Cite as: Peter Jorgensen (ed.) 2017, ‘Ásmundar saga kappabana 6 (Hildibrandr, Lausavísur 6)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 20.
Nú verð ek liggja lífs andvani,
mæki undaðr, þeim er magnar sár. |
|
Ek verð nú liggja andvani lífs, undaðr mæki, þeim er magnar sár.
Now I must lie bereft of life, wounded by a sword, the one that increases wounds.
Mss: 7(43r) (Ásm)
Readings: [2] andvani: andvana 7 [4] þeim er: þannz 7; magnar: magna 7
Editions: Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], E. 12. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Ásmundar saga kappabana I 6: AII, 321, BII, 341, Skald II, 183, NN §796; Peringskiöld 1722, 22 (ch. 9), FSN 2, 486 (ch. 9), Detter 1891, 99, FSGJ 1, 406 (ch. 9) (Ásm); CPB I, 191, Halvorsen 1951, 16; Edd. Min. 54, NK 314.
Notes: [All]: This helmingr is sometimes treated as part of the previous stanza, giving a twelve-line stanza (so FSGJ), or as the second half of an eight-line stanza, although there is no indication in the ms. of missing texts (so Edd. Min.). — [2] andvani ‘bereft’: The ms. reads andvana, but it is necessary to emend in order to give an
adj. in the m. nom. sg. in agreement with ek ‘I’ (l. 1). — [3-4]: These lines refer to the
dwarf-forged sword destined to bring death to King Buðli’s grandsons (see st. 2 Note to [All]). — [4] þeim er magnar ‘the one that increases’: Both emendation of the ms.’s þannz magna and normalisation is required here. The final ‑z of þannz is a cliticised form of the rel. particle es, common in poetry from before 1200. This has been normalised to er, following the practice of normalizing all SkP VIII texts to the standard of 1250-1300. Þann (m. acc. sg.) must be emended to þeim (m. dat. sg.) to agree with mæki ‘sword’ (l. 3), while the verb should be 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic., not 3rd pers. pl., hence magnar, not magna. The majority of eds adopt the emendations preferred here, while Skald keeps þanns and emends magna to manga (cf. NN §796), claiming a meaning for the verb ‘maim, mutilate’, though that sense is unattested in Old Norse, where the meaning seems rather to be ‘trade, barter, haggle’ (AEW, CVC, Fritzner: manga); according to Edd. Min. 54 n. to 6/8, this suggested interpretation goes back to Möbius (1877, 325); it is interpreted as an unidentified p. n. in CPB I, 191.
