Rloð Lv 4VIII (Ragn 8)/6 — þáttr ‘scion’
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.
readings
[6] ‑þáttr: ‘þatr’ or possibly ‘batr’ corrected in left margin from ‘‑þratt’ in scribal hand 1824b, ‘þatt(ur)’(?) 147
notes
[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 26/6V(Eg 33) for þáttr, ‑þáttr in the sense of ‘family member’; cf. such compounds as yfirdróttning, ‑hildingr, ‑maðr, ‑þengill ‘chief queen, warrior, man, prince’.