Svart Skauf 4^VIII

Mælti gortanni         við grenlægju:
‘Hvað skulum vinna         vier til þarfa?
Við erum orðin         veiklunduð mjög
hryggsnauð harla         en halar rotnaðir.’

Gortanni mælti við {grenlægju}: ‘Hvað skulum vier vinna til þarfa? Við erum orðin mjög veiklunduð, harla hryggsnauð en halar rotnaðir.’

Filth-tooth spoke to {the lair-lier} [VIXEN]: ‘What should we do for our sustenance? We have become very weak-minded, exceedingly bare on our backs, and our tails have shed their hair.’

Mss: 603(81), Rask87ˣ(112r)

Readings: [1] gortanni: ‘gor‑ganti’ corrected in the lower margin from ‘goranti’ in another hand Rask87ˣ    [2] ‑lægju: so Rask87ˣ, ‘‑lægu’ 603    [4] vier: við Rask87ˣ;    þarfa: þarfar Rask87ˣ    [6] ‑lunduð: so Rask87ˣ, ‘‑lendit’ or ‘‑lendut’ 603    [7] hryggsnauð: ‘hrigg, snaud’ Rask87ˣ    [8] en: og Rask87ˣ;    halar: halir 603, hala Rask87ˣ

Editions: Kölbing 1876, 242, Jón Þorkelsson 1888, 229, CPB II, 383, Jón Þorkelsson 1922-7, 154, Páll Eggert Ólason 1947, 58.

Notes: [2] grenlægju ‘the lair-lier [VIXEN]’: So Rask87ˣ. The 603 variant, ‘grenlægu’ (so also Kölbing 1876), is incorrect. See grenlægja ‘lair-lier’ in st. 5/1 and ANG §409. For a comparable kenning for ‘fox’, see grenbúi ‘lair-dweller’ in GunnLeif Merl II 28/9. — [4] til þarfa ‘for our sustenance’: Lit. ‘for our sustenances, needs’. The Rask87ˣ variant of this line, við til þarfar lit. ‘we two for sustenance’ is also possible. — [5-8]: For similar complaints of old age in European beast fables, see Amory (1973, 9-10). — [6] veiklunduð (n. nom. pl.) ‘weak-minded’: So Rask87ˣ and Jón Þorkelsson (1888). Kölbing (1876) retains the 603 variant (rendered in the ms. as ‘veyklēd^t’) but it is not clear how he interprets the word. CPB emends to veyk-lenduð (n. nom. pl.; hap. leg.), which Guðbrandur Vigfússon (CPB II, 610) explains as ‘weak-loined’ (so also Jón Þorkelsson 1922-7 and Páll Eggert Ólason 1947). — [7] hryggsnauð ‘bare on our backs’: Lit. ‘back-bare’. CPB II, 610 suggests ‘shrunk in the back, lean’, but the subsequent reference to hair loss (l. 8) seems to corroborate thin-haired, mangy backs and not ‘lean’. — [8] halar ‘tails’: The emendation is necessary for grammatical reasons (m. nom. pl.) and follows the earlier eds (emendation first suggested by Kölbing 1876).

References

1. Bibliography
2. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
3. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
4. Jón Þorkelsson [J. Thorkelsson]. 1888. Om digtningen på Island i det 15. og 16. århundrede. Copenhagen: Høst & søns forlag.
5. Kölbing, Eugen. 1876. Beiträge zur vergleichenden Geschichte der romantischen Poesie und Prosa des Mittelalters unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der englishen und nordischen litteratur. Breslau: Koebner.
6. Amory, Frederic. 1973. ‘Skaufalabálkur, the fornaldarsögur, and the European Beast Epic.’ In Second International Saga Conference, Reykjavík 1973. Papers distributed to participants. 12 pp.
7. Páll Eggert Ólason, ed. 1947. Kvæðasafn 1300-1600. Vol. 2 of Einar Ólafur Sveinsson et al., eds. Íslands þúsund ár. 4 vols. Reykjavík: Helgafell.
8. Internal references
9. Russell Poole (ed.) 2017, ‘Breta saga 28 (Gunnlaugr Leifsson, Merlínusspá II 28)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 160.