Peter Jorgensen (ed.) 2017, ‘Ásmundar saga kappabana 9 (Ásmundr kappabana, Lausavísur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 23.
Þá hvarflaði hugr í brjósti,
er menn ellifu ofrkapp buðu,
áðr mér í svefni sögðu dísir,
at ek hjörleik þann heyja skyldak.
Þá hvarflaði hugr í brjósti, er ellifu menn buðu ofrkapp, áðr dísir sögðu mér í svefni, at ek skyldak heyja {þann hjörleik}.
‘Then courage wavered in my breast when eleven men offered violence, until dísir <minor female deities> said to me in my sleep that I should engage in that sword play [BATTLE]. ’
According to ch. 8 of Ásm, Ásmundr almost loses his nerve when Hildibrandr decides to send eleven men against him. However, on the night before the contest, Ásmundr has a dream, in which armed women stand over him and identify themselves as his spádísir, supernatural prophetesses, possibly to be identified with valkyries. The women tell him not to fear the eleven men, saying that they will protect him in the fight.
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], E. 12. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Ásmundar saga kappabana II 3: AII, 321, BII, 341-2, Skald II, 184; Peringskiöld 1722, 23 (ch. 10), FSN 2, 486 (ch. 10), Detter 1891, 98, FSGJ 1, 407-8 (ch. 10) (Ásm); CPB I, 191, Halvorsen 1951, 19; Edd. Min. 87.
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