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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Kleima Lv 1VIII (GrL 4)

Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Gríms saga loðinkinna 4 (Kleima Hrímnisdóttir, Lausavísa 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 293.

Kleima HrímnisdóttirLausavísa1

text and translation

Þat var fyrri,         at faðir okkarr
burtu seiddi         báru hjarðir.
Skuluð aldrigi,         nema sköp ráði,
heilir heðan         heim um komaz.

Þat var fyrri, at faðir okkarr seiddi burtu {hjarðir báru}. Skuluð aldrigi um komaz heilir heim heðan, nema sköp ráði.
 
‘That happened earlier, that our father removed herds of the wave [FISH] by magic. You will never return home from here in one piece, unless fate determines it that way.’

notes and context

According to the saga, Grímr has travelled north to the place named Gandvíkr (the White Sea, north-west Russia) during a famine to hunt for food and has seen that there was plenty of fish and game to catch there, though, shortly after he arrived, it suddenly disappeared (GrL ch. 1, FSGJ 2, 186). It was after this that he encountered Feima and Kleima. They explain that their father, Hrímnir, has caused the fish to disappear by means of sorcery. Later, when Grímr has killed the giantesses and their parents, he finds not only a whale stranded on the shore there but in every bay (GrL ch. 2, FSGJ 2, 190, 194). Furthermore the giant Hrímnir turns out to be the brother of the wicked stepmother from Finnmark who has put an evil spell on Grímr’s fiancée Lopthœna, who has disappeared mysteriously (GrL chs 1 and 2, FSGJ 2, 185, 193). This stanza is introduced by the remark Kleima kvað ‘Kleima said’.

[3-4]: Some mss have the readings braut undir sik | búsveina lið or braut under sik | búkalla lið ‘trampled down the troop of farmers’ or braut undir sik | búsveina ‘trampled down the farmers’ suggesting that the giant Hrímnir conquered or attacked human settlements (cf. HHj 17). Although these readings make sense grammatically the reading of the older mss is preferable, since it accords better with the plot.

readings

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.

editions and texts

Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], E. 9. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Gríms saga loðinkinna I 4: AII, 288, BII, 309, Skald II, 164; FSN 2, 146, FSGJ 2, 188, Anderson 1990, 61, 112, 445; Edd. Min. 86.

3
GrL 4
5
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