Cite as: Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 14 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 9)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 564.

Ketill has taken an oath that he will not marry off Hrafnhildr, his daughter by the wife his father chooses for him (Ket ch. 4), against her will (FSGJ 2, 165-8). Áli, champion of the Uppdalir (Uppdalakappi), challenges Ketill to single combat after Hrafnhildr has rejected him as a suitor. Ketill’s followers, the vikings Hjálmr and Stafnglámr, offer to fight Áli in Ketill’s stead, but he asks them to assist him by protecting him with a shield. This they fail to do, with the result that Áli wounds Ketill in the face. Ketill addresses the two vikings in Ket 14 and alludes to the circumstances and course of the battle in Ket 15 before proceeding to kill Áli. The episode has a longer parallel at the end of the saga (Ket ch. 5; see the Introduction to sts 28-33).

Hjálmr ok Stafnglámr, hlífið ykkr báðir; gefið rúm gömlum at ganga framar hóti. Hjálmr ok Stafnglámr, hlífið ykkr báðir; gefið rúm gömlum at ganga framar hóti. Hjálmr ok Stafnglámr, hlífið báðir ykkr; gefið gömlum rúm at ganga hóti framar.

text prose order   Hjálmr and Stafnglámr, both of you protect yourselves; give the old one room to go forward a bit.

context: This stanza is introduced with the words: Þá kvað Ketill vísu ‘then Ketill spoke a stanza’. The following stanza runs on from this one without a break and with no prose introduction.

notes: It is possible to consider this stanza and the following one as parts of the same poetic utterance. Anderson (1990, 437-8) treats them as one stanza, but other eds separate the first two long-lines from the others. Both stanzas are composed in a mixture of fornyrðislag and málaháttr.

texts: ‹Ket 14›

editions: Skj Anonyme digte og vers [XIII]: E. 8. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Ketill hœngs saga IV 1 (AII, 282; BII, 303); Skald II, 160; FSN 2, 126, FSGJ 2, 168, Anderson 1990, 52, 97, 437; Edd. Min. 95.

sources

AM 343 a 4° (343a)	56v, 5 - 56v, 6	(Ket)
AM 471 4° (471)	53v - 53v	(Ket)
AM 173 folx (173x)	7v, 15 - 7v, 18	(Ket)
AM 340 4°x (340x)	15, 12 - 15, 14	(GrL)
AM 342 4°x (342x)	71v, 16 - 71v, 17	(Ket)
AM 552 q 4°x (552qx)	6r, 24 - 6r, 26	(Ket)
AM 109 a II 8°x (109a IIx)	159r, 22 - 159r, 24	(Ket)