Note to KrákÁsl Lv 4^VIII (Ragn 6)

[All]: According to de Vries (1928a, 277, 279, 285), the motif of temporary abstention from intercourse immediately after marriage derives from a body of tradition variously reflected in what is told of the Frankish king Childeric I in Book III, ch. 12, of the anonymous C7th compilation known as the Chronicle of Fredegarius (Krusch 1888b, 1-9, 97), in Saxo’s account of King Gormr III of Denmark (Saxo 2015, I, ix. 11. 2-4, pp. 672-7), and in what is told of Sigurðr and Brynhildr in Vǫls ch. 29 (Olsen 1906-8, 68) and in Sigsk 4/1-4. De Vries (ARG I, 187) further maintains that the idea of three nights of continence just after marriage (known as the ‘nights of Tobias’ in the Middle Ages because of the reference to it in the apocryphal book of Tobias, Tobit VI. 18) has its origin in the fear in which, among some peoples, carnal relations between the sexes are held. Cf. also KormǪ Lv 41/1-4^V (Korm 60), where the prose context (ÍF 8, 272-3) and the preceding stanza (KormǪ Lv 40/4^V (Korm 59)) indicate that the lovers were sleeping for five nights tveim megin bríkar ‘on either side of a screen’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. ÍF 8 = Vatnsdœla saga. Ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson. 1939.
3. ARG = Vries, Jan de. 1956-7. Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte. 2 vols. 2nd edn. Berlin: de Gruyter.
4. Olsen, Magnus, ed. 1906-8. Vǫlsunga saga ok Ragnars saga loðbrókar. SUGNL 36. Copenhagen: Møller.
5. Vǫls = Vǫlsunga saga.
6. Vries, Jan de. 1928a. ‘Die westnordische Tradition der Sage von Ragnar Lodbrók’. ZDP 53, 257-302.
7. Saxo 2015 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2015. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes. Trans. Peter Fisher. Oxford Medieval Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
8. Krusch, Bruno. 1888b. Chronicarum quae dicuntur Fredegarii Scholastici libri IV. cum Continuationibus. In Krusch 1888a, 1-193.
9. Internal references
10. Not published: do not cite (Run^VI)
11. Not published: do not cite ()
12. Edith Marold (ed.) 2022, ‘Kormáks saga 59 (Kormákr Ǫgmundarson, Lausavísur 40)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1128.
13. Edith Marold (ed.) 2022, ‘Kormáks saga 60 (Kormákr Ǫgmundarson, Lausavísur 41)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1130.