Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 22 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 14)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 572.
Ungr var ek heima, fór ek einn saman,
opt í útveri,
marga myrkviðu.
Hvatki ek fann á minni götu, hræddumz ek aldri
flagða forynjur.
Ungr var ek heima, ek fór opt einn saman í útveri, marga myrkviðu. Ek hræddumz aldri forynjur flagða, hvatki ek fann á götu minni.
When I was young at home, I often roamed alone in the outlying fishing grounds, through many dark forests. I never feared the warnings of ogresses, whatever I found on my path.
Mss: 343a(56v), 471(54r) (Ket)
Readings: [3] útveri: veri 471 [5] Hvatki: hvar 471 [7] forynjur: ‘friȯsun’ 471
Editions: Skj AII, 283, Skj BII, 304-5, Skald II, 161; FSN 2, 129, FSGJ 2, 171, Anderson 1990, 53, 99, 346, 372, 439-40; Edd. Min. 81.
Context: Ketill’s answer (Ket 22-3) is introduced by the words: Ketill kvað ‘Ketill said’.
Notes: [1-2]: A close parallel is Hávm 47/1-2. — [4] myrkviðu ‘dark forests’: Most mss (e.g. 1006ˣ, 173ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 340ˣ) have the reading myrkviða, but 343a has myrkviðu (‘myrkvidꜹ’), acc. pl. of the cpd myrkviðr ‘dark forest’ m. This cpd is well attested in eddic poetry; cf. LP: myrkviðr. Previous eds have understood 471’s reading as myrkriðu, acc. sg. of the cpd myrkriða f. ‘female rider in the dark’, which is attested as a term for a witch in Hárb 20/2 and Þul Trǫllkvenna 4/8III. However, the present ed., as well as Anderson 1990, reads myrkviðu. Those same eds who read myrkriðu also emend l. 5, so that ll. 4-5 read as follows: marga myrkriðu | fannk á minni götu ‘many a female rider in the dark <troll-woman> I found on my path’. — [5] hvatki ek fann á minni götu ‘whatever I found on my path’: The mss 343a (‘kvatki’) and 340ˣ have the reading hvatki ‘whatever’, 471 reads hvar ‘everywhere’. Several other mss omit the line entirely. In the version of the stanza presented in them the words marga myrkviða must be regarded as a full-line without a caesura and part of the preceding construction: fór (ek) einn saman | út í útveri, | marga myrkviða ‘I roamed alone out in the outlying fishing grounds, (through) many dark forests’. Some u-stem nouns are also declined like a-stems (ANG §395), hence myrkviða could be regarded as the acc. pl. of the cpd myrkviðr m., although Noreen (ANG) does not mention viðr as one of the u-stem nouns which are declined like a-stems. — [7] forynjur flagða ‘the warnings of ogresses’: With the exception of 471 the mss have the reading forynjur ‘[prophetic] warnings’, a word which is otherwise only attested in prose texts (cf. Fritzner, Fritzner IV, ONP: forynja). It is unclear why LP postulates the meaning ‘monster, troll’ for this word here in Ket. The reading in 471 is variously given as ‘friȯsun’ (Anderson 1990, 99; Valgerður Erna Þorvaldsdóttir transcription for this edn) and ‘fnosun’ (Skj A) and said by the eds of Edd. Min. to be ‘unclear’, although they give it as fnǫsun ‘snorting’. With the exception of Anderson all eds emend to fnǫsun, the phrase fnǫsun flagða ‘the snorting of ogresses’ referring to the threatening, angry noises they make (cf. Heiðr 23/2, where the noun refers to a raging fire).
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