Án Lv 2^VIII (Án 2)

Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Áns saga bogsveigis 2 (Án bogsveigir, Lausavísur 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 7.

introduction

Án speaks this stanza during a journey undertaken by King Ingjaldr to meet with his half-brothers, ostensibly in order to reach an agreement with them about sharing the kingdom inherited from their father (FSGJ 2, 377-9). Án and his brother Þórir accompany the king and his men, although Án suspects that the king has evil designs on his half-brothers. Þórir had previously served Ingjaldr’s brother, King Óláfr, and had received from him a fine sword called Þegn ‘Freeman’, as a consequence of which he himself was given the nickname þegn (FSGJ 2, 368-9).

text and translation

notes and context

The king has just ordered his men to set up a ‘harbour mark’ (hafnarmerki) at the spot where the expedition is resting. Since Án speaks this stanza immediately thereafter the word selja ‘sallow, willow-tree’ appears to refer to the harbour-mark, whose good location, healthy condition and usefulness are contrasted with the longing for a þegn expressed by the speaker (cf. Edd. Min. lxxxvii; Läffler 1912, 7-9; Liestøl 1945, 82).

The stanza appears to express a conventional contrast familiar from love poetry, in which a speaker contrasts a natural phenomenon with his or her inner longing; cf. Skí 4 and the C13th Middle English song ‘Fowles in þe friþe’ ‘Birds in the wood’. Several scholars have considered the stanza may originally have been a love-poem spoken by a woman (Edd. Min. lxxxvii-viii; Läffler 1912, 7, 13, 61; Liestøl 1945, 85-92; Ólafur Halldórsson 1973, 80). However, this is not how it is interpreted in Án because there the stanza is spoken by a man, Án himself, about his longing for a þegn. In the context of the saga the word þegn ‘freeman, man’ could have several meanings: it might refer to the sword of that name owned by Án’s brother Þórir, but þegn is also a very common term for ‘man’ in poetry (cf. LP: þegn), and Án claims to be using the word to refer to his brother Þórir by his nickname, which is also þegn. In Án a discussion about the meaning of the stanza follows and highlights its homoerotic implications and the ambiguities of the word þegn within the saga (FSGJ 2, 378-9; cf. Hughes 1976, 199 n.; Läffler 1912, 8): Þórir mælti: ‘Eigi skaltu þess þurfa, því at ek mun gefa þér sverðit Þegn.’ Án segir: ‘Ekki þrey ek at þeim þegni.’ Ketill sagði þar: ‘Ek ætla, at þú þreyir at karlmanni nokkorum, ok viltu serða hann,’ ok gerðu þeir at þessu gys mikit ok dáraskap. ‘Eigi er svá,’ sagði Án, ‘ekki þrey ek at þeim þegni, ek þrey at Þóri þegn, bróður mínum, því at hann er svá grunnhygginn, at hann trúir konungi þessum, en ek veit, at hann mun honum at bana verða’ ‘Þórir spoke: “You shall not have need of that [i.e. to long for þegn], for I will give you the sword Þegn.” Án says: “I do not long for that þegn.” Then Ketill [one of the king’s retainers] said: “I think that you are yearning for some man, and you want to fuck him,” and they made much mockery and sport of this. “That is not so,” said Án, “I do not yearn for such a man, I suffer for my brother Þórir the follower [þegn] of the king, because he is so shallow-minded that he trusts this king, but I know that he [the king] will become his killer”’. Án’s foreboding proves true, for the king eventually kills Þórir with the latter’s own sword Þegn (FSGJ 2, 394). — In 340ˣ the stanza is very different and has clearly been influenced by the ríma tradition; for the text, see Edd. Min. 104 and notes there. — [1-3]: In Áns rímur bogsveigis III 6/1-2 there are two lines which correspond in content to this passage (Ólafur Halldórsson 1973, 110): Vel þier selia vidi nær | vaxen laufe goda ‘It is well for you, willow-tree near the sea, grown with good foliage’. In the four-line ríma stanza in ferskeytt metre the two lines of a couplet share alliteration, whilst the two odd and the two even lines share end rhyme (abab; cf. Vésteinn Ólason 1982, 57). Since Án 2/3 is much shorter than the other lines and contains no two words that alliterate with one another, several eds emend l. 3 on the basis of the line vaxen laufe goda in the ríma (cf. Note to l. 3 below). Heusler and Ranisch and Läffler also emend the word sjó ‘sea’ to víði and thus implicitly assume that ll. 1-2 and 3-4 share alliteration on <v>, though their interpretations of víði differ. Heusler and Ranisch (Edd. Min.) treat víði as from víðir, a poetic word for ‘sea’, while Läffler (1912, 2-3, 5) understands it as the dat. sg. of víðir ‘willow’ (cf. ModGer. Weide and ModEngl. withy). Läffler argues that the scribe of 343a misunderstood víði ‘willow’ in his exemplar as the homonym víði ‘sea’ and substituted the more usual word sjó. The reconstructed line would thus read: Vel þér selja! | Stendr þú víði nær ‘It is well for you, [female] willow-tree (selja)! You stand near a [male] willow-tree (víðir)’ and would thus provide a heightened contrast between the proximity of the female and male willow trees on the one hand and the (presumed) lonely woman speaker, who longs for the man she loves, on the other (Läffler 1912, 13, 24-61). Such a reconstruction is purely hypothetical, because, as Ólafur Halldórsson (1973, 74-5, 79-80) points out, the ríma stanza cannot provide any evidence about whether the ríma poet knew the stanza from the saga in a different form from the one we know from 343a: the ríma poet doubtless changed the word sjó ‘sea’ to víði ‘sea’ to provide alliteration between ll. 1 and 2 of his stanza in conformity with the ríma metre. The ríma thus provides no adequate basis for emendation of the stanza from the saga (cf. also Note to st. 2/3 below).

readings

• [1] selja: ‘seirna’ 109a Iˣ
• [2] stendr þú sjó nær: víst svá stendr þó svá næri 109a Iˣ
• [3] laufguð harla vel: laufi vaxið 109a Iˣ
• [4] Maðr: margt 109a Iˣ
• [4] af þér: á þik 109a Iˣ
• [5] ‑döggvar: dögginn 109a Iˣ
• [6] þrey: þreyi 109a Iˣ

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.

• AM 343 a 4° (343a) — 83r/44 - 83r/45

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• AM 109 a I 8°x (109a Ix) — 6v/3 - 6v/5

  Vel þér, †seirna†;
  víst svá stendr þó svá næri
  laufi vaxið .
  margt skekkr á þik
  morgindögginn,
  en ek at þegni þreyi
  nátt sem dag.

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• AM 173 folx (173x) — 70r/18 - 70r/21

  Margt drifr a mic morgun regn | mun sva mælt i rymu | enn ec verþ af þyðum þegn | þreyia natt sem grimu | (vel þer selia, | stendr þu sio nær | laufgud harla vel | ....... | maþr skekr af þer | morgindauggvar | enn ec at þegni | þrey natt sem dag. |)

  (VEÞ)

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• AM 395 folx (395 folx) — 188r/22 - 188r/28

  Vel þer selia | stendr siö nęr | laufgud harla vel | mar scekr af þer | morgun doggvar | enn ec at þegni | þreigi nätt sem dag |

  (VEÞ)

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• AM 340 4°x (340x) — 169/2 - 169/4

  Margt drýfur ä mig | Morgun regn mun so mællt J Rýmu , enn eg verd ,, | aff þýdum þegn , þreýa Nätt sem grýmu.

  (VEÞ)

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• AM 560 c 4°x (560cx) — 73r/12 - 73r/14

  Vel þeir Selia · Stendur þu | Siör nær , Laufgud harla Vel, mar Skiekur af þier | Morgun Dóggvar , Enn eg ad þegne þreyge nätt sem Dag |

  (VEÞ)

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