Rv Lv 10^II

Dúsið ér, en Ása
— atatata — liggr í vatni,
— hutututu — hvar skalk sitja? —
— heldrs mér kalt — við eldinn.

Ér dúsið við eldinn, en Ása—atatata!—liggr í vatni—hutututu! Hvar skalk sitja? Mérs heldr kalt.

You are [all] sitting around by the fire, while Ása—atatata!—is lying in the water—hutututu! Where shall I sit? I am rather cold.

Mss: Flat(139va), R702ˣ(43v) (Orkn)

Readings: [1] Dúsið ér (‘Dwsi þer’): ‘Dunn þer’ R702ˣ    [3] hutututu: utututu R702ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 507, Skj BI, 481, Skald I, 236, NN §2983; Flat 1860-8, II, 474, Orkn 1887, 151, Orkn 1913-16, 219, ÍF 34, 198 (ch. 85), Bibire 1988, 230.

Context: As for Lv 8.

Notes: [All]: While Rǫgnvaldr and his men are drying out by the fire, a female servant comes in shivering and saying something that no one can understand except Rǫgnvaldr. The st. is introduced by Jarl kvezk skilja tungu hennar ‘The jarl said he understood her speech’. R702^x has a more detailed introduction to the st., explaining that a house-servant named Ása went to fetch water with another woman, but fell into the well í fjúkinu ‘in the snowstorm’ and the other woman ran back to the house kalin mjǫk ‘thoroughly chilled’. However, it is not clear whether this passage derives from R702ˣ’s ms. exemplar or is the copyist’s attempt to explain the situation (ÍF 34, 197 n. 3). — [1] ér ‘you’: This form of the 2nd pers. pl. pron. (ANG §465 Anm. 5) is required by the alliteration. — [2, 3] atatata; hutututu ‘atatata; hutututu’: The prose context suggests that these otherwise unparalleled words are to be interpreted as onomatopoetically representing the chattering teeth of the shivering woman. — [3] hutututu ‘hutututu’: Flat’s form beginning with h- is required by the alliteration.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
5. Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
6. ÍF 34 = Orkneyinga saga. Ed. Finnbogi Guðmundsson. 1965.
7. Orkn 1913-16 = Sigurður Nordal, ed. 1913-16. Orkneyinga saga. SUGNL 40. Copenhagen: Møller.
8. Bibire, Paul. 1988. ‘The Poetry of Earl Rǫgnvaldr’s Court’. In Crawford 1988, 208-40.
9. Orkn 1887 = Gudbrand Vigfusson 1887-94, I.