FriðÞ Lv 14VIII (Frið 16)
Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna 16 (Friðþjófr Þorsteinsson, Lausavísur 14)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 213.
text and translation
Sé ek trollkonur tvær á báru;
þær hefir Helgi hingat sendar.
Þeim skal sníða sundr í miðju
hrygg Elliði, áðr af hafi skríði.
Ek sé tvær trollkonur á báru; Helgi hefir sendar þær hingat. Elliði skal sníða þeim hrygg sundr í miðju, áðr skríði af hafi.
‘I see two troll-women on the wave; Helgi has sent them hither. Elliði must slice their spines asunder in the middle, before he glides from the ocean. ’
notes and context
The ship does not founder, as Friðþjófr expected, but enters a murky stretch of ocean where it is impossible to see the way forward. Friðþjófr climbs the mast and spies a huge whale circling the ship, preventing it from making land; he interprets this phenomenon as a product of Helgi’s sorcery and says that he can also see two women riding on the whale’s back. He directs the ship to be steered towards them aggressively and recites Frið 16.
This fornyrðislag stanza is in both redactions, though 568ˣ contains several lacunae. The motif of hostile troll-women attacking the hero’s ship is paralleled in other fornaldarsögur, like Ket and GrL. See particularly GrL 1-5, a dialogue between Grímr loðinkinni ‘Hairy-cheek’ and the troll-women Feima and Kleima. In all these instances, the level of physical aggression expressed by the hero towards the troll-women is very high. In this stanza agonistic agency is, however, attributed to the ship Elliði, rather than the speaker of the stanza, Friðþjófr, and Frið 17, extant only in the B mss, elaborates this motif.
readings
- [2] á báru: ‘a Ba[…]’ 568ˣ
- [3] þær hefir: ‘[…]’ 568ˣ
- [5] sníða: sigla 27ˣ
- [7] hrygg: hryggs 109a IIˣ, 173ˣ
- [7] Elliði: ‘E[…]’ 568ˣ
- [8] áðr: ‘[…]’ 568ˣ, áðr enn 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ
- [8] af hafi: ‘[…]f hafe’ 568ˣ, ‘af fer’ papp17ˣ, ‘af fǫr’ 109a IIˣ, 173ˣ, ‘af fór’ 1006ˣ
- [8] skríði: skríðr papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ
sources
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.
-
AM 510 4° (510) — 93v/15 - 93v/17
imagesSe ec troll konur tuær ꜳ̋ baru. þær hefur helgi | hingad sendar. þeim skal snída sundur j midíu. hrygg ellide adur af hafe | skride.
(JG)
-
AM 568 4°x (568x) — 100v - 100v
Sé ek trollkonur
images
tvær †a Ba[…]† ;
†[…]† Helgi
hingat sendar.
Þeim skal sníða
sundr í miðju
hrygg †E[…]†,
†[…] […]f hafe† skríði. -
JS 27 folx (27x) — 135v - 135v
Sé ek trollkonur
images
tvær á báru;
þær hefir Helgi
hingat sendar.
Þeim skal sigla
sundr í miðju
hrygg Elliði,
áðr af hafi skríði. -
Holm papp 17 4°x (papp17x) — 359v/9 - 359v/10
imagesSé ek trollkonur
tvær á báru;
þær hefir Helgi
hingat sendar.
Þeim skal sníða
sundr í miðju
hrygg Elliði,
áðr †af fer† skríðr.Sie eg trꝍllkonur, tuær ä baru, þær hefur | helge hingad sendar, þeim skal snijda sundur j midiu hrygg ellidi, ädur af fer skridur |
(JG)
-
AM 109 a II 8°x (109a IIx) — 148r - 148r
Sé ek trollkonur
images
tvær á báru;
þær hefir Helgi
hingat sendar.
Þeim skal sníða
sundr í miðju
hryggs Elliði,
áðr enn †af fǫr† skríðr. -
GKS 1006 folx (1006x) — 585/28 - 586/1
imagesSé ek trollkonur
tvær á báru;
þær hefir Helgi
hingat sendar.
Þeim skal sníða
sundr í miðju
hrygg Elliði,
áðr enn †af fór† skríðr.Sie eg trollkonur tuær ꜳ bäru þær hefur helgi hing|ad sendar þeim skal snida sundur j midiu hrigg Ellide ꜳ̋dur || enn af fór skrydur:
(JG)
-
AM 173 folx (173x) — 86v/8 - 86v/15
Sé ek trollkonur
images
tvær á báru;
þær hefir Helgi
hingat sendar.
Þeim skal sníða
sundr í miðju
hryggs Elliði,
áðr enn †af fǫr† skríðr.
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