Kálf Kátr 39^VII

Ýtir, frá eg, að efli blóta
Iðja raddar þann veg kvaddi:
‘reyna skal eg nú ræsi að þjóna
röðla skríns og fielagar mínir.
Dæmi munu menn hvergi í heimi
heyra slík fyr sínum eyrum,
Draupnis hlynr, er drotning þína,
döggvar, bautt með sverði að höggva.’

Eg frá, að {ýtir {raddar Iðja}} kvaddi {efli blóta} þann veg: ‘eg skal nú reyna að þjóna {ræsi {skríns röðla}} og fielagar mínir. Hvergi í heimi munu menn heyra slík dæmi fyr sínum eyrum, er, {hlynr {Draupnis döggvar}}, bautt drotning þína að höggva með sverði’.

I heard that {the the launcher {of the speech of Iði <giant>}} [GOLD > GENEROUS MAN] spoke to {the promoter of sacrifices} [HEATHEN MAN] in this way: ‘I shall now try to serve {the king {of the shrine of heavenly bodies}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = God] and my comrades [as well]. Nowhere in the world will men hear such deeds before their ears, that [you], {maple {of Draupnir’s <ring> dew}} [GOLD > MAN], requested your queen to be slain with a sword’.

Mss: 713(132), 399a-bˣ(21), 920ˣ(217v)

Readings: [2] Iðja: ‘jdiv’ all

Editions: Skj AII, 524, Skj BII, 579, Skald II, 319, Kahle 1898, 75, 108, Sperber 1911, 52, 82.

Notes: [All]: The subject of the kenning in ll. 1-2 and the speaker of ll. 3-8 is the riddari (26/1) Porphyry (last mentioned in sts 26-8), who, after Maxentius has had his wife put to death, attempts to persuade him to convert to Christianity. This fails and he and his followers are martyred too. In the prose text the substance of sts 39-41 are the subjects of long speeches between Maxentius and Porphyry (Unger 1877, I, 418-19; Wolf 2003, 134). — [7, 8] Draupnis döggvar ‘of Draupnir’s dew [GOLD]’: A kenning for gold, referring to the property of the god Óðinn’s gold ring Draupnir (lit. ‘dripper’) to produce eight new rings that dripped from it every ninth night (SnE 1982, 47).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Unger, C. R., ed. 1877. Heilagra manna søgur. Fortællinger og legender om hellige mænd og kvinder. 2 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Bentzen.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Sperber, Hans, ed. 1911. Sechs isländische Gedichte legendarischen Inhalts. Uppsala Universitets årsskrift, filosofi, språkvetenskap och historiska vetenskaper 2. Uppsala: Akademische Buchdruckerei Edv. Berling.
5. Wolf, Kirsten, ed. 2003. Heilagra meyja sögur. Íslenzk trúarrit 1. Reykjavík: Bókmenntafræðistofnun Háskóla Íslands.
6. Kahle, Bernhard, ed. 1898. Isländische geistliche Dichtungen des ausgehenden Mittelalters. Heidelberg: Winter.
7. SnE 1982 = Snorri Sturluson. 1982. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1988. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.