Anon (Ragn) 9VIII (Ragn 39)
Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 39 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Ragnars saga loðbrókar 9)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 701.
text and translation
Ok því settu mik svarðmerðlingar
suðr hjá salti, synir Loðbróku.
Þá var ek blótinn til bana mönnum
í Sámseyju sunnanverðri.
Ok því settu mik svarðmerðlingar, synir Loðbróku, suðr hjá salti. Þá var ek blótinn til bana mönnum í sunnanverðri Sámseyju.
‘And so head-dress wearers, sons of Loðbróka, set me up in the south by the sea. At that time I was worshipped to the death of men in the southern part of Samsø. ’
notes and context
The trémaðr continues his narrative with no intervening prose text.
Most commentators, e.g. Heusler and Ranisch (Edd. Min. lxxxii), Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 222) and de Vries (1928a, 297) (cf. McTurk 1991a, 18), regard this stanza as combining with Ragn 40 to form a self-contained unit, cf. Ragn 38, second Note to [All]. Storm (1878, 83), Koht (1921b, 243), and de Vries (1928a, 297) moreover regard both stanzas as relatively old, hence dating from before the names Ragnarr and Loðbrók were applied in combination to the same person, as they were apparently for the first time in Ari Þorgilsson’s Íslb, written between 1120-33 (ÍF 1, xvi-xviii, 4). Whatever the original context of Ragn 38 may be, Ragn 39 and 40, with their references, respectively, to ‘setting up’ (settu, Ragn 39/1) and to ‘cloth, clothing’ (klæði, Ragn 40/8), may lend themselves more readily than Ragn 38 to discussion in terms of what is known from other Old Norse sources about trémenn ‘wooden men’. In Hávm 49 (NK 24; cf. Evans 1986, 49) the speaker says that he gave his clothes (váðir) in an open field (velli at) to two trémenn, who considered themselves reccar ‘warriors, champions’, once they had clothing (rift), since neiss er nøcqviðr halr ‘a naked man is despised’, i. e. (perhaps) ‘clothes make the man.’ Evans (1986, 93-4) notes that in other instances in Old Norse literature, including the present one, the trémaðr ‘always appears to have a cultic or magical connection’, and this is consistent with the trémaðr in the present instance being blótinn (l. 5), i.e. ‘worshipped (with sacrifice)’. See further North (1997b, 90-7).
readings
- [1] settu: ‘settv’ written in margin, corrected from ‘sęęttu’ deleted within the text 1824b
- [1] mik: om. 1824b
- [5] blótinn: blótin 1824b
sources
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
-
NKS 1824 b 4° (1824b) — 76v/19 - 76v/20
imagesOk því †settv†
svarðmerðlingar
suðr hjá salti,
synir Loðbróku.
Þá var ek blótin
til bana mönnum
í Sámseyju
sunnanverðri.ok þvi
sęęttu(settv) svardmerðlíngar. svdr hía sallte. synir lodbrokv þa var | ek blotín til bana monnum. í sams eyív ꜱvn⸌n⸍nan verdri.(RM)
editions and texts
Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], E. 2. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Ragnarssaga loðbrókar XI 2: AII, 241, BII, 261, Skald II, 136, NN §117; FSN 1, 299 (Ragn ch. 21), Ragn 1891, 223 (ch. 21), Ragn 1906-8, 174, 221 (ch. 20), Ragn 1944, 130, 132-3 (ch. 22), FSGJ 1, 285 (Ragn ch. 20), Ragn 1985, 153 (ch. 20), Ragn 2003, 68-9 (ch. 20), CPB II, 359; Edd. Min., lxxxii-iii, 94.
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