Rloð Lv 4^VIII (Ragn 8)

In these three stanzas Ragnarr recognises in the eye of the newborn Sigurðr, his fifth son by Kráka-Áslaug, the snake-like mark which she had indicated, during her pregnancy, would be a sign of the child’s descent from her father, Sigurðr Fáfnisbani (Ragn 1906-8, 135). Ragnarr, who had not believed that she was the daughter of this Sigurðr, now does so.

Sigurðr mun sveinn of heitinn;
sá mun orrostur heyja,
mjök líkr vera móður
ok mögr föður kallaðr.
Sá mun Óðins ættar
yfirþáttr vera heitinn;
þeim er ormr í auga,
er annan lét svelta.

Sveinn mun of heitinn Sigurðr; sá mun heyja orrostur, vera mjök líkr móður ok kallaðr mögr föður. Sá mun vera heitinn yfirþáttr ættar Óðins; ormr er í auga þeim, er lét annan svelta.

The boy will be called Sigurðr; he will engage in battles, will be very like his mother and called his father’s son. He will come to be known as the chief scion of Óðinn’s dynasty; there is a snake in the eye of him [Sigurðr Fáfnisbani] who caused another [snake, Fáfnir] to die.

Mss: 1824b(62v), 147(99v) (Ragn)

Readings: [1] Sigurðr mun sveinn of heitinn: ‘[…] (heit[…]n)’(?) 147    [2] sá mun orrostur heyja: ‘sa mu[…]ur heyia’ 147    [3] mjök líkr vera móður: ‘[…] uera […]dur’ 147    [4] ok mögr föður kallaðr: ‘[…]’ 147    [5] Sá mun Óðins ættar: ‘[…]u(n) odins ætt(ar)’(?) 147    [6] ‑þáttr: ‘þatr’ or possibly ‘batr’ corrected in left margin from ‘‑þratt’ in scribal hand 1824b, ‘þatt(ur)’(?) 147    [7] þeim er ormr í auga: ‘þeim mun ormur […]’ 147    [8] er annan lét svelta: ‘[…] (let) […]ellta’(?) 147

Editions: Skj AII, 233-4, Skj BII, 253, Skald II, 131, NN §3180; FSN 1, 258 (Ragn ch. 8), Ragn 1891, 193 (ch. 8), Ragn 1906-8, 136, 181, 200-1 (ch. 9), Ragn 1944, 56-7 (ch. 9), FSGJ 1, 245-6 (Ragn ch. 9), Ragn 1985, 121 (ch. 9), Ragn 2003, 30-1 (ch. 9), CPB II, 347.

Context: On learning that Ragnarr had planned to leave her for, as he thought, the more nobly-born daughter of King Eysteinn of Sweden, Kráka-Áslaug had prophesied that their fifth son would be born with a snake-like mark in his eye, as proof that her parents were the illustrious Sigurðr, slayer of the serpent Fáfnir, and Brynhildr. Ragnarr speaks here of his newborn son.

Notes: [All]: On the interpretation of this stanza offered here, see more fully McTurk (2012a). Here it is not so much the individual words as their syntactic interrelation that presents problems. As the present ed. understands it, the stanza is offering an explanation of the nickname ormr-í-auga ‘Snake-in-eye’ for Ragnarr’s son Sigurðr in terms of a piercing gaze inherited from his maternal grandfather Sigurðr Fáfnisbani. Modern suggestions as to the nickname’s explanation are: that it refers to the eye-condition known as nystagmus (Reichborn-Kjennerud 1923, 26); that it reflects the myth recorded in SnE (SnE 1998, I, 4-5) of Óðinn crawling in the form of a serpent through a narrow, eye-like opening in order to win the poetic mead (McTurk 1991b, 358-9; 2006, 685); that it reflects the archaeologically attested practice of placing images of snakes over the eyeholes on masks fitted to helmets of a kind found predominantly in Sweden and dating from the Vendel period (c. 550-800) (Marold 1998a); and that it points to the warlike characteristics of its bearer through its association with Óðinn specifically as a god of war, not least because the adj. ormfránn ‘glittering like a snake’ is applied to the eyes of prominent warriors in Old Norse poetry, and some of the names applied to Óðinn (Sváfnir, Ófnir, Grímr) are also poetic words for ‘snake’ (see Lassen 2003, 39-42, and the entries for those names in LP). — [3-4]: The question here is whether ll. 3-4 are to be understood as meaning: ‘will be very like his mother (i.e. Áslaug) and called his father’s (i.e. Ragnarr’s) son’ (with móður taken as dat. and föður as gen.), or ‘and will be considered (kallaðr ‘said to be’) a son very like his mother’s father’ (with móður taken as gen. and föður as dat., and ‘his mother’s father’ referring to Sigurðr Fáfnisbani). Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) plumps for the former, simpler alternative (perhaps rather surprisingly), as does the present ed., along with Örnólfur Thorsson (Ragn 1985) and Larrington (2010, 62-3). Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 200-1), on the other hand, adopts the latter alternative, justifying the dependence of gen. móður in l. 3 on the noun föður, which is somewhat far removed from it in l. 4, by reference to Ragn 9 (see below), where gen. Brynhildar in l. 1 depends on the even more distant dóttur in l. 3. — [4] ok … mögr föður ‘and … father’s son’: Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 181) could read ‘ok maugur f[…]’ here in 147, but this reading cannot now be confirmed. — [5-8]: (a) The present ed., while offering an interpretation of these lines not previously proposed, agrees with all previous eds in taking sá ‘he’ in l. 5 as referring to Sigurðr, son of Ragnarr (as opposed to Sigurðr Fáfnisbani, who some believe is referred to in l. 4, see Note to ll. 3-4 above); with Olsen, Eskeland, Örnólfur Thorsson and Larrington (2010, 62-3) in seeing ll. 5-6 on the one hand and 7-8 on the other as forming separate clauses; and with Olsen, Ebel, and also, it seems, Örnólfur, in seeing þeim ‘(of) him’ in l. 7 as the antecedent of the rel. clause introduced by er ‘who’ in l. 8. This ed. differs from all previous eds with the possible exception of Örnólfur, however, in suggesting that þeim in l. 7 refers to Sigurðr Fáfnisbani (see McTurk 2012a). This Sigurðr is frequently referred to in Vǫls as having piercing eyes (see Vǫls 1906-8, 31, 42, 56, 80, cf. also 75), and there is ample poetic evidence to suggest that a piercing gaze was thought of as snake-like, see LP: ormfránn ‘glittering like a snake’ and cf. Vǫl 17/5-6, Fáfn 5/5, and Rþ 34/7-8. (b) Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 200-1) refers to a suggestion communicated to him by S. Bugge to the effect that the rel. particle er in l. 8 should be linked with Óðins ættar in l. 5 (rather than with þeim in l. 7) to give the following prose order: Sá mun vera heitinn yfirþáttr ættar Óðins, er annan lét svelta; ormr er í auga þeim ‘He [Sigurðr, son of Ragnarr], will be called the principal scion of the descendant of Óðinn [Sigurðr Fáfnisbani], who caused another [snake, Fáfnir] to die; there is a snake in his [Sigurðr Ragnarsson’s] eye’. This would involve understanding ætt(ar) in the sense of  ‘family member, descendant’. This interpretation seems far-fetched, however, given the proximity of the poss. dat. þeim in l. 7 and rel. particle er in l. 8. Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 201) also emends l. 8 to es ǫrn lætrat svelta ‘who will not let the eagle starve’ (as an alternative, following another suggestion of Bugge’s, to the former interpretation by Bugge of l. 8). (c) Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) reads yfirbátr in l. 6 (see Note to l. 6 below), emends pret. lét to pres. lætr in l. 8, giving it future meaning, and takes the rel. particle er in l. 8 as correlating with yfirbátr, thus producing the awkward translation: ‘He, of Óðinn’s family, will be called (other people’s) superior, who will let another person die; in his eyes lies a snake.’ (d) Kock (NN §3180), perhaps rather surprisingly in view of his usual preference for the simplest possible interpretation, adopts Finnur’s text of the half-stanza, and criticises his translation only to the extent of arguing for ‘He will be called the outstripper of Óðinn’s family, who …’ in place of its opening clause. (e) The present edn’s interpretation of the half-stanza attributes the role of chief scion of the dynasty to Ragnarr’s son Sigurðr and that of ‘Snake-in-eye’ to Sigurðr Fáfnisbani. This involves no emendation. The roles might be reversed if the half-stanza were read as follows, also without emendation: þeim er ormr í auga; sá, er lét svelta annan, mun vera heitinn yfirþáttr ættar Óðins: ‘that one [Ragnarr’s son Sigurðr] has a snake in his eye; he [Sigurðr Fáfnisbani], who allowed another [snake, Fáfnir] to die, is surely reckoned the chief scion of Óðinn’s dynasty’. Here mun vera ‘is surely’ would be read as expressing likelihood rather than futurity. The prose order thus assumed would, however, be at variance with what Kock (NN §§1462, 1465) has identified as the simple, straightforward syntactic tendency of the Ragn stanzas in general. — [6] yfirþáttr ‘chief scion’: As Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 200-1) notes, yfirþáttr ‘chief scion’ is preferable here to yfirbátr ‘person who is superior to others, foremost in importance’, in terms both of ms. readings and linguistic parallels (the one significant difference in meaning being that the former word implies membership of a family). In the meaning ‘superior, foremost person’, Olsen claims, one would expect *fyrirbátr rather than yfirbátr, and Olsen, acknowledging here a debt to Bugge, adduces support in Hamð 4/3 and in Egill Lv 26/6^V(Eg 33) for þáttr, ‑þáttr in the sense of ‘family member’; cf. such compounds as yfirdróttning, ‑hildingr, ‑maðr, ‑þengill ‘chief queen, warrior, man, prince’. — [7] er ‘is’: Since Sigurðr Fáfnisbani is dead at the time of the supposed utterance of this stanza, this must of course be taken as an instance of the historic pres. There is no need to replace it with the reading mun ‘will be’ or ‘is surely’ from 147, but this reading may be understood also as an instance of the historic pres., and as conveying a sense of virtual certainty (‘surely there is/was …’). — [7] auga ‘eye’: Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 181) could read ‘aug[…]’ here in 147, but this cannot now be confirmed.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
7. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
8. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
10. Olsen, Magnus, ed. 1906-8. Vǫlsunga saga ok Ragnars saga loðbrókar. SUGNL 36. Copenhagen: Møller.
11. Vǫls 1906-8 = Olsen, Magnus, ed. 1906-8. Vǫlsunga saga ok Ragnars saga loðbrókar. SUGNL 36. Copenhagen: Møller.
12. Vǫls = Vǫlsunga saga.
13. Marold, Edith. 1998a. ‘Die Augen des Herrschers’. In Meier 1998, 7-29.
14. Ragn 1906-8 = Olsen 1906-8, 111-222.
15. Ragn 1944 = Eskeland, Severin, ed. and trans. 1944. Soga om Ragnar Lodbrok med Kråka-kvædet. Norrøne bokverk 16. 2nd ed. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget. [1st ed. 1914].
16. Larrington, Carolyne. 2010. ‘Þóra and Áslaug in Ragnars saga loðbrókar’. In Arnold et al. 2010, 53-68.
17. Lassen, Annette. 2003. Øjet og blindheden i norrøn litteratur og mytologi. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculum Forlag, Københavns Universitet.
18. McTurk, Rory. 2012a. ‘An Eye for an Eye and a Snake for a Snake: Stanza 8 of Ragnars saga’. In Jackson et al. 2012, 111-21.
19. Reichborn-Kjennerud, Ingjald. 1923. ‘Lægerådene i den eldre Edda’. MM, 1-57.
20. Ragn 1985 = Örnólfur Thorsson 1985, 101-53.
21. McTurk, Rory. 1991b. ‘Loðbróka og Gunnlöð: frá frjósemisdýrkun til víkingaveldis’. Skírnir 165, 343-59.
22. Ragn 1891 = 2nd edn (pp. 175-224) of Ragn as ed. in Valdimar Ásmundarson 1885-9, I.
23. Ragn 2003 = Ebel, Uwe, ed. 2003. Ragnars saga loðbrókar. Texte des skandinavischen Mittelalters 4. Vol. II of Ebel 1997-2003.
24. Internal references
25. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
26. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ragnars saga loðbrókar’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 616. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=81> (accessed 2 May 2024)
27. Not published: do not cite ()
28. Not published: do not cite ()
29. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 33 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Lausavísur 26)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 231.
30. Not published: do not cite ()
31. Not published: do not cite ()
32. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 9 (Ragnarr loðbrók, Lausavísur 5)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 642.