THE BALLAD OF HJALMAR AND ANGANTYR[°]
1. In a high oak-tree. In the version of this ballad obtained by Hammershaimb at Sumbø the first line runs 'A man there lived on (lit. 'in') an island high,' whereas in the Ballad of Arngrim's Sons, v. 3, we are told that Arngrim and his sons lived 'under' an oak. Possibly the first line of our text is a confusion of these two versions. The error is made more comprehensible by the fact that there are no trees on the Faroes, and so the phrase must have been a meaningless jingle of words to the singers.
Arngrim's sons from Africa. The text has 'Arngrim's sons from Bláland,' by which the Faroese ballads and the Fornaldar Sögur generally mean Africa. Here, however, we should more naturally have expected 'Norway,' and it is very probable that, as Hammershaimb suggests, we here have the refrain in a corrupt form as so often happens. Probably 'from Bláland' (af Blálandum) should be 'from Bólmland' (af Bólmlandi), i.e. from the Island of Bólm, but the Faroese may have substituted the more familiar name for that of the island with which they were unacquainted.
2.[°] The champions Hjalmar, etc. The Sumbø version has:
He has eleven sons so dear;
The twelfth is the warrior Angantyr,
and also inserts immediately following a verse giving reasons for the voyage: