Gusi Lv 1^VIII (Ket 3 [b])

Gusa kalla mik         göfgir Finnar;
em ek oddviti         allrar þjóðar.

Göfgir Finnar kalla mik Gusa; ek em {oddviti allrar þjóðar}.

Noble Saami call me Gusi; I am {the spearhead of the whole people} [RULER].

Mss: 343a(55v) (Ket); 471(52r)

Readings: [3] em: er 471

Editions: Skj AII, 279, Skj BII, 301, Skald II, 159, FF §16; FSN 2, 119, FSGJ 2, 160, Anderson 1990, 48, 91, 433; Edd. Min. 77.

Context: See Context of Ket 3a.

Notes: [1] Gusa (acc.) ‘Gusi’: In the mss of Ket and elsewhere this name appears both as a weakly declined noun (as in this stanza, the corresponding nom. being Gusi) and as a noun declined according to the ja-declension (nom. Gusir). Even within one ms. both forms of the name may be used; thus the strong acc. form Gusi appears in Ket 11 in 343a, and in 471 the strong form is used in the prose text (and in Ket 11), whilst the weak form Gusa appears in the present stanza (cf. Anderson 1990, 90-2). In Þul Jǫtna II 2/6^III the name Gusir is listed as a giant-heiti, and Finnur Jónsson considers this to be a reference to the protagonist known from Ket and other texts (LP: Gusi, Gusir). De Vries (AEW: gusi and gustr) regards Gusi/Gusir as etymologically related to such words as gjósa ‘gush, stream out’ and gustr ‘gust of wind’. The Cuso, Finnorum Byarmorumque princeps ‘Cuso, chief of the Saami and Bjarmi’ mentioned by Saxo is considered to be identical with Gusi/Gusir (see Edd. Min. lxxii; Saxo 2015, I, iii. 2. 8, pp. 150-1). — [3] oddviti ‘the spearhead’: This cpd means literally ‘the one who directs (viti) the point (oddr)’ and refers to the position of a leader in the forefront of an army or troop of warriors (LP: oddviti). It is used as a poetic designation for a leader in skaldic poetry from the C10th onwards. Meissner 358-9 regards oddviti as a kenning for a military leader or ruler used as the base-word of other kennings for ‘military leader’ or ‘ruler’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
5. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
6. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
7. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
8. 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.
9. Anderson, Sarah M. 1990. ‘The Textual Transmission of Two Fornaldarsögur: Ketils saga høings and Gríms saga loðinkinna’. Ph.D. thesis. Cornell University…
10. Saxo 2015 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2015. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes. Trans. Peter Fisher. Oxford Medieval Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
11. Internal references
12. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ketils saga hœngs’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 548. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=71> (accessed 4 May 2024)
13. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 3 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 553.
14. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 11 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 6)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 561.