Note to KrákÁsl Lv 10^VIII (Ragn 31)

[7-8]: The ms. reading illa deyr ‘dies badly’ is problematic in the context, and ‘iorfurrs’ appears to be an error. (a) The present edn follows Kock (NN §1463) and Örnólfur Thorsson (Ragn 1985) in emending to Olli dýrr ‘caused; noble’ and to jöfurs ‘king’s’, taking dýrr ‘noble’ as qualifying allvaldr ‘sovereign’. (b) Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 215-16) and Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) also print Olli dýrr but emend ‘iorfurrs’ to jöfurr, taking olli jöfurr falli as a separate syntactic unit meaning ‘the king (jöfurr; Hvítserkr’s enemy in the east) caused (his, i.e. Hvítserkr’s) death’, and the remaining words as another separate sentence: allvaldr deyr við orðstír ‘the sovereign (i.e. Hvítserkr) dies with renown’. In this they appear to be followed by Eskeland (Ragn 1944), Guðni Jónsson (FSGJ) and Ebel (Ragn 2003). However, Kock (NN §1463) objects that pres. tense deyr ‘dies’ is at variance with the pret. lét(u) ‘allowed’; that the intricate syntax is inconsistent with the simple style of the Ragn stanzas; and that allvaldr ‘sovereign’ refers to Hvítserkr’s enemy in the east and jöfurs falli ‘a king’s death’ to Hvítserkr’s death. The allvaldr ‘sovereign’ who caused Hvítserkr’s death is possibly Daxon, King of the Hellespont, who according to Saxo (Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 29, pp. 654-5) attacked and defeated Withsercus. The attack was a treacherous one, however, which hardly qualifies Daxon for the epithet dýrr ‘noble’, and the possibility remains that the allvaldr is Hvítserkr himself, since Hvítserkr/Withsercus in effect causes his own death by choosing the manner of it (see Notes to Ragn 30, above). (c) Valdimar Ásmundarson (Ragn 1891) emends to illan and to jöfurs, hence allvaldr deyr við illan orðstír ‘the sovereign dies with ill renown’, but leaving jöfurs falli hardly accounted for.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
5. Ragn 1906-8 = Olsen 1906-8, 111-222.
6. Ragn 1944 = Eskeland, Severin, ed. and trans. 1944. Soga om Ragnar Lodbrok med Kråka-kvædet. Norrøne bokverk 16. 2nd ed. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget. [1st ed. 1914].
7. Ragn 1985 = Örnólfur Thorsson 1985, 101-53.
8. Ragn 1891 = 2nd edn (pp. 175-224) of Ragn as ed. in Valdimar Ásmundarson 1885-9, I.
9. 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.
10. Ragn 2003 = Ebel, Uwe, ed. 2003. Ragnars saga loðbrókar. Texte des skandinavischen Mittelalters 4. Vol. II of Ebel 1997-2003.
11. Internal references
12. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ragnars saga loðbrókar’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 616. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=81> (accessed 26 April 2024)
13. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 30 (Kráka/Áslaug Sigurðardóttir, Lausavísur 9)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 684.