Hætt hefi ek leyfðu lífi,
litfögr kona, — vetra
vá ek at foldar fiski
fimtán gamall — mínu.
Hafa skal ek böl, nema bíði
bráðráðinn mér dauði
heiðar lax til hjarta
hringlegnum vel smjúga.
Ek hefi hætt leyfðu lífi mínu, litfögr kona; fimtán vetra gamall vá ek at fiski foldar. Ek skal hafa böl, nema dauði, bráðráðinn mér, bíði smjúga vel til hjarta hringlegnum lax heiðar.
I have risked the life allotted to me, fair-complexioned woman; at the age of fifteen I attacked the fish of the earth [SNAKE]. I shall encounter disaster, unless the death imminently destined for me succeeds in creeping to the heart of the ring-coiled salmon of the heath [SNAKE].
[2, 4] fimtán vetra gamall ‘at the age of fifteen’: Lit. ‘fifteen years old’. No ms. has the word vetra (gen. pl.) ‘years’ in l. 2, but its correctness can be inferred both from 1824b’s ‘vitra’ and the exchange in 762ˣ between mínu (l. 2) and vetra (l. 4). Fifteen, as Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 195) notes, was the age of majority in medieval Norway from the beginning of the C11th onwards, whereas in Iceland it was sixteen; earlier the age of majority in Scandinavia had apparently been twelve (Herrmann 1922, 69). Ragnarr’s slaying of the snake may thus be seen as an important stage in his development as a hero; cf. McTurk (1991a, 35-7, 71-82).