Manuscript Variation in “Hervarar Saga ok Heiðreks Konungs”

Abstract

The main aim of the article is to refute the view that “The Lay of Hervör” (“Hervararkviða”) represents a late interpolation in the text of “The Saga of Hervör and King Heidrek the Wise” and to give arguments against the hypothesis that the female character of the lay is secondary in relation to the shield-maiden taking part in the Battle of the Goths and the Huns. The study of manuscript variation in the main surviving redactions of the saga (H: AM 544, U: R 715 and R: GKS 2845) sheds light on the structure of both lays and facilitates the identification of the roles of the two shield-maidens in the prose narrative of the saga and in the composition of the “Hervararkviða” and the poem on “The Battle of the Goths and the Huns”. The contextual analysis of “Hervararkviða” against the background of the saga prose and the mythological and heroic epic leads to the conclusion that parts of the female character’s dialogue with her father (her incantation and his prophesy) could go back to the hypothetical oral tradition of poetic dialogues with the dead (draugr), which is reflected in the lays of the Poetic Edda.