Anon (Ragn) 7VIII (Ragn 37)/6 — Bolgaralandi ‘Bolgaraland’
Fylgðum Birni báðir
at branda gný hverjum
— váru reyndir rekkar —
en Ragnari stundum.
Var ek, þar er bragnar börðuz
á Bolgaralandi;
því bar ek sár á síðu;
sittu innar meir, granni!
Fylgðum báðir Birni, en stundum Ragnari, at hverjum gný branda; váru reyndir rekkar. Ek var, þar er bragnar börðuz á Bolgaralandi; því bar ek sár á síðu; sittu innar meir, granni!
We both accompanied Bjǫrn, and sometimes Ragnarr, in every clash of swords [BATTLE]; they were proven warriors. I was where men fought in Bolgaraland; hence I bore a wound in my side; sit further in, neighbour!
notes
[6] á Bolgaralandi ‘in Bolgaraland’: I.e. in the land of the Bulgars. The Bulgars, originally a Turkic nomadic people, lived in two locations in the Viking Age, having divided into two branches in the mid-C7th: the Balkans (in roughly the area of modern Bulgaria) and the middle Volga (Haywood 2000, 38). If Bolgaraland ‘the land of the Bulgars’ in l. 6 refers to one of these two locations, and if the bragnar ‘men’ in l. 5 are Ragnarr and Bjǫrn, referred to in the first half-stanza, there is no clear evidence of these figures having fought as far east as this, either in history or legend. It seems safest not to look for a precise location of Bolgaraland here, and to follow Renaud (2005, 70 n. 59) in seeing ll. 5-6 as referring generally to the activities of the sons of Ragnarr loðbrók in southern Europe.