{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/onp/onp07.htm","path":"neu/onp/onp07.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/onp/onp07.htm","text":"SOME students have doubted whether this lay, which to them seems episodic, was composed and recited independently of the saga in which it occurs. They seem to forget that its substance is not merely Hervor conjuring up her father from the dead, and with her malisons compelling him to yield to her out of the grave the precious heirloom of the wondrous invincible sword buried with him: this action is only preparatory of the dire prophecy bound up with the ownership of Tyrfing, the sword which demands the life of a man, every time it is drawn, and \u201cmust be sheathed in warm blood.\u201d The fact that the prophecy of the total annihilation of her progeny, as stated here, does not square with the account of the saga may mean that the very composite saga, rather than the lay, has swerved from the original conception. It will also be observed that the poem is purely dialogic. Both action and motivation, and the description of the nightly scene of dread and gloom, are skillfully and completely achieved by this technique; so that, as in the best ballads, any prose introduction is supererogatory.\nThe lay has been justly admired.1 There is power and subtlety in the portrayal of the amazon maiden. She is self-centered and undaunted, come what may, and ruthless in her fierce insistence ou fulfilling her destiny\u2014\u201clittle reck I, ruler of men, whether my sons slay each other\u201d\u2014yet withal a strength girt round with weakness. Once she holds the coveted sword in her hand she flees to her ships, unnerved by the horrors of the night. Still the lay is decidedly in the later manner, in style and composition, and can hardly be older than, say, the twelfth century. The text, in regular fornyrthislag, is complete, though there seems to be some confusion in the order of the stanzas. It is found in the two main MSS of the Hervarar saga.\nFrom the saga we learn that after the battle with Hi\u00e1lmar and Orvar Odd on S\u00e1ms-isle, the latter interred Angant\u00fdr and his brothers in a barrow with all their weapons. Before his death Angant\u00fdr had begotten a daughter, Hervor. Like him, she was strong, fierce, and intractable. She wore armor like a man and joined a band of vikings whose chief she soon became. She lays her course to S\u00e1ms-isle to win Tyrfing, the wondrous sword. Alone she goes on land.\n| 12 | * * * | \n| The SHEPHERD said: | | \n| | \u201cWho by himself\u2003hath come hither on isle? Go thou straightway, get thee shelter!\u201d | \n| HERVOR said: | | \n| 2 | \u201cI care not go\u2003and get me shelter: not any one know I of the island\u2019s men. Ere hence thou hiest, in haste tell me: where are the howes for Hiorvarth3 named?\u201d | \n| The SHEPHERD said: | | \n| 3 | \u201cAsk not of such, if sage thou art, friend-of-vikings:4 thou \u2019rt on ferly ways; let us fare hence so fast as feet will carry! Without now is it awful for men.\u201d | \n| HERVOR said: | | \n| 4 | \u201cThis trinket\u2019s thine\u2003if thou tell me this: \u2019t were hard to hold back the heroes\u2019-friend.\u201d4 | \n| p. 31 | | \n| The SHEPHERD said: | | \n| | \u201cThou canst not give\u2003such golden trinkets, such fair-shining rings, that I fare with thee.5 | \n| 5 | \u201c\u2009\u2019Tis folly, in faith,\u2003to fare thither for a man alone in this murky dark: is fire abroad, the barrows open, burn field and fen: let us flee in haste.\u201d | \n| HERVOR said: | | \n| 6 | \u201cI scorn to dread\u2003a din like this, though fires do burn all about the isle! Let not men who are dead unman us, shepherd, with fear so swiftly, but say thou on!\u201d | \n| The SHEPHERD said: | | \n| 7 | \u201cIs Hel\u2019s gate lifted,\u2003the howes do ope, the edge of the isle is all afire\u2014 awful is it to be without: to thy ships hie thee in haste, oh maiden!\u201d | \n| HERVOR said: | | \n| 8 | \u201cSuch nightly blaze\u2003ye cannot build that of their fires afraid I grow: will Hervor\u2019s heart not be horror-struck, e\u2019en though a ghost in grave-door stood.7 | \n| p. 32 | | \n| 9 | \u201cAwake, Angant\u00fdr!\u2003Wakes thee Hervor, thy only bairn, born to Sv\u00e1va; the bitter brand from thy belt gird thou, which swinking dwarfs for Sv\u00e1frlami wrought. | \n| 10 | \u201cHervarth, Hiorvarth,\u2003Hrani,8 Angant\u00fdr! I awake you all, ye wights neath mold with helmets and byrnies and bitter swords, with gory spears and all gear of war. | \n| 11 | \u201cHave Arngr\u00edm\u2019s sons,\u2003the evil men\u2019s, their corpses become to clay and mold,9 seeing that none of the sons of Eyfura10 with me will speak in Munar Bay. | \n| 12 | \u201cMay all of you feel\u2003within your ribs as though in ant-hill your ill bones rotted,11 but the sword ye fetch me forged by Dvalin:12 it befits not ghosts to guard prized arms.\u201d | \n| ANGANT\u00ddR said: | | \n| 13 | \u201cHervor, daughter,\u2003why doest call me with cold curses? They will cost thee dear! Bereft of reason and raving art thou, that with wildered thought thou wak\u2019st the dead. | \n| 14 | \u201cNeither father me buried\u2003nor fellow kinsmen: (thy brothers\u2019 banesmen this barrow raised.13) The twain who lived did Tyrfing win\u2014 now one of the victors wields it at last.\u201d | \n| p. 33 | | \n| HERVOR said: | | \n| 15 | \u201cThou say\u2019st not sooth!\u2003May so the gods leave thee whole in howe as thou hast not Tyrfing with thee:14 unwilling art to give thy daughter her dearest wish,\u201d | \n| ANGANT\u00ddR said: | | \n| 1615 | \u201cHardly human\u2003I hold thee, maiden, about barrows who hoverest at night, with graven spear16 and Gothic iron,17 with helmet and byrnie, the hall\u2019s18 gate before, | \n| HERVOR said: | | \n| 17 | \u201cHowbeit, human\u2003was I held to be ere hither I hied me, your hall to seek: out of howe hand me the hater-of-byrnies,19 the dwarfs\u2019 handiwork: \u2019t will not do to hide it!\u201d | \n| ANGANT\u00ddR said: | | \n| 18 | \u201cUnder my shoulders hidden\u2003lies Hi\u00e1lmar\u2019s bane, about its blade blazes fire: in this wide world know I no woman born who would dare to wield the dreaded sword.\u201d | \n| HERVOR said: | | \n| 19 | \u201cWould I hold in hand\u2014\u2003if have it I might\u2014 the bitter brand, and in battle wield it, Not a whit fear I the fire blazing: it swiftly sinks as I seek it with eye.\u201d | \n| p. 34 | | \n| ANGANT\u00ddR said: | | \n| 20 | \u201cI tell thee, Hervor\u2014\u2003heed my warning!\u2014 what will happen, thou heroes\u2019 daughter! I say but sooth: will this sword become the slayer of all thy sib and kin.\u201d | \n| HERVOR said: | | \n| 21 | \u201cThus shall I deal\u2003with you dead men\u2019s bones that in your graves ye get no rest:20 hand me, Angant\u00fdr, out of the howe the sword wherewith thou slewest Hi\u00e1lmar!\u201d | \n| ANGANT\u00ddR said: | | \n| 22 | \u201cWitless art thou,\u2003and of wanton mind, like a fool to fling thee into fire blazing! Out of howe, rather, shall I hand the sword, hardy maiden, nor withhold it from thee.\u201d | \n| HERVOR said: | | \n| 23 | \u201cWell then doest thou,\u2003warriors\u2019-offspring, out of the howe to hand Tyrfing which liefer to me, thou lord-of-battle, than now to have all Norroway.\u201d | \n| ANGANT\u00ddR said: | | \n| 24 | \u201cThou little knowest,\u2003luckless woman, what ill thou \u2019st wrought with reckless speech: I say but sooth: will this sword become the slayer of all thy sib and kin.\u201d | \n| HERVOR said: | | \n| 25 | \u201cTo my ships on shore\u2003now shall I hie me: is the hero\u2019s daughter happy in mind. p. 35 Little reck I, ruler of men, whether my sons will slay each other.\u201d | \n| ANGANT\u00ddR said: | | \n| 26 | \u201cThou \u2019lt have it through life\u2003and long joy in it; but keep thou hidden Hi\u00e1lmar\u2019s-slayer, nor touch its edges: on the twain is poison. Is that bitter brand baneful to all. | \n| 27 | \u201cThou \u2019lt have a son\u2003who hereafter will wield Tyrfing and trust his strength; Heithrek21 will he be hight of men, and mightiest grow of men under heaven. | \n| 28 | \u201cFarewell, daughter!\u2003I would fain give thee the thews of twelve men if thou \u2019ldst but heed me\u2014 their lives and strength, the stored-up wealth which Arngr\u00edm\u2019s sons left after them.\u201d | \n| HERVOR said: | | \n| 29 | \u201cShall I hie me hence.\u2003Happily may ye\u2014 I long to be gone\u2014 live in your howe. But lately I lingered \u2019twixt life and death,22 when all about me blazed the fires.\u201d | \n1 Though one will hardly agree with that otherwise so sane and sagacious observer, W. P. Ker, that \u201cafter Volusp\u00f3 it is the most wonderful of Northern poems.\u201d Epic and Romance, p. 73.\n2 The Hauksb\u00f3k MS has pieced out the missing lines with this introductory (narrative) half-stanza:\n| Met the young maid\u2003in Munar Bay with setting of sun, a swain by his herd. | \nMunar Bay is a fictitious locality recalling the Una Bay in the First Lay of Helgi, 32.\n3 One of Angant\u00fdr\u2019s brothers, interred with him in the grave-mound (howe, barrow).\n4 Kenning for \u201cwarrior.\u201d\n5 A difficult stanza. I have followed the interpretation of the Prose in the distribution of the r\u00f4les; which, to be sure, involves the interpretation of eigi as the first person singular subjunctive of eiga.\n6 This and the following stanza-duplicating 5 and 6\u2014have been transposed here from their original position (in MSS after 13) notwithstanding the obvious difficulty of Hervor\u2019s true name and sex being mentioned: they grievously interpose there between Hervor\u2019s accusation and Angant\u00fdr\u2019s justification. Stanza 8 may be taken as spoken by Hervor to herself.\n7 In Hauksb\u00f3k, the following weak stanza supplies the context:\n| To the forest fast\u2003fled then the shepherd, nor more cared he to the maiden to speak; but hardier Hervor\u2019s her heart then swelled in derring-do, disdainfully\u2014 | \n\u201cand went through the fires as though ther were but smoke, until she came to the barrow of the berserkers.\u201d\n8 Three of Angant\u00fdr\u2019s brothers.\n9 I.e., have undergone the \u201csecond death,\u201d complete annihilation; until which time, popular belief held, the dead inhabited their graves in the form of spooks. This is to be remembered also against the stanzas following.\n10 Sv\u00e1frlami\u2019s daughter whom Arngr\u00edm had abducted by force.\n11 Cf. the curses of B\u00fasla.\n12 One of the two dwarfs who forged Tyrfing for Sv\u00e1frlami.\n13 The lacuna (not indicated in the MSS) is supplied here after the excellent suggestion of S. Bugge\u2014Hi\u00e1lmar and Orvar Odd (S\u00f3ti) or, rather, the latter alone.\n14 Hervor wishes him everlasting life in his grave-mound if he had not the sword\u2014as she is sure he has! In the original the stanza is not quite clear.\n15 For the following stanzas, I adopt Genzmer-Heusler\u2019s arrangement.\n16 I.e., with a spear in whose iron figures, or characters, (of silver) were inlaid.\n17 Indefinite kenning for \u201csword\u201d or \u201carmor.\u201d\n18 Here for the burial chamber of the barrow.\n19 Kenning for \u201csword,\u201d\n20 In the original, \u201cthat ye shall lie dead with spooks,\u201d which makes little sense. The stanza is imperfectly transmitted\u2014with an excrescent long-line\u2014and the translation therefore only an approximation.\n21 Cf. The Lay of Hloth and Angant\u00fdr, Prose, and note.\n22 I.e., the realms of Life and Death.","title":"THE LAY OF HERVOR [HERVARARKVITRA]","type":"page"}