Busla Busl 3VIII (Bós 3)
Wilhelm Heizmann (ed.) 2017, ‘Bósa saga 3 (Busla, Buslubæn 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 30.
Villiz ‘become lost’
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2. villa (verb): lead astray, lead
notes
[1] vættir villiz ‘may spirit beings become lost’: Vættir (archaic Engl. ‘wights’) are lesser mythological beings (cf. Dillmann 2007). Like landvættir ‘guardian spirits of a country’ they are evidently attributed a protective function. These beings are meant to be so confused by Busla’s magic that they lose their orientation. The goal of this operation is to provoke them in this manner against the king. There is a comparable passage in Eg (ÍF 2, 170-1), in which Egill forces the landvættir to drive King Eiríkr blóðøx ‘Bloodaxe’ and his wife, Gunnhildr, out of Norway by setting up an insult-pole (níðstǫng, cf. Almqvist 1965-74, I, 89-118). A stanza which has wording similar to Busl 3 is located at the end of the so-called Allra flagða þula ‘Reckoning of all trolls’ in VSj (Loth 1962-5, 4, 66-8; the stanza is at p. 68).
vættir ‘spirit beings’
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1. vættr (noun f.): being, creature
notes
[1] vættir villiz ‘may spirit beings become lost’: Vættir (archaic Engl. ‘wights’) are lesser mythological beings (cf. Dillmann 2007). Like landvættir ‘guardian spirits of a country’ they are evidently attributed a protective function. These beings are meant to be so confused by Busla’s magic that they lose their orientation. The goal of this operation is to provoke them in this manner against the king. There is a comparable passage in Eg (ÍF 2, 170-1), in which Egill forces the landvættir to drive King Eiríkr blóðøx ‘Bloodaxe’ and his wife, Gunnhildr, out of Norway by setting up an insult-pole (níðstǫng, cf. Almqvist 1965-74, I, 89-118). A stanza which has wording similar to Busl 3 is located at the end of the so-called Allra flagða þula ‘Reckoning of all trolls’ in VSj (Loth 1962-5, 4, 66-8; the stanza is at p. 68).
verði ‘become reality’
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1. verða (verb): become, be
ódæmi ‘the monstrous’
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ódœmi (noun n.): outrage, the unthinkable
hristiz ‘falter’
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hrista (verb): shake
hamrar ‘the cliffs’
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1. hamarr (noun m.; °-s, dat. hamri; hamrar): hammer, cliff
heimr ‘the world’
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heimr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i/-; -ar): home, abode; world
sturliz ‘become disturbed’
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2. sturla (verb): stir, disturb
vestni ‘become chaotic’
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versna (verb): worsen
veðrátta ‘the weather’
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veðrátta (noun f.; °-u): °vejrforhold, vejrlig, vejr
verði ‘become reality’
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1. verða (verb): become, be
ódæmi ‘the monstrous’
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ódœmi (noun n.): outrage, the unthinkable
[6] ódæmi: ‘orőe’ 340ˣ
nema ‘unless’
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2. nema (conj.): unless
þú ‘you’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
Hringr ‘Hringr’
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2. Hringr (noun m.; °-s): Hringr
konungr ‘King’
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konungr (noun m.; °dat. -i, -s; -ar): king
[7] konungr: om. 510, 340ˣ, 361ˣ
Herrauð ‘Herrauðr’
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Herrauðr (noun m.)
ok ‘and’
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
honum ‘grant’
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hann (pron.; °gen. hans, dat. honum; f. hon, gen. hennar, acc. hana): he, she, it, they, them...
[9] honum Bósa: Bögubósa 577, 361ˣ
notes
[9] Bósa ‘to Bósi’: Relation to OE Bōsa, OS Bōso, Old Frankish Boso, OHG Buoso as well as the m. name Bosi in a Danish runic inscription (DRI 268) is uncertain (cf. AEW: bósi), as is the etymology. Sverrir Tómasson (Bós 1996, 51) discusses the possibility that the name may originally have referred to þann sem klappaði kvið og rass ‘someone who stroked the belly and arse’, which would have been appropriate to Bósi’s role as a womaniser in the saga. Ms. 577 regularly provides the form Bögu-Bósi, abbreviated to ‘bb’ or ‘bba’ for the protagonist’s name. Baga ‘bent, twisted’ was the nickname of Bósi’s shield-maiden mother Brynhildr, which she acquired as a result of serious injuries Bósi’s viking father had inflicted on her in a fight in their youth. The idea that the name Bósi is an abbreviation for [Giovanni] Boccaccio, author of the Decameron, and known for his outspoken narratives, seems far-fetched (Jørgensen 1997, 104-5).
bjargir ‘freedom’
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bjǫrg (noun f.; °bjargar; bjargir): help, deliverance
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
In stanzas three to six, three different areas are named in which the curse exerts its power: Nature will fall into chaos, the king’s body will be battered and contact with the outside world will be cut off, as travelling in ships and horseback riding will be rendered impossible. These four stanzas are bound together through refrain-like repetition in the four final lines of each, in which both prisoners are named in reverse order. All four are longer than the normal eight lines of a fornyrðislag stanza, st. 3 having ten lines and sts 4-6 having twelve.
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