Bjǫrn Lv 2^VIII (Frið 24)

Jósum vér, en yfir         fell ór svalri báru,
teitir á tvau borð         tíu dægr ok átta.
Þat var kynför         kænna drengja,
hversu vér fórum         með Friðþjófi.

Vér jósum teitir á tvau borð tíu dægr ok átta, en fell yfir ór svalri báru. Þat var kynför kænna drengja, hversu vér fórum með Friðþjófi.

We baled in good spirits on two sides for eighteen days, and [water] cascaded on board from the cold wave. That was an extraordinary journey of skilful men, how we voyaged with Friðþjófr.

Mss: 510(94r), papp17ˣ(360r) (ll. 1-4), 109a IIˣ(149v) (ll. 1-4), 1006ˣ(588) (ll. 1-4), 173ˣ(88r) (ll. 1-4) (Frið)

Readings: [1] en yfir: meðan papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ    [2] fell ór svalri báru: fell ór svala báru 510, yfir gekk svölr papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ    [3] teitir á tvau borð: bragnar teitir papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ    [4] tíu dægr ok átta: á bæði borð tíu dægr \tel ek/ ok átta papp17ˣ, á bæði borð papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, á bæði borð tíu dægr ok átta 109a IIˣ, 173ˣ, á bæði tíu dægr ok átta 1006ˣ, á bæði 1006ˣ, á bæði born 173ˣ    [6] kænna drengja: ‘kuena dreinga’ 510

Editions: Skj AII, 275, Skj BII, 296-7, Skald II, 156, FF §37C; Falk 1890, 79, Frið 1893, 21, 50, Frið 1901, 32, Frið 1914, 20; Edd. Min. 101.

Context: Hallvarðr hastens to welcome Friðþjófr and his men after Atli’s rough treatment, and brings them into the hall to meet the local jarl, who asks them about their journey. Bjǫrn explains in a stanza (but see Note to [All] below).

Notes: [All]: This stanza and the preceding prose are poorly recorded in the A recension mss, and the stanza itself is not present in either 568ˣ or 27ˣ. The B mss do not have ll. 5-8. Although the prose of the B recension mss attributes it to Friðþjófr’s foster-brother Bjǫrn, the attribution in 510 (Frið 1893, 50) is simply hann kvað vísu ‘he spoke a stanza’, and the most natural interpretation of this prose context would be that Friðþjófr spoke this stanza. However, ll. 5-8 of the stanza itself indicate that the speaker was someone other than Friðþjófr. The fact that these lines are missing in the B mss may indicate some confusion in the ms. transmission as to the identity of the speaker of the stanza. At all events, this stanza is badly mangled in all mss, and the present text represents the best that can be made of the A version, which involves two minor emendations and a hypothetical interpretation of the hap. leg. kynför (l. 5). The metre is a mixture of fornyrðislag and málaháttr. — [1-2] en fell yfir ór svalri báru ‘and [water] cascaded on board from the cold wave’: Ms. 510 has svala but this adj. must be emended to give the f. dat. sg. form to agree with báru. The construction is difficult because there is no expressed subject of fell ‘it fell’, but here it has been understood to refer to the sea. Larsson (Frið 1901, 32 n.) proposes emending the A text to fellu svalar bárur ‘the cold waves fell’. In his main text, however, he adopts words from the B text and marries them with an emended l. 2 to give meðan | yfir gekk svǫlúr ‘while the cold spray went over’ (so Larsson, Frið 1901, 32, who explains that svǫlúr is a combination of svalr ‘cold’ and úr ‘fine rain, spray’). Edd. Min., Skj B and Skald have followed this emendation, but keep en yfir in l. 1 from 510. — [5] kynför ‘an extraordinary journey’: Larsson (Frið 1901, 32 n.) suggested this interpretation of this hap. leg. cpd (510 has ‘kynuor’), with the first element kyn- meaning ‘extraordinary, wonderful, marvellous’. This interpretation was adopted by Edd. Min. and Skald, but Finnur Jónsson emended to kynfylgja, which he translated as slægtsnatur ‘the nature of the stock [of the brave men]’. — [6] kænna drengja ‘of skilful men’: An emendation of ms. 510’s ‘kuena dreinga’, suggested by Larsson (Frið 1901, 32 n.) and adopted by all subsequent eds.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
5. FF = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1922. Fornjermansk forskning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 18:1. Lund: Gleerup.
6. Frið 1893 = Larsson, Ludvig, ed. 1893b. Sagan ock rimorna om Friðþiófr hinn frækni. SUGNL 22. Copenhagen: Malmström.
7. Frið 1901 = Larsson, Ludvig, ed. 1901. Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna. ASB 9. Halle: Niemeyer.
8. Frið 1914 = Wenz, Gustaf, ed. 1914. Die Friðþjófssaga in ihrer Überlieferung untersucht und der ältesten Fassung kritisch herausgegeben. Halle: Niemeyer.
9. Falk, Hjalmar. 1890. ‘Om Friðþjófs saga’. ANF 6, 60-102.
10. Internal references
11. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna 19 (Friðþjófr Þorsteinsson, Lausavísur 17)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 216.