Þhorn Harkv 3^I

‘Hvat es yðr, hrafnar?         Hvaðan eruð ér komnir
með dreyrgu nefi         at degi ǫndverðum?
Hold loðir yðr í klóum;         hræs þefr gengr ór munni;
nær hygg ek yðr í nótt bjoggu,         því es vissuð nái liggja.’

‘Hvat es yðr, hrafnar? Hvaðan eruð ér komnir með dreyrgu nefi at ǫndverðum degi? Hold loðir í klóum yðr; þefr hræs gengr ór munni; hygg ek yðr bjoggu nær í nótt, því es vissuð nái liggja.’

‘What is the matter with you, ravens? From where have you come with gory beaks at break of day? Flesh hangs from your claws; the stench of carrion comes from your mouths; I think you lodged last night near where you knew corpses were lying.’

Mss: 51ˣ(2r), FskBˣ(2r-v), 302ˣ(2v-3r), FskAˣ(7), 52ˣ(3r-v), 301ˣ(3r) (Fsk)

Readings: [3] dreyrgu: corrected from ‘dræygu’ 302ˣ    [6] gengr: gengr yðr FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ    [7] yðr: om. FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ;    bjoggu: bjogguð FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ    [8] vissuð: so FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ, vissu at 51ˣ, FskBˣ, 302ˣ;    nái: nár 51ˣ, 302ˣ, FskAˣ, 52ˣ, 301ˣ, nær FskBˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 24, Skj BI, 22, Skald I, 14; Fsk 1902-3, 7, ÍF 29, 60 (ch. 2); Möbius 1860, 228, Jón Helgason 1946, 134-5, Jón Helgason 1968, 16.

Context: As for st. 1.

Notes: [All]: The valkyrie introduced in sts 1-2 speaks. — [1] hrafnar ‘ravens’: Though the next stanza refers to ‘the dark-feathered one’, here the valkyrie addresses more than one raven. The sg. nefi ‘beak’ (l. 3) and munni ‘mouth’ (l. 6) are accordingly translated as plurals here, though the sg. need not be regarded as illogical but rather as a matter of focus. — [7] hygg ek yðr bjoggu ‘I think you lodged’: Lit. ‘I think you to have lodged’, an acc. with inf. construction introduced by a form of hyggja ‘think’, as also in sts 5/1 and 17/7; cf. 21/8. This is perhaps the only attestation of bjoggu, pret. inf. to búa (Sueti 1884, 24), surely a more original reading than finite bjogguð of the FskA transcripts, because it is more unusual.  — [8] nái ‘corpses’: This slightly emended form appears in 761aˣ (on which, see Introduction). Jón Helgason (1946, 135) points out that the ‘nar’ of most of the mss could alternatively be emended to ná, to be construed as a generic (acc.) sg.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. Fsk 1902-3 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1902-3. Fagrskinna: Nóregs kononga tal. SUGNL 30. Copenhagen: Møller.
4. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
5. Möbius, Theodor. 1860. Edda Sæmundar hins fróða. Mit einem Anhang bisher ungedruckter Gedichte. Leipzig: Hinrichs.
6. Jón Helgason, ed. 1968. Skjaldevers. 3rd edn. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
7. Jón Helgason. 1946. ‘Haraldskvæði’. Tímarit Máls og menningar, 131-46.
8. Sueti, Friedrich. 1884. Ueber die auf den König Haraldr Hárfagri bezüglichen Gedichtfragmente in der norwegischen Königschronik Fagrskinna. Leipzig: August Press.