FriðÞ Lv 22^VIII (Frið 28)

Helgi varð fyr höggi;
hraut sjóðr á nef kauða;
hneig Hálfdanar hlýri
ór hásæti miðju.
Þar varð Baldr at brenna,
en baugi náða ek áðr;
síðan frá eldi usla
ódrjúgr dró ek bjúga.

Helgi varð fyr höggi; sjóðr hraut á nef kauða; {hlýri Hálfdanar} hneig ór miðju hásæti. Þar varð Baldr at brenna, en ek náða baugi áðr; síðan dró ek ódrjúgr bjúga usla frá eldi.

Helgi met with a blow; the purse struck on the wretch’s nose; {the brother of Hálfdan} [= Helgi] fell from the middle of the high-seat. There Baldr <god> had to burn, but I grabbed the ring beforehand; afterwards I, not sluggish, pulled curved embers out of the fire.

Mss: papp17ˣ(360v), 109a IIˣ(150v), 1006ˣ(590), 173ˣ(89v) (Frið)

Readings: [6] náða: ‘nana’ 173ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 276, Skj BII, 297, Skald II, 157, NN §§1476, 2388; Falk 1890, 80-2, Frið 1893, 25, Frið 1901, 36.

Context: Bjǫrn asks Friðþjófr, who has left the hall with the ring that has fallen from the arm of Helgi’s wife, what has happened while he was inside, and Friðþjófr recites this stanza while holding up the ring.

Notes: [All]: This and the following stanza (Frið 29) are only in the B redaction mss. Two separate stanzas covering much the same ground (Frið 30 and 31) are only in the A redaction mss. This stanza is in an irregular dróttkvætt, with hendingar in ll. 2, 6 and 8, although l. 6 is problematic. — [3-4]: These lines tally with the prose text; in the A recension, the text simply states that Helgi fell … í óvit ‘lost … consciousness’ (Frið 1914, 23), while B has en hann fell ór hásætinu í úvit ‘and he fell from the high-seat in an unconscious state’ (Frið 1901, 35). — [5] þar varð Baldr at brenna ‘there Baldr <god> had to burn’: According to the prose texts, Friðþjófr was struggling with Helgi’s wife, in order to get hold of his ring, which was on her arm, while she was heating the icon of Baldr in the fire. As Friðþjófr dragged her over to the door, the Baldr image, presumably made of wood, slipped from her grasp into the fire and was burnt. According to the B version prose text (Frið 1901, 36), such icons were anointed with some kind of grease or oil. This detail may be part of an antiquarian reconstruction. However, there is now archaeological evidence to support the presence of phosphates and lipids, which indicate the presence of fat, blood or meat, at ritual sites. Such lipids could derive from sacrificial animals or from practices such as smearing grease on icons. A well documented example is the Viking-Age ritual site of Götavi in the province of Närke, west of Stockholm (Lagerstedt 2008, 75-86 and 197-210). — [6]: This line is hypometrical (assuming cliticisation of ek) unless en is deleted and áðr is desyllabified to áður. Skj B, following a suggestion of Konráð Gíslason, changes the word order to en baugi ek áðr náða ‘but I got hold of the ring first’, but this line is unmetrical.   — [7-8]: Understood here as an oblique reference to the piece of firewood (eldskíða) which the B text says that Friðþjófr used to set fire to Baldrshagi. Other eds resort to emendation to make sense of these two lines, but this is unnecessary. Larsson (Frið 1901) emends ódrjúgr to údrjúga and bjúga to bjúgur, translating dann zog ich gebückt schnellverzehrte brennende holzscheite aus dem feuer ‘then I drew curved, quickly consumed burning logs of wood from the fire’. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) inserts an ok in l. 7 between eldi and usla (cf. Ǫrv 101/7) while emending ódrjúgr ‘not slugglish’ (lit. ‘not lasting’) to ódeigr ‘not timid, not faint-hearted’, presenting the following translation: siden slæbte jeg ufej den krumböjede kvinde fra ilden og flammeødelæggeslen ‘afterwards I, not timid, dragged the bent woman from the fire and the destruction of flames’. Falk (1890, 82) suggested emending bjúga (l. 8) to ljúga, ‘lie, tell a lie’ and implied a translation like ‘I, inadequate in lying’, with reference to Friðþjófr’s relationship to Helgi and Hálfdan. Kock (Skald; NN §2388) follows Skj B in emending ódrjúgr to ódeigr and also emends síðan ‘afterwards’ (l. 7) to þá ‘then’.  — [8] ódrjúgr ‘not sluggish’: The usual sense of ódrjúgr appears to be ‘insufficient, inadequate’ (cf. Fritzner: údrjúgr), which does not fit the context here. The commoner adj. drjúgr usually means ‘substantial, lasting’. Because the normal sense is inappropriate, eds have emended, as explained in the Note to ll. 7-8 above. Here, however, it is possible that the negated adj. has the sense ‘not sluggish, quick’ rather than ‘insubstantial’.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
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. Lagerstedt, Anna, ed. 2008. På väg genom Närke: Ett Landskap genom Historien. Rapporter från Arkeologikonsult 2008:2025. Särskilda arkeologiska undersökningar Hidinge 105:1, Vintrosa 69:1, 85:1 och 92:1 och Vintrosa 96:1 och 63:1, Närke. [n. p.]: Arkeologikonsult.
11. Internal references
12. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna 29 (Friðþjófr Þorsteinsson, Lausavísur 23)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 227.
13. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna 30 (Friðþjófr Þorsteinsson, Lausavísur 24)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 227.
14. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 101 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Ævidrápa 31)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 912.