Note to Án Lv 1^VIII (Án 1)

[5] at fallaz í fang ‘to grapple with each other’: These words can be translated lit. as ‘to let oneself fall into a [wrestling] grip’. They refer to grappling with one’s opponent in the wrestling match, not, as Kock thinks (NN §1483), to Björn’s fall (death) during the wrestling match. The construction verða at + inf. means ‘must, be forced, obliged to (do sth.)’. Since there is no explicit subject in this sentence it is unclear whether the pret. indic. verb varð is the 1st pers. sg. or the 3rd pers. sg. In the first case the speaker, Án, would be the putative subject. In the second case the putative subject could be ‘he’ (= Bjǫrn), and this is the interpretation favoured by Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) and Kock (Skald; NN §1483). The 3rd pers. sg. could however also be understood as a general statement about the situation, from the perspective of Án: ‘one was obliged to let oneself fall into a grip’ or ‘it was necessary to let oneself fall into a grip’. If varð at is understood in this latter, non-personal sense, the phrase fallaz í fang could also be interpreted in a reciprocal sense (m. v.): ‘fall into each other’s grip’, i.e. ‘grapple, wrestle with each other’: thus ‘it was necessary to grapple with each other’.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.