Ásmk Lv 2^VIII (Ásm 8)

Börðumz einn við einn         en endr við tvá,
fimm ok fjóra         fletmegninga,
sex ok við sjau         senn á velli,
einn ok við átta,         þó ek enn lifi.

Börðumz einn við einn en endr við tvá, fimm ok fjóra fletmegninga, sex ok við sjau senn á velli ok einn við átta, þó ek lifi enn.

We [I] fought one against one and again against two, five and four hall-fighters, six and against seven at a time on the field, and one against eight, yet I am still alive.

Mss: 7(43r) (Ásm)

Readings: [7] ok: ek 7

Editions: Skj AII, 321, Skj BII, 341, Skald II, 183, NN §797; Peringskiöld 1722, 23 (ch. 10), FSN 2, 486 (ch. 10), Detter 1891, 98, FSGJ 1, 407 (ch. 10) (Ásm); CPB I, 191, Halvorsen 1951, 19; Edd. Min. 87.

Context: As for the previous stanza.

Notes: [All]: Cf. Egill Lv 42/1-2^V (Eg 122). The corresponding lines in Saxo’s poem are surprisingly close to those in this stanza and the beginning of st. 9 (Saxo 2015, I, vii. 9. 18, ll. 5-10, pp. 510-11: Vnum quando duosque, | Tres ac quatuor, et mox | Quinos indeque senos, | Post septem, simul octo, | Vndenos quoque solus | Victor Marte subegi ‘when I subdued in battle | one alone, then two, | three and four, and soon | five followed by six, | seven, eight together, | then eleven single-handed’. — [4] fletmegninga ‘hall-fighters’: This cpd noun is a hap. leg. The first element is flet ‘raised platform along the wall of a hall where the benches are and where people sleep, hall (pars pro toto)’, but the meaning of the second must be inferred from the context and possible etymology. LP: fletmegningr suggests that the noun may mean ‘incompetent, unwarlike man’, with the implied sense of someone who has only the strength (megin) to sit on a bench in the hall or possibly someone who derives strength from being at home. On the other hand Kock (NN §797) postulates that the cpd is equivalent in meaning to OE fletwerod ‘hall-troop’, fletsittend(e) ‘sitter in the hall’ (Beowulf 476, 1788, 2022). — [7] ok ‘and’: Ms. ek ‘I’ makes relatively poor sense and may be a case of dittography, anticipating the following line, while the minor emendation to ok gives good sense and syntax and matches ll. 3 and 5.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. 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.
6. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
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. Detter, Ferdinand, ed. 1891. Zwei Fornaldarsögur (Hrólfssaga Gautrekssonar und Ásmundarsaga kappabana) nach Cod. Holm. 7, 4to. Halle: Niemeyer.
10. Halvorsen, Eyvind Fjeld. 1951. ‘On the Sources of the Ásmundarsaga kappabana’. Studia Norvegica 2, 1-57.
11. Peringskiöld, Johann, ed. 1722. Saugu Asmundar, er kallaður er Kappabani. Stockholm: Horrn.
12. 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.
13. Internal references
14. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ásmundar saga kappabana’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 15. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=65> (accessed 19 April 2024)
15. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 122 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Lausavísur 42)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 367.
16. Not published: do not cite ()