Note to KrákÁsl Lv 3^VIII (Ragn 5)

[1-4]: In the saga prose (Ragn 1906-8, 127), Kráka-Áslaug says, immediately after reciting this stanza, that she will not accept the shift while still living on the farm, where she wishes to stay for the moment. It is to be assumed that she does accept it at some later stage, however, since, in the prose preceding Ragn 25 (Ragn 1906-8, 156), she expresses the wish to repay Ragnarr for giving it to her. See Ragn 25 below, Note to [All]. Here the saga is adapting a version of the Kráka story, reflected in the Faroese ballad-sequence known as Ragnars kvæði (see Djurhuus and Matras 1951-63, 215-43), in which the hero Ragnar’s first wife Tóra, i.e. Þóra, had prophesied before dying that her clothes would be a perfect fit for his next wife, who would thus be revealed as of noble birth and specifically as Ásla Sjúrðardóttir, i.e. Áslaug, daughter of Sigurðr Fáfnisbani. In the X and Y versions of the saga, reflected respectively in 147 and 1824b, the revelation of Kráka-Áslaug’s true identity and parentage is postponed until after Ragnarr, believing her to be a mere farmer’s daughter, secretly seeks the hand of the daughter of King Eysteinn of Sweden, but abandons this plan after the fulfilment of Kráka-Áslaug’s prophecy that she and Ragnarr will have a son with a snake-like mark in his eye, a sign of his descent from Sigurðr Fáfnisbani. See further Ragn 8-10 below. The saga is inconsistent, in the Y-version at least, in reporting Kráka-Áslaug’s rejection of the shift and later, after no further mention of it, presenting her as having received it from Ragnarr as a gift.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Ragn 1906-8 = Olsen 1906-8, 111-222.
3. Internal references
4. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 25 (Kráka/Áslaug Sigurðardóttir, Lausavísur 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 675.
5. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 38 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Ragnars saga loðbrókar 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 699.