EirRagn Lv 3VIII (Ragn 13)
Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 13 (Eiríkr Ragnarsson, Lausavísur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 651.
Bera ‘are to bring’
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3. bera (verb; °berr; bar, báru; borinn): bear, carry
[1] Bera skuluð: Þau berið Hb
orð ‘word’
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orð (noun n.; °-s; -): word
it ‘by’
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2. inn (art.): the
notes
[1] it efra ‘by land’: Here the comp. adj. efra, preceded by the def. art., is to be taken as n. acc. sg. and adverbial, meaning ‘by the upper route’ i.e., by land, with land thought of as above sea level. The present ed. follows Edzardi (1855-80, III, 277), Finnur Jónsson (Hb 1892-6; Skj B), Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 205) and Herrmann (1923b, 164), in understanding the phrase this way. There is no ms. authority for CPB ’s replacement of either þau, pl., with þat, sg., or the comp. efra with sup. œfsta.
efra ‘land’
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efri (adj. comp.; °superl. efstr/øfstr (eft- [$1653$] 13r²³, etc.)): higher, highest
notes
[1] it efra ‘by land’: Here the comp. adj. efra, preceded by the def. art., is to be taken as n. acc. sg. and adverbial, meaning ‘by the upper route’ i.e., by land, with land thought of as above sea level. The present ed. follows Edzardi (1855-80, III, 277), Finnur Jónsson (Hb 1892-6; Skj B), Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 205) and Herrmann (1923b, 164), in understanding the phrase this way. There is no ms. authority for CPB ’s replacement of either þau, pl., with þat, sg., or the comp. efra with sup. œfsta.
nú ‘Now’
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nú (adv.): now
[2] nú eru órir firar lagðir (‘nv ero orrrir firar lagþir’): eru austrfarar liðnar Hb
notes
[2] nú eru firar órir lagðir ‘now our men are laid low’: The present ed. follows FSN and Ragn 1891 in adopting the 1824b reading, which makes just as good sense as the Hb reading eru austrfarar liðnar ‘journeys eastward (i.e. to Sweden) are a thing of the past’, which all other eds adopt, some of them adding nú ‘now’ from 1824b at the beginning of the line.
eru ‘are’
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
[2] nú eru órir firar lagðir (‘nv ero orrrir firar lagþir’): eru austrfarar liðnar Hb
notes
[2] nú eru firar órir lagðir ‘now our men are laid low’: The present ed. follows FSN and Ragn 1891 in adopting the 1824b reading, which makes just as good sense as the Hb reading eru austrfarar liðnar ‘journeys eastward (i.e. to Sweden) are a thing of the past’, which all other eds adopt, some of them adding nú ‘now’ from 1824b at the beginning of the line.
órir ‘our’
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várr (pron.; °f. ór/vár; pl. órir/várir): our
[2] nú eru órir firar lagðir (‘nv ero orrrir firar lagþir’): eru austrfarar liðnar Hb
notes
[2] nú eru firar órir lagðir ‘now our men are laid low’: The present ed. follows FSN and Ragn 1891 in adopting the 1824b reading, which makes just as good sense as the Hb reading eru austrfarar liðnar ‘journeys eastward (i.e. to Sweden) are a thing of the past’, which all other eds adopt, some of them adding nú ‘now’ from 1824b at the beginning of the line.
firar ‘men’
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firar (noun m.): men
[2] nú eru órir firar lagðir (‘nv ero orrrir firar lagþir’): eru austrfarar liðnar Hb
notes
[2] nú eru firar órir lagðir ‘now our men are laid low’: The present ed. follows FSN and Ragn 1891 in adopting the 1824b reading, which makes just as good sense as the Hb reading eru austrfarar liðnar ‘journeys eastward (i.e. to Sweden) are a thing of the past’, which all other eds adopt, some of them adding nú ‘now’ from 1824b at the beginning of the line.
lagðir ‘laid low’
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leggja (verb): put, lay
[2] nú eru órir firar lagðir (‘nv ero orrrir firar lagþir’): eru austrfarar liðnar Hb
notes
[2] nú eru firar órir lagðir ‘now our men are laid low’: The present ed. follows FSN and Ragn 1891 in adopting the 1824b reading, which makes just as good sense as the Hb reading eru austrfarar liðnar ‘journeys eastward (i.e. to Sweden) are a thing of the past’, which all other eds adopt, some of them adding nú ‘now’ from 1824b at the beginning of the line.
at ‘that’
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4. at (conj.): that
hafi ‘may have’
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hafa (verb): have
mína ‘my’
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minn (pron.; °f. mín, n. mitt): my
mjó ‘a slender’
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mjór (adj.; °mjóvan; comp. mjór(r)i/mjár(r)i, superl. -str/mjóvastr): slender
[4] mjó: so Hb, mik 1824b
Áslaugu ‘to Áslaug’
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Áslaug (noun f.)
bauga ‘rings’
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baugr (noun m.; °dat. -i/-; -ar): ring
Þá ‘Then’
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2. þá (adv.): then
mun ‘will’
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munu (verb): will, must
mest ‘in the greatest’
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meiri (adj. comp.; °meiran; superl. mestr): more, most
af ‘’
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af (prep.): from
móði ‘grief’
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1. móðr (noun m.; °dat. -i/-): courage
mik ‘I am’
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ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me
spyrja ‘they hear that’
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spyrja (verb; spurði): ask; hear, find out
dauðan ‘dead’
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2. dauðr (adj.): dead
mín ‘my’
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minn (pron.; °f. mín, n. mitt): my
stjúpmóðir ‘stepmother’
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stjúpmóðir (noun f.)
mildum ‘generous’
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mildr (adj.; °compar. -ri/-ari, superl. -astr): mild, gentle, gracious, generous
[7] mildum: so Hb, sínum 1824b
mögum ‘sons’
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magr (adj.): lean
sínum ‘her’
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3. sinn (pron.; °f. sín, n. sitt): (refl. poss. pron.)
[8] sínum til: so Hb, þögul 1824b
segja ‘tell’
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segja (verb): say, tell
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
After taking a ring from his arm, Eiríkr sends messengers to Áslaug, with the instruction that a slender maiden may have his rings. He confidently expresses the view that his stepmother (Áslaug) will convey to her sons the news of his death.
[3-4]: These lines raise the question of who is meant by the mjó mær ‘slender maiden’ to whom Eiríkr bequeaths his rings. Is it Áslaug, as some have thought, or some unknown, unnamed figure? (a) Most previous eds apart from those of CPB and Kock leave open the question of the slender maiden’s identity and the present ed. adopts the same position. (b) Finnur Jónsson (Hb 1892-6, 460) adopts Hb’s reading ‘meirr’, i.e. meir ‘(ever)more, hereafter’ in l. 3 (cf. Kock, to be discussed in (d), below), and takes the adj. mjó ‘slender’ in l. 4 as f. nom. sg. and substantival, giving the meaning ‘she, the slender one (hun den slanke) may have my belongings hereafter’. (c) In Skj B, however, Finnur adopts from 1824b the reading mær ‘maiden’ in l. 3 and from Hb the reading mjó (in place of mik, 1824b) in l. 4, taking mjó here, f. nom. sg., as an attributive adj., and producing the meaning ‘that the slender maiden may have my rings’. (d) Kock (NN §1455) adopts the Hb readings meir ‘hereafter’ and mjó ‘slender’, and emends Áslaugu in l. 4 to Áslaug um, thus making Áslaug nom., supplying a pleonastic um to fill out the line, and giving the meaning ‘that the fair (slender) Áslaug may have my rings hereafter’. The emendation seems unjustified, however; the oblique case of Áslaugu is sufficiently marked and syntactically out of place in l. 4 to suggest a syntactic link with an earlier part of the half-stanza. — [7-8]: The Hb reading of these two lines, adopted by all previous eds (apart from those of CPB, who follow Hb but omit sínum from l. 8, without replacing it, and Rafn (FSN), who simply follows 1824b), is undeniably preferable to that of 1824b as far as alliteration and (in l. 8) syllable-count are concerned and has also been followed here. The 1824b text lacks in l. 7 the double alliteration that would be expected in a dróttkvætt odd line, since ‑móðir, the second element in stjúpmóðir and bearing only secondary stress, cannot be regarded as alliterating with mín, at least for the purposes of dróttkvætt (cf. Russom 1998, 64); and l. 8, in which resolution of the two syllables of mögum (if not those of þögul) would be expected (Poole 2005e, 271), is short of the six syllables required in a dróttkvætt line. For an alternative treatment of these two lines, still taking account of the readings of 1824b, see McTurk (2014b, 110‑13).
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