Note to ÍvRagn Lv 1VIII (Ragn 22)
[7-8] þó á* ek hönd til hefnda, at ek nýta hváriga ‘I’ll have a hand in the pursuit of vengeance, even though I use neither of them’: There seems no need to follow the eds cited above with reference to man/mun (as opposed to munuð) in l. 5 in adopting here the Hb reading gat ek ‘I (have) obtained’; the emended 1824b reading á* ek ‘I(’ll) have’, adopted by Örnólfur Thorsson (Ragn 1985), gives better sense. On the other hand the Hb reading hefnda, retained by all previous eds apart from Rafn (FSN) seems preferable to 1824b’s ‘hręfa’ (= hræva, gen. pl. of hræ n. ‘corpse’ (?)). Whether the reading á* ek (1824b) or gat ek (Hb) is adopted, a metaphorical interpretation of hönd ‘hand’ seems required; Finnur Jónsson (Hb 1892-6, 462), followed here by Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 210), translates gat ek hönd til hefnda as: jeg har fået en hånd til hævn (჻ ånd og kløgt) ‘I have obtained a hand for purposes of vengeance (i.e. spirit and ingenuity)’.
References
- Bibliography
- FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
- Hb 1892-6 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1892-6. Hauksbók udgiven efter de Arnamagnæanske håndskrifter no. 371, 544 og 675, 4° samt forskellige papirshåndskrifter. Copenhagen: Det kongelige nordiske oldskrift-selskab.
- Ragn 1906-8 = Olsen 1906-8, 111-222.
- Ragn 1985 = Örnólfur Thorsson 1985, 101-53.