Note to Arn Magndr 18^II

[5, 8] fylldi annan tøg ‘lived out his second decade’: Lit. ‘completed (his) second ten’. (a) The reading adopted here, as also in Skj B, is based on annan, which is the lectio difficilior since unlike the variant annarr it does not go with the immediately preceding hverr ‘who, which’. It is supported by the words following the st. in Flat and Fsk (see Context above), which would seem to reflect a traditional explanation that the st. referred to Magnús reaching his twentieth year, although the text as it stands in Flat and Fsk cannot yield that meaning since it has the variant annarr rather than annan. The ‘twenty’ could be battles, but this is not specified, and it seems more likely that the idiom is akin to fylla lífsdaga sína ‘complete the days of one’s life’. Hence the sense is that no other warrior so young had been jafnþarfr blum hrafni ‘equally generous to the dark raven’, i.e. had served the raven so well by making carrion of so many of his foes. The construction is comparable to that in st. 19. (b) The reading annarr has the stronger ms. authority, and is favoured by Kock in Skald. If it were adopted, the construction would be minnisk ǫld, hverr annarr herskyldir, jafnþarfr blum hrafni, fylldi tøg ‘let men recall which other troop-commander has, equally generous to the dark raven, completed ten’. The ‘ten’ would presumably be ten battles, though nothing in the context indicates this, and it is difficult to see why the concordant hverr annarr would have been corrupted to hverr annan.

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. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Internal references
5. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Flateyjarbók’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=44> (accessed 26 April 2024)
6. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Fagrskinna’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=56> (accessed 26 April 2024)