Gill Lv 2^VIII (Gautr 6)

Ungr sveinn         drap uxa fyrir mér;
        þetta eru banvæn býsn.
Mun ek aldri         eiga síðan
        jafngóðan grip,
        þó ek gamall verða.

Ungr sveinn drap uxa fyrir mér; þetta eru banvæn býsn. Ek mun aldri síðan eiga jafngóðan grip, þó ek verða gamall.

The young boy has killed the ox I own; this is a deadly portent. I shall never afterwards own an equally fine treasure, though I grow old.

Mss: 152(198ra), 590b-cˣ(3r), papp11ˣ(4r) (Gautr)

Readings: [3] þetta: om. 590b‑cˣ    [5] síðan: om. papp11ˣ    [6] ‑góðan: góligan 590b‑cˣ, ‑góðligan papp11ˣ    [7] verða: verði all

Editions: Skj AII, 323, Skj BII, 343, Skald II, 184, NN §3293; Gautr 1664, 16, FSN 3, 13, Gautr 1900, 10, 60-1, FSGJ 4, 10; Edd. Min. 122.

Context: On one occasion Gillingr was watching Snotra’s son Gautrekr, now seven years old, stab an ox to death. Gillingr uttered this stanza and afterwards passed over the family cliff.

Notes: [All]: This stanza is missing in mss of the shorter version of Gautr. Instead of the expected single long l. 6 of a ljóðaháttr stanza, it has two irregular lines. It is possible that l. 7 is a later addition, and that the original l. 6 was a regular ljóðaháttr line. Kock (Skald) deletes l. 7 and emends 590b-cˣ’s version of l. 6 to read svá góligan grip ‘such a fine possession’. Gautr 1900 and Edd. Min. divide ll. 5-7 as follows: mun ek aldri eiga | síðan jafngóligan | grip, þó ek gamall verða ‘I shall never afterwards own an equally fine possession, though I grow old’. The present edn follows the version of 152, though it is unmetrical.  — [3] þetta eru banvæn býsn ‘this is a deadly portent’: There is lack of congruence between þetta (n. sg.) and eru banvæn býsn, where both verb and noun phrase are pl.; this is common after þat and þetta (cf. NS §68). — [7] verða ‘grow’: Normalised from all mss’ verði, which already shows the falling together in verði of the 1st pers. sg. and 3rd pers. sg. pres. subj., as in Modern Icelandic (cf. ANG §536.1; Stefán Karlsson 2004, 29).

References

1. Bibliography
2. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
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. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
6. Stefán Karlsson. 2004. The Icelandic Language. Trans. Rory McTurk. London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
7. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
8. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
9. 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.
10. Gautr 1900 = Ranisch, Wilhelm, ed. 1900. Die Gautrekssaga in zwei Fassungen. Palaestra 11. Berlin: Mayer & Müller.
11. Gautr 1664 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1664. Gothrici & Rolfi Westrogothiæ Regum Historia. Lingua antiqua Gothica conscripta. Uppsala: Curio.
12. Internal references
13. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Gautreks saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 241. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=9> (accessed 7 May 2024)