Hlöðskviða
Hlöðskviða (also Hlǫðskviða and Hlǫðsqviða), known in English as The Battle of the Goths and Huns and occasionally known by its German name Hunnenschlachtlied, is an Old Norse heroic poem found in Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks. Many attempts have been made to try to fit it with known history, but it is an epic poem, telescoping and fictionalising history to a large extent; some verifiable historical information from the time are place names, surviving in Old Norse forms from the period 750–850, but it was probably collected later in Västergötland.[2]
Most scholars place the tale sometime in the 4th and 5th centuries AD, with the battle taking place somewhere either in Central Europe near the Carpathian Mountains, or further east in European Russia.
Texts, historicity, and analysis
There are two main sources for the saga, "H", from the Hauksbók (A.M. 544) early 14th century; and "R", a 15th-century parchment (MS 2845). The final parts of the saga including Hlöðskviða are absent in H and truncated in R – the remainder of the text is found in better preserved 17th-century paper copies of these works.
The poem itself is thought to have originally been a stand-alone work, separate from the saga. It has several analogues, containing similar or related content, including the English
The historicity of the "Battle of the Goths and Huns", including the identification of people, places, and events, has been a matter of scholarly investigation since the 19th century, with no clear answer. Locations proposed for the setting include a number of places around the
Text
The poem is preserved as 29 separate
Some damaged verses were recorded differently by different editors, and the text shows signs of different dates of composition or recording in different parts of the text – including rich verses similar to those found in early
Most editions number the stanzas, but the numbering may start from the first poetic stanza in the saga, not the poem.[5]
Extracts
The first verses frame peoples and their rulers. It is noteworthy that the Geats (Gautar) and their king Gizurr have been inserted directly after the Huns, where one logically would expect the Goths and their king Angantyr to appear.[6]
Ár kváðu Humla |
|
—(Tolkien 1960, (75) pp.45–6) |
Valdar is also named as a king of the Danes in Guðrúnarkviða II.
After Heiðrekr's death, Hlöðr travels to Árheimar to claim half of the Gothic realm as his inheritance. His demand refers to the forest on the boundary separating the Goths and the Huns and to a "holy grave", apparently an important sanctuary of the Goths, but its background is unknown.
hrís þat it mæra, |
the renowned forest Dniepr ,half the armor owned by Heidrek, land and liegemen and lustrous rings! |
—(Tolkien 1960, (82) pp.48–9) |
Angantýr offers Hlöðr a third of his realm, and Gizur, Heiðrekr's old foster-father, says that this is more than enough for the son of a slave. On Hlöðr's return to the Hunnic realm, his grandfather Humli is enraged at the insult and gathers the army of the Huns.
The poem ends with Angantýr finding his brother dead:
Bǫlvat es okkr, bróðir, |
We are cursed, kinsman, |
—(Tolkien 1960, (103) pp.57–8) |
See also
- Oium, the Gothic realm in Scythia, overrun by the Huns in the 370s
- Poetic Edda; the poem generally does not appear in Eddic poetry collections (exceptions include Vigfússon & Powell 1883 and Jónsson 1956), but contains some poetry in a similar style
References
- ISBN 9783110171648.
- ^ Pritsak 1993, p. 287.
- ^ Tolkien 1960, pp. xxi–xxii.
- ^ Tolkien 1960, p. xxii.
- ^ For example see Tolkien 1960
- ^ Pritsak 1981, p. 198.
Sources
- Jónsson, Guðni, ed. (1956), "Hlöðskviða", Eddukvæði (Sæmundar-Edda), p. 354 , e-text
- Pritsak, Omeljan (1993). "Hlǫðskviða". In Pulsiano, Phillip; Wolf, Kirsten (eds.). Medieval Scandinavia, and encyclopedia. Garland Publishing, inc. New York & London. pp. 286–287. ISBN 9780824047870.
- ISBN 0-674-64465-4.
- Tolkien, Christopher (1953–1957), "The Battle of the Goths and the Huns" (PDF), Saga-Book, vol. 14, pp. 141–163
- Translations
- Vigfússon, Gudbrand; Powell, F. York, eds. (1883), "(Book.5 § 5) The Hun's Cycle : Hlod and Angantheow's Lay", Corpus Poeticum Boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue, vol. 1 Eddic Poetry, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 348–352, 565
- Kershaw, Nora (1921), Stories and Ballads of the Far Past, Cambridge University Press, pp. 79–150 , e-text
- Also Kershaw's translation alongside the Old Norse Hervarar Saga og Heiðreks [The Saga of Hervör and Heithrek]
- Also in Kershaw, N., ed. (1922), "13. The Battle of the Goths and the Huns", Anglo-Saxon and Norse poems, Cambridge [Eng.] The University press
- The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise (PDF), translated by Tolkien, Christopher, 1960
- Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks [R] -and- Saga Heiðreks konúngs ens vitra [H] [The Saga of Hervor & King Heidrek the Wise], translated by Tunstall, Peter, 2005