Án Lv 4VIII (Án 4)
Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Áns saga bogsveigis 4 (Án bogsveigir, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 11.
text and translation
Þat muntu finna, er þú flór mokar,
at þú eigi ert Án bogsveigir.
Þú ert brauðsveigir heldr en bogsveigir
ostasveigir en eigi * álmsveigir.
Muntu finna þat, er þú mokar flór, at þú ert eigi Án bogsveigir. Þú ert brauðsveigir, heldr en bogsveigir, ostasveigir, en eigi * álmsveigir.
‘You will find that out, when you muck out the floor, that you are not Án bogsveigir (‘Bow-bender’). You are a bread-bender rather than bow-bender, a cheese-bender, but not a bow-bender.’
notes and context
Án speaks this stanza when he confronts King Ingjaldr’s man Ketill, who is making advances to a young girl by pretending to be Án. Án turns up just at the right moment and seizes Ketill by the forelock. Before he mishandles Ketill by pulling out his hair, tarring him, putting out one of his eyes and castrating him, Án speaks this stanza, in which he makes it clear that Ketill is only fit to perform the most menial farmyard or kitchen tasks, not to be a warrior like Án.
This stanza is in the metre fornyrðislag. Both the stanza itself and the surrounding prose passage contain several examples of word-play (FSGJ 2, 382-4; Hughes 1972, 222 nn. 37-8). — The demeaning characterisation of Ketill as a brauðsveigir ‘bread-bender’ (i.e. ‘kneader of bread’) and an ostasveigir ‘cheese-bender’ has many parallels in Old Norse literature, e.g. in a stanza from LaufE (Anon (LaufE) 5III), in which a man-servant is called an ostmýgir ‘oppressor of cheese’ and a saupstríðir ‘tormentor of buttermilk’, while the maid-servant for whom he pines is called brauðgýgr ‘ogress of bread’ (i.e. ‘woman who consumes bread’) and saurug flot-Gríðr ‘the filthy Gríðr <giantess> of fat’ (i.e. a woman who consumes the fat that swims on the surface of the soup); cf. Edd. Min. lxxxiv and LP: flotgríðr). Heusler and Ranisch also cite a parallel from Saxo (Saxo 2015, I, vi, 9. 14, pp. 436-7). Cf. the hostile exchange between Kormákr and Narfi in Korm ch. 4, in the course of which Kormákr refers to his opponent as Áli orfa ‘Áli <sea-king> of the scythe-handle’ (KormǪ Lv 12/1V (Korm 13), ÍF 8, 216).
readings
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) — 84r/17 - 84r/18
Þat muntu finna,
images
er þú flór mokar,
at þú eigi ert
Án bogsveigir.
Þú ert brauðsveigir
heldr en bogsveigir
ostasveigir
†en eigi b alm sueigir† . -
AM 109 a I 8°x (109a Ix) — 9r/6 - 9r/10
Þat muntu finna,
images
er þú flór mokar,
at þú eigi ert
Án bogsveigir.
Þú ert brauðsveigir
heldr en bogsveigir
ostasveigir
en ek heiti álmsveigir . -
AM 173 folx (173x) — 72r/14 - 72r/20
imagesÞor muntu finna | er þu flor mokar | at þu eigi ert | An bogsveigir | þu ert brꜹðsveigir | enn ei bogsveigir | þu ert ostasveigir | helldr enn almsveigir |
(VEÞ)
-
AM 395 folx (395 folx) — 191r/27 - 191r/34
imagesÞad muntu finna | er þu flör mokar | at þu eigi ert | An Bogsveigir | ostasveigir | enn ei bogsveigir | braudsveigir | heldr en bogsveigir ||
(VEÞ)
-
AM 340 4°x (340x) — 173/23 - 174/2
imagesþar muntu finna , er þu fl | ör mokar , ad þu eige ertt An bogsueiger , þu ,, || þu ert Braudsueiger enn eý Bog sueiger . þu ert osta | sueiger , helldur enn Almsueiger.
(VEÞ)
-
AM 560 c 4°x (560cx) — 75v/14 - 75v/17
imagesÞad muntu finna | er þu flör mokar , ad þu eyge ert An Bogsueigir , þu ert | braudsueigir enn eche bogsueigir , Ostasueigir enn ey | bog sueigir ,
(VEÞ)
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