Note to Keth Lv 12VIII (Ket 19)
[All]: Lines 1-2 are constant, but ll. 3-8 vary considerably in the mss. The text above follows 343a (and 340ˣ), except that they both have the reading ‘drasinn’ rather than dæsinn in l. 7; in the other mss ll. 3-4 are absent, and the remaining two lines read: hirði (or heyrði) ek um eigi | hvat er flögð (or tröll) mæla; | nauðir mik hvöttu; | nauðsyn er at bjarga ‘I don’t care about (or did not hear) whatever ogresses (or trolls) say; necessities incited me, there is need of help’ (cf. Ket 20/3-4 below). Ms. 471 presents the stanza in nearly the same form as 343a and 340ˣ, but the second long-line reads: um farir várar, | hvat er flögð mæla ‘about our journeys, whatever ogresses say’. Both Edd. Min. and Skald prefer 471’s text here, while Skj B collapses 343a’s ll. 3-4 into one line, of flestar allar farar ‘regarding most all [my] journeys’.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
- Internal references
- Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 20 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 13)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 570.