Gauti Lv 1VIII (Gautr 1)
Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Gautreks saga 1 (Gauti konungr, Lausavísa 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 245.
introduction
These stanzas are found in the Dalafíflar section of Gautr and are presented as the direct speech of King Gauti and the backwoods family he encounters when he loses his way in the forest while out hunting. This family is terrified of doing anything or having anything done to them which would diminish their material wealth or, when it comes to procreation, of doing anything to increase their number, holding that this would reduce each member’s share of the wealth. After Gauti unexpectedly enters their house as an uninvited and unwelcome guest, his actions, directly or indirectly, cause most of the family members to commit suicide by hurling themselves off the ætternisstapi ‘ancestral cliff’. He also causes them grief by having sexual relations with the only outgoing and talkative member of the family, Snotra ‘Wise One’, who becomes the mother of his son Gautrekr.
All six stanzas are spoken by the male characters in this episode. The metre is ljóðaháttr and there is considerable variation in the prose and verse texts of the various witnesses. This is likely to point to the circulation of oral variants. The stanzas promote a dead-pan pragmatism on the part of their speakers, which highlights their absurd overreaction to their supposed misfortunes.
text and translation
Skúa tvá, er mér Skafnörtungr gaf,
þvengjum er hann þá nam.
Ills manns kveð ek aldri verða
grandalausar gjafir.
Skúa tvá, er Skafnörtungr gaf mér, er hann nam þá þvengjum. Ek kveð gjafir ills manns verða aldri grandalausar.
‘The two shoes, which Skafnǫrtungr gave me, he took the laces from them. I say the gifts of an evil man are never without harm. ’
notes and context
When King Gauti wakes up in the morning, having forced himself upon the Dalafíflar household overnight, he asks the head of the household, called Skafnartungr, Skafnörtungr or Skafnörungr in most versions of Gautr, for a pair of shoes, as he had lost his own during his adventure in the forest the previous day. The man’s wordless response is to give him shoes but to pull out the laces first.
[1-3]: A trace of this motif also appears in Saxo’s account of the hero Starkaðr’s adventures. Saxo (Saxo 2015, I, vi. 5. 11, pp. 384-7) tells that Starkaðr travelled to Ireland, where the ruler was one Huglecus, who had the reputation for being so mean that, when he offered someone a pair of shoes, he first withdrew the laces, thereby turning the gift into an insult. — [4-6]: These lines appear quasi-proverbial; cf. Hávm 117/5-10 and 123/1-3.
readings
- [1] Skúa: skó 152, papp11ˣ, 164hˣ
- [2] er: om. 567XIV γ, 164hˣ
- [2] Skafnörtungr gaf: gaf Skafnartungr gaf 152, gaf Skafnartungr with gaf added above the line in a different hand papp11ˣ, gaf Skafnartungr 567XIV γ, gaf Skafnörungr 164hˣ
- [3] þvengjum er hann þá nam: so 152, papp11ˣ, þvengjum er hann þar nam 590b‑cˣ, þvengjum at hann þá nam 567XIV γ, þvengjum hann þá nam 164hˣ
- [4] Ills manns: at ills manns 152, sjaldan verða 567XIV γ, 164hˣ
- [5] kveð ek aldri verða: verða vands manns 567XIV γ, naums manns 164hˣ
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 590 b-c 4°x (590b-cx) — 2r/22 - 2r/23
imagesSkúa tvá,
er mér Skafnörtungr gaf,
þvengjum er hann þar nam .
Ills manns
kveð ek aldri verða
grandalausar gjafir.Skua tva er mier Skafnaurtungr gaf, þveingium er hann þar nam, illz | manz qved eg alldrei verda, grandalausar giafer.
(HA)
-
AM 152 fol (152) — 197rb/30 - 197rb/33
skó tvá,
images
er mér gaf Skafnartungr gaf ,
þvengjum er hann þá nam.
at ills manns
kveð ek aldri verða
grandalausar gjafir. -
Holm papp 11 8°x (papp11x) — 3r - 3r
skó tvá,
images
er mér gaf Skafnartungr ,
þvengjum er hann þá nam.
Ills manns
kveð ek aldri verða
grandalausar gjafir. -
AM 567 XIV γ 4° (567XIV γ) — 1r/6 - 1r/7
Skúa tvá,
images
mér gaf Skafnartungr ,
þvengjum at hann þá nam .
sjaldan verða
verða vands manns
grandalausar gjafir. -
AM 164 h folx (164hx) — 3r/32 - 3r/32
skó tvá,
images
mér gaf Skafnörungr ,
þvengjum hann þá nam .
sjaldan verða
naums manns
grandalausar gjafir.
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