Note to Bjǫrn Lv 2VIII (Frið 24)
[All]: This stanza and the preceding prose are poorly recorded in the A recension mss, and the stanza itself is not present in either 568ˣ or 27ˣ. The B mss do not have ll. 5-8. Although the prose of the B recension mss attributes it to Friðþjófr’s foster-brother Bjǫrn, the attribution in 510 (Frið 1893, 50) is simply hann kvað vísu ‘he spoke a stanza’, and the most natural interpretation of this prose context would be that Friðþjófr spoke this stanza. However, ll. 5-8 of the stanza itself indicate that the speaker was someone other than Friðþjófr. The fact that these lines are missing in the B mss may indicate some confusion in the ms. transmission as to the identity of the speaker of the stanza. At all events, this stanza is badly mangled in all mss, and the present text represents the best that can be made of the A version, which involves two minor emendations and a hypothetical interpretation of the hap. leg. kynför (l. 5). The metre is a mixture of fornyrðislag and málaháttr.