Anon (Vǫlsa) 11I
Wilhelm Heizmann (ed.) 2012, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Vǫlsa þáttr 11’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1102.
text and translation
Sá ek ei forðum — þó hefik farit víða —
flent reðr fyrri fara með bekkjum.
Þiggi Maurnir þetta blæti!
En þú, Aðalgrímr, tak enn við Vǫlsa!
Ek sá ei forðum flent reðr fara fyrri með bekkjum; þó hefik farit víða. Þiggi Maurnir þetta blæti! En þú, Aðalgrímr, tak enn við Vǫlsa!
‘ I have never before seen a penis with the foreskin pulled back pass first along the benches; yet I have travelled far and wide. May Maurnir receive this offering! But you, Aðalgrímr (‘Chief Grímr’), take Vǫlsi too!’
notes and context
Þormóðr examines Vǫlsi carefully, smiles and speaks a stanza, before passing it on to the third guest, who is called konungr ‘king’ in the prose text.
The attribution of the stanza to the distinguished skáld Þormóðr Kolbrúnarskáld (ÞormV) is an amusing fiction. It is printed in Skj AI, 285-6, BI, 264 as Þorm Lv 17 as well as in the Vǫlsa sequence in Skj AII, BII. — [3] flent reðr fyrri ‘penis with the foreskin pulled back ... first’: Ms. 292ˣ instead reads ‘flemt edur firne’, which may be related to ModIcel. flimt n. ‘a lampoon, libel’ and firni n. pl. ‘an abomination, shocking thing’ (cf. Düwel 1971, 166 referring to CVC). The force of fyrri in the Flat text, here translated ‘first’, is not clear.
readings
- [2] þó: ‘so’ 292ˣ
- [3] flent reðr fyrri: ‘flemt edur firne’ 292ˣ
- [5, 6] Þiggi Maurnir þetta: abbrev. as ‘.þ. m. þ.’ Flat
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.
-
GKS 1005 fol (Flat) — 122ra/54 - 122ra/55
imagesSá ek ei forðum
— þó hefik farit víða —
flent reðr fyrri
fara með bekkjum.
blæti!
En þú, Aðalgrímr,
tak enn við Vǫlsa!Sa ek æi fordum þo hefuíg farit vida flent ʀe | dr fyrri fara med beckium · þ · m · þ · blæti · en þu adal grimr tak en vid volsa ·
(DW)
-
AM 292 4°x (292x) — 55r/28 - 55r/30
Sá ek ei forðum
images
— †so† hefik farit víða —
†flemt edur firne†
fara með bekkjum.
Þiggi Maurnir
þetta blæti!
En þú, Aðalgrímr,
tak enn við Vǫlsa!
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