Note to Þorm Lv 24^I

[All]: An alternate version of this vísa appears in Hb, and in the list of eds above, those from Hb 1892-6 to ÍS are based on the Hb version. Papp4ˣ also (it appears not to have been recognized) has a text of the stanza, which in one place gives a better reading than Hb and thus supports an emendation to Hb suggested by earlier eds. Hb, however, remains all in all the better text, and so it is the basis for the following edn: [[ALT]] Readings: [1] rauðum: rjóðum papp4ˣ [3] fast: so papp4ˣ, farst Hb [4] -stígi: -stíga papp4ˣ [5] Þat: Þó papp4ˣ; mæra: meira papp4ˣ [7] Draupnis: ‘drepnis’ papp4ˣ [8] svíða: om. papp4ˣ. Prose order: Emka rauðr, né ræðr grǫnn kona rauðum manni; it forna járn stendr fast benja fenstígi mér. Þat veldr mér nú, in mæra tróða marglóðar Draupnis: spor dýrra vápna hríðar Dags svíða. Translation: ‘I am not red, nor does the slender woman give orders to a ruddy man; the ancient iron [arrow] sticks fast in my path of the fen of wounds [(lit. fen-path of wounds) BLOOD > HEART]; this is the cause to me now, glorious staff of the ocean-ember of Draupnir <ring> [GOLD > WOMAN]: the tracks of valued weapons of the blizzard of Dagr <legendary king> [BATTLE > WOUNDS] are painful.’ Notes: This alternate version of the stanza seems to be a copyist’s attempt to improve a corrupt stanza, and the translation offered here is not to be regarded as asserting that the stanza makes sense. Draupnis (l. 7), the name of a mythical gold ring from which further rings drip (cf. Þorm Lv 2/2^V (Fbr 9)), adds nothing to the kenning to which it is attached, since marglóðar ‘ocean-ember’ by itself means ‘gold’, and similarly hríðar Dags ‘of the blizzard of Dagr’ = ‘of battle’ is superfluous.

References

1. Bibliography
2. 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.
3. ÍS = Bragi Halldórsson et al., eds. 1987. Íslendinga sögur og þættir. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Svart á hvítu.
4. Internal references
5. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2022, ‘Fóstbrœðra saga 9 (Þormóðr Kolbrúnarskáld, Lausavísur 2)’ 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. 497.