Án Lv 4VIII (Án 4)
Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Áns saga bogsveigis 4 (Án bogsveigir, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 11.
muntu ‘You will’
(not checked:)
munu (verb): will, must
finna ‘find’
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2. finna (verb): find, meet
er ‘when’
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2. er (conj.): who, which, when
notes
[2] er þú mokar flór ‘when you muck out the floor’: The word flórr (not used elsewhere in Old Norse poetry) designates the passageway in the middle of a cow barn between the two rows of stalls for the individual cows where their dung and urine collect (Valtýr Guðmundsson 1889, 135; Stigum and Kristján Eldjárn et al. 1959, 399-401). The verb moka ‘muck out, shovel, cleanse by shovelling’ occurs in Bjhít Lv 3/2, 4V (BjH 3), a derogatory lausavisa in which Bjǫrn says that his beloved Oddný told her husband ganga at moka kvíar innan ‘to go and muck out from inside the pens’; cf. BjH ch. 12 (ÍF 3, 140).
þú ‘you’
(not checked:)
þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
notes
[2] er þú mokar flór ‘when you muck out the floor’: The word flórr (not used elsewhere in Old Norse poetry) designates the passageway in the middle of a cow barn between the two rows of stalls for the individual cows where their dung and urine collect (Valtýr Guðmundsson 1889, 135; Stigum and Kristján Eldjárn et al. 1959, 399-401). The verb moka ‘muck out, shovel, cleanse by shovelling’ occurs in Bjhít Lv 3/2, 4V (BjH 3), a derogatory lausavisa in which Bjǫrn says that his beloved Oddný told her husband ganga at moka kvíar innan ‘to go and muck out from inside the pens’; cf. BjH ch. 12 (ÍF 3, 140).
flór ‘the floor’
(not checked:)
flórr (noun m.): °grebning, møgrende i kostald; kostald
notes
[2] er þú mokar flór ‘when you muck out the floor’: The word flórr (not used elsewhere in Old Norse poetry) designates the passageway in the middle of a cow barn between the two rows of stalls for the individual cows where their dung and urine collect (Valtýr Guðmundsson 1889, 135; Stigum and Kristján Eldjárn et al. 1959, 399-401). The verb moka ‘muck out, shovel, cleanse by shovelling’ occurs in Bjhít Lv 3/2, 4V (BjH 3), a derogatory lausavisa in which Bjǫrn says that his beloved Oddný told her husband ganga at moka kvíar innan ‘to go and muck out from inside the pens’; cf. BjH ch. 12 (ÍF 3, 140).
mokar ‘muck out’
(not checked:)
moka (verb)
notes
[2] er þú mokar flór ‘when you muck out the floor’: The word flórr (not used elsewhere in Old Norse poetry) designates the passageway in the middle of a cow barn between the two rows of stalls for the individual cows where their dung and urine collect (Valtýr Guðmundsson 1889, 135; Stigum and Kristján Eldjárn et al. 1959, 399-401). The verb moka ‘muck out, shovel, cleanse by shovelling’ occurs in Bjhít Lv 3/2, 4V (BjH 3), a derogatory lausavisa in which Bjǫrn says that his beloved Oddný told her husband ganga at moka kvíar innan ‘to go and muck out from inside the pens’; cf. BjH ch. 12 (ÍF 3, 140).
at ‘that’
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4. at (conj.): that
þú ‘you’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
eigi ‘not’
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3. eigi (adv.): not
ert ‘are’
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
Án ‘Án’
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Án (noun m.)
bogsveigir ‘bogsveigir (‘Bow-bender’)’
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bogsveigir (noun m.; °-s)
Þú ‘You’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
ert ‘are’
(not checked:)
2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
brauðsveigir ‘a bread-bender’
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brauðsveigir (noun m.)
heldr ‘rather’
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heldr (adv.): rather
en ‘than’
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2. en (conj.): but, and
bogsveigir ‘bow-bender’
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bogsveigir (noun m.; °-s)
ostasveigir ‘a cheese-bender’
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ostasveigir (noun m.)
en ‘but’
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2. en (conj.): but, and
[8] en eigi * álmsveigir: ‘en eigi b alm sueigir’ 343a, en ek heiti álmsveigir 109a Iˣ
notes
[8] en eigi * álmsveigir ‘but not a bow-bender’: Ms. 343a reads en eigi b álmsveigir. Apparently the scribe first wrote an abbreviation for the word bogsveigir, which occurs in the previous line of the stanza, before he wrote the synonymous word álmsveigir, which alliterates with ostasveigir and is thus clearly correct. The word álmr ‘elm’ is often used metonymically for ‘bow’, since bows were made of elm-wood (LP: almr 2; Falk 1914b, 92).
eigi ‘not’
(not checked:)
3. eigi (adv.): not
[8] en eigi * álmsveigir: ‘en eigi b alm sueigir’ 343a, en ek heiti álmsveigir 109a Iˣ
notes
[8] en eigi * álmsveigir ‘but not a bow-bender’: Ms. 343a reads en eigi b álmsveigir. Apparently the scribe first wrote an abbreviation for the word bogsveigir, which occurs in the previous line of the stanza, before he wrote the synonymous word álmsveigir, which alliterates with ostasveigir and is thus clearly correct. The word álmr ‘elm’ is often used metonymically for ‘bow’, since bows were made of elm-wood (LP: almr 2; Falk 1914b, 92).
* ‘’
(not checked:)
(non-lexical)
[8] en eigi * álmsveigir: ‘en eigi b alm sueigir’ 343a, en ek heiti álmsveigir 109a Iˣ
notes
[8] en eigi * álmsveigir ‘but not a bow-bender’: Ms. 343a reads en eigi b álmsveigir. Apparently the scribe first wrote an abbreviation for the word bogsveigir, which occurs in the previous line of the stanza, before he wrote the synonymous word álmsveigir, which alliterates with ostasveigir and is thus clearly correct. The word álmr ‘elm’ is often used metonymically for ‘bow’, since bows were made of elm-wood (LP: almr 2; Falk 1914b, 92).
álmsveigir ‘a bow-bender’
(not checked:)
almsveigir (noun m.)
[8] en eigi * álmsveigir: ‘en eigi b alm sueigir’ 343a, en ek heiti álmsveigir 109a Iˣ
notes
[8] en eigi * álmsveigir ‘but not a bow-bender’: Ms. 343a reads en eigi b álmsveigir. Apparently the scribe first wrote an abbreviation for the word bogsveigir, which occurs in the previous line of the stanza, before he wrote the synonymous word álmsveigir, which alliterates with ostasveigir and is thus clearly correct. The word álmr ‘elm’ is often used metonymically for ‘bow’, since bows were made of elm-wood (LP: almr 2; Falk 1914b, 92).
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
Án speaks this stanza when he confronts King Ingjaldr’s man Ketill, who is making advances to a young girl by pretending to be Án. Án turns up just at the right moment and seizes Ketill by the forelock. Before he mishandles Ketill by pulling out his hair, tarring him, putting out one of his eyes and castrating him, Án speaks this stanza, in which he makes it clear that Ketill is only fit to perform the most menial farmyard or kitchen tasks, not to be a warrior like Án.
This stanza is in the metre fornyrðislag. Both the stanza itself and the surrounding prose passage contain several examples of word-play (FSGJ 2, 382-4; Hughes 1972, 222 nn. 37-8). — The demeaning characterisation of Ketill as a brauðsveigir ‘bread-bender’ (i.e. ‘kneader of bread’) and an ostasveigir ‘cheese-bender’ has many parallels in Old Norse literature, e.g. in a stanza from LaufE (Anon (LaufE) 5III), in which a man-servant is called an ostmýgir ‘oppressor of cheese’ and a saupstríðir ‘tormentor of buttermilk’, while the maid-servant for whom he pines is called brauðgýgr ‘ogress of bread’ (i.e. ‘woman who consumes bread’) and saurug flot-Gríðr ‘the filthy Gríðr <giantess> of fat’ (i.e. a woman who consumes the fat that swims on the surface of the soup); cf. Edd. Min. lxxxiv and LP: flotgríðr). Heusler and Ranisch also cite a parallel from Saxo (Saxo 2015, I, vi, 9. 14, pp. 436-7). Cf. the hostile exchange between Kormákr and Narfi in Korm ch. 4, in the course of which Kormákr refers to his opponent as Áli orfa ‘Áli <sea-king> of the scythe-handle’ (KormǪ Lv 12/1V (Korm 13), ÍF 8, 216).
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