (NN §490) suggests heldr gumna vin heldu ‘well (they) kept for the friend of the people’. This is not supported by the main ms. and it is even less likely from the point of view of the metre (such Type E-lines are extremely rare and not used in sentence introduction, see Gade 1995a, 73). The reading seldu ‘gave’ is metrically incorrect (h- is required by alliteration). Jón Helgason (Hl 1941) supplies hjaldrgims hristi seldu ‘to the shaker of the battle-fire [SWORD > WARRIOR] they gave’, which is metrically unlikely (a tvískelft line with a finite verb in positions 5-6) and not supported by the ms. witnesses.