Bjǫrn Lv 1^VIII (Frið 9)

Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna 9 (Bjǫrn, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 204.

text and translation

notes and context

Friðþjófr’s foster-brother Bjǫrn wonders whether the women of Sogn will weep over him, while the storm continues to rage. He speaks this stanza.

This is the only runhent stanza in Frið, though the end-rhyme of ll. 1-2 is not exact. The text is very difficult to make sense of in the A redaction mss, and not very easy in the others. It is clear that a great deal of scribal corruption has affected the stanza’s transmission, with the consequence that there are a number of possible interpretations of the various readings in both redactions. Because the A mss are particularly hard to understand, readings from the B mss have been selected in ll. 1 and 2. Even so, the interpretation offered here is tentative. Line 7 is particularly difficult to understand. Kock (NN §1474) suggests a possible parallel between this stanza and Krm 20, in which some of the same vocabulary occurs (ekkja ‘woman’, laug ‘bath’), and where a contrast is drawn between men fighting in battle and a woman bringing basins of warm water. The present stanza (in the reading offered here) seems to suggest that the bitter struggle at sea that Friðþjófr and his men now encounter has made them unattractive to the women back home, and this is consistent with Bjǫrn’s expressed scepticism in the prose text of both redactions. — [7-8]: The interpretation of these lines is uncertain. The first word or words of l. 7 have not been authoritatively explained, and most eds emend, following the B redaction, to either bilar sterka arma ‘[my] strong arms fail’ (Frið 1901, 21) or bilar styrk arma ‘the strength of my arms fails’ (Skj B). The prose of the B text endorses the notion that baling the ship is hard work for the men’s arms. Relying on the A text, Wenz (Frið 1914, 13) has bilskorð arma but does not explain what it may mean. All known compounds in which -skorð ‘prop, support’ is the second element are women-kennings in which the first element denotes either ornament or clothing (cf. LP: skorð). Hence the bil- of the cpd’s first element is anomalous, as the word’s normal meaning is ‘delay, moment’. Edd. Min. emends to bálskorð ‘fire-prop’, which, together with arma ‘of arms’, can be understood as an inverted, two-part woman-kenning, ‘prop of the fire of arms’ [GOLD > WOMAN]’. This seems the only feasible interpretation of the A mss’ readings, and has been adopted here. Kock (Skald; NN §1474) has Bil skortir arma, in which Bil is a goddess-heiti (cf. LP: Bil) and skortir is an emendation, depending on 27ˣ’s reading ‘skortt’, with the second <t> supposedly mistaken by the scribe for an <ir> abbreviation. Kock does not, however, explain what he thinks ll. 7-8 mean in this interpretation. In this edn the woman-kenning arma bálskorð is taken as a direct address to a woman, and the speaker complains of his miserable situation, not taking a warm bath, but being buffeted by salty seas, which are stinging his eyes. With Skj B, l. 8 is understood as an impersonal construction, bítr mér í hvarma, lit. ‘it bites me on the eyelids, my eyes are stinging [with the salt sea]’. The alternative is to take the kenning (?) of l. 7 as the subject of the verb bítr ‘bites’ (l. 8), ‘the woman bites me on the eyelids’, but the scenario conjured up by this interpretation is either ludicrous or improbable, unless one imagines the hostile sea-deity Rán as the kenning referent (cf. Frið 11/5-6).

readings

• [1] Erat: so 27ˣ, papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ, er em at 510, væra 568ˣ
• [1] ekkja: so 568ˣ, papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ, ekki 510, ‘ölga’ 27ˣ
• [2] á þik vili drekka: so papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ, ‘at austur fir oss drekkie’ 510, at ek drekka 568ˣ, ‘aur at drecka’ 27ˣ
• [3] baugvara: ‘baugvarit’ 568ˣ, 27ˣ
• [5] Sölt: ‘so ilt’ 568ˣ
• [5] augu: nú 27ˣ
• [6] sitkak (‘sitka ek’): so 568ˣ, ‘ef soka’ 510, ‘sickiu’ 27ˣ, sikkuð papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ
• [6] í laugu: ekki lógi 27ˣ
• [7] bálskorð: ‘bilskorðs’ 510, ‘bilskord’ 568ˣ, ‘bil skortt’ 27ˣ, bil sterka papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ
• [8] bítr: so all others, birtiz 510

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) — 93r/22 - 93r/24

  er em at sem ekki
  †at austur fir oss drekkie† ,
  björt baugvara
  biði nær fara.
  Sölt eru augu,
  †ef soka† í laugu;
  †bilskorðs† arma,
  birtiz mér í hvarma.

  Eʀ em at | sem ecki. at austur fir oss dreckíe. biort baug uara. bidí nær fara. saullt | er augu. ef soka j lavgu. bil skordz arma. bírtez mer j huarma.

  (JG)

  images
Close

• AM 568 4°x (568x) — 100v - 100v

  væra sem ekkja
  at ek drekka ,
  björt †baugvarit†
  biði nær fara.
  †so ilt† eru augu,
  sitkak í laugu;
  †bilskord† arma,
  bítr mér í hvarma.

  images
Close

• JS 27 folx (27x) — 135r - 135r

  Erat sem †ölga†
  †aur at drecka† ,
  björt †baugvarit†
  biði nær fara.
  Sölt eru nú,
  †sickiu† ekki lógi ;
  †bil skortt† arma,
  bítr mér í hvarma.

  images
Close

• Holm papp 17 4°x (papp17x) — 359r/7 - 359r/9

  Erat sem ekkja
  á þik vili drekka,
  björt baugvara
  biði nær fara.
  Sölt eru augu,
  sikkuð í laugu;
  bil sterka arma,
  bítr mér í hvarma.

  Er ad sem | eckia. ä þig vilie drecka, biort bauguara, bidie nær fara, sꝍllt eru augu, sickud j | laugu, bil sterka arma, bijtur mier j huarma,

  (JG)

  images
Close

• AM 109 a II 8°x (109a IIx) — 147r - 147r

  Erat sem ekkja
  á þik vili drekka,
  björt baugvara
  biði nær fara.
  Sölt eru augu,
  sikkuð í laugu;
  bil sterka arma,
  bítr mér í hvarma.

  images
Close

• GKS 1006 folx (1006x) — 584/1 - 584/4

  Erat sem ekkja
  á þik vili drekka,
  björt baugvara
  biði nær fara.
  Sölt eru augu,
  sikkuð í laugu;
  bil sterka arma,
  bítr mér í hvarma.

  Er ad | sem eckia a þig vilie drecka biaurtt baugvara bidie nær | fara. sollt eru augu sickud i Laugu. bil sterka arma bytur | mier j huarma.

  (JG)

  images
Close

• AM 173 folx (173x) — 85r/13 - 85r/20

  Erat sem ekkja
  á þik vili drekka,
  björt baugvara
  biði nær fara.
  Sölt eru augu,
  sikkuð í laugu;
  bil sterka arma,
  bítr mér í hvarma.

  images
Close

editions and texts