Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series B - 01.06.1962, Page 145
cxliii
sinistrum omen, nam in eodem bello ipse occubuit. Ágrip79)
makes Haraldr say, sjaldan fór svá þá er vel vildi. In Msk
274, Fsk 288 and Hkr Í.F. XXVIII 186, Haraldr, having
fallen right off the horse, gets up immediately and says,
Fall er farar heill. The author would appear to have
taken the incident from some lost version of Haralds saga
and it is perhaps significant that his version agrees in the
main with the oldest known sources, Theodricus and
Ágrip.
h) The Norwegian king’s comment on Harald God-
wine’s son in HÞ (5020~21) can be traced back to that in
all version of Haralds saga (e.g. Msk 276). The words
ok man þo ecki lengi londvm raða, though, were probably
added by the author of HÞ to balance the later words
of the English king on Haraldr Sigurðarson (HÞ 5029~30).
Harald Godwine’s son’s comment on Haraldr Sigurðar-
son in HÞ differs in detail from that in the other
Scandinavian sources where it runs, Mikill maþr oc
itarligr. oc er veNa at nv se fariN at hamingio (Msk 274)
itarligr is replaced in Fsk by hgfðingligr, in Hkr by rík-
mannligr and in Hulda by ítrmannligr. In all versions
there is a certain balance, achieved by making the two
kings comment on each other but the artistic effect of
this is heightened in HÞ by making each king prophecy
an early death for the other80).
i) HÞ’s account of the battle is substantially the same
as that given in Hkr Í.F. XXVIII 185-92, with the Nor-
wegians in a ring formation and the English surrounding
them but unable to break their ranks81). What HÞ (522-5)
79) Ed. Finnur Jónsson, 1929, 41.
so) For a full discussion of these comments (but not that in HÞ) see
L. Holm Olsen, En replikk i Harald Hardr&des saga, Maal og
Mirme, 1959, 35-41.
81) For a discussion of the origin of the account in Hkr and its
relation to those in Msk 273 and Fsk 287-88, cf. Bjarni Aðal-
bjarnarson in Í.F. XXVIII, xxxr. If his view is correct, the account