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steady heart are both presented to Gunnarr in the snake-pit.32 Sigurðr is
able to understand bird speech after tasting some of the blood of Fáfnir’s
heart, but there is no mention of the physical appearance of the heart in
that context.33 In skáldskaparmál, Hrungnir’s heart is described as made of
stone and with three corners.34 This is the only one of these hearts which is
hard, like Þorgeirr’s heart in Hb – a characteristic that matches Hrungnir’s
general toughness, also evident in his head of stone. Þorgeirr’s heart is less
exceptionally hard, suitable to his extreme, yet still human, toughness.
The smallness of Þorgeirr’s heart and its lack of blood are consist-
ent with the overall image of compactness and hardness. Nonetheless,
these features stand out in Old Norse heart lore. Thus, for instance, the
power of understanding birds’ speech is transmitted through the blood of
Fáfnir’s heart, and the lack of blood in Þorgeirr’s heart is therefore apt to
raise questions about the significance of this fact – questions that are not
answered in the short version. This suggests that the passage in Hb is the
result of abbreviation. The opposite scenario is possible, however, namely
that this short passage was elaborated into the passage in the long version
precisely because it raised questions. If so, the detail of the hardness of
Þorgeirr’s heart was lost in the process, since it is not found in the corre-
sponding passage in the long version. This detail is found at another junc-
ture in the long version, however, after Þorgeirr’s first martial exploit:
[…] því at eigi var hjarta hans sem fóarn í fugli. Eigi var þat blóðfullt
svá at þat skylfi af hræðslu, heldr var þat hert af inum hæsta hǫfuð­
smið í ǫllum hvatleik.35
[…] since his heart was not like the entrails of a bird. It was not full
of blood, so that it shook from fear; rather it was hardened with all
courage by the highest artisan.
32 Thus Atlakviða 23 and 25; Vǫlsunga saga ch. 37. See Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda
7, ed. Klaus von See et al. (Heidelberg: Winter, 2012), 282–87, for a discussion of these
instances, as well as a comparable expression in Þórsdrápa.
33 Edda. Die Lieder des Codex Regius, ed. by Gustav Neckel and Hans Kuhn (Heidelberg: Carl
Winter, 1983), 186 (in the prose of Fáfnismál); Fornaldarsögur norðurlanda 1, ed. Guðni
Jónsson (Reykjavík: íslendingasagnaútgáfan, 1950), 155 (Vǫlsunga saga).
34 Snorri Sturluson, Edda. skáldskaparmál, ed. by Anthony Faulkes (London: Viking Society
for Northern Research, 1998), 21.
35 Fóstbrœðra saga, ed. Björn K. Þórólfsson, 10.
Fó STBRœÐ RA SAGA: A MISSING LINK?