The _Saga of Hervˆr and Heithrek_ is found in two vellums, the _HauksbÛk_ (A.M. 544), dating from c. 1325, which for convenience is usually called _H_; and MS. 2845[1] in the Royal Library at Copenhagen, dating from the fifteenth century, and generally called _R_. Besides these there are a number of paper MSS. (h) dating from the seventeenth century. According to Bugge[2], these have no independent value and can contribute nothing to our knowledge of the text up to the point at which the vellums break off. They are useful however as continuing the Saga beyond this point. _H_ comes to an end with Gestumblindi's second riddle, while _R_ breaks off just before the close of ch. 12. Beyond this point we are entirely dependent on the paper MSS. One of these (A.M. 345 written in 1694) was adopted by Rafn[3] as the text for his edition of the Saga, though he gives _H_ in full as an Appendix. The MSS. differ considerably among themselves. For instance _R_ omits the first chapter of the Saga, but contains _Hjalmar's Death Song_. Here, too, many of the riddles are wanting, and the order of the rest is quite different from that of _h_. Finnur JÛnsson[4] is of the opinion that _R_ is the best text throughout; but Heusler[5], like Valdimar ¡smundarson, keeps the order of the riddles as in _h_. Petersen[6] regards _H_ as the best text and follows it so far as it goes; but when it breaks off he follows _R_ mainly, although he considers the latter MS. to be defective in many places, "at the beginning, middle and end." He has supplied the lacunae in it from Arn. Magn. 192, the paper MS. which comes nearest to it, and also from others but with greater reservation. Valdimar ¡smundarson, like Petersen, and no doubt influenced by him, has followed _H_ very closely in his edition of the Saga[7] till it breaks off, and after that the paper MSS. (_h_) most closely related to it. He does not appear to have used _R_, and therefore omits the details of the fight on Sams¯ and _Hjalmar's Death Song_. ¡smundarson's version has been followed closely in the translation given below, but one or two interesting passages omitted by _H_ have been translated separately (see Appendix on pp. 144-150) from the text printed from _R_ in Wimmer's _Oldnordisk LÊsebog_[8] and from some short excerpts from _h_ printed at the close of Petersen's edition of the Saga. For a full bibliography of the texts, translations, and literature dealing with this saga the reader is referred to _Islandica_, Vol. V, pp. 22-26.