Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 12 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 7)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 562.
Feigr er nú Finnr inn ragi,
er hann fóttreðr flein sinn rangan.
Feigr er nú inn ragi Finnr, er hann fóttreðr rangan flein sinn.
‘Doomed is now the cowardly Saami, since he treads underfoot his own crooked arrow.’
This stanza is introduced by the words Ketill mælti ‘Ketill spoke’. It refers to Gusi’s impending doom. His remaining arrow (fleinn) appears to him to be crooked; he attempts to straighten it by stepping on it, which gives Ketill the chance to kill him. The saga relates that Gusi’s brother Brúni had caused his arrow to appear crooked by means of magic, in order that Gusi should die in any hostile encounter in which he engaged and in order that Brúni should succeed him as king. As a result of his victory over Gusi, Ketill gains possession of his excellent sword Dragvendill (Ket 36-7, 39-41 below) and of Gusi’s three arrows Flaug ‘Flight’, Hremsa ‘Shaft’ and Fífa ‘Arrow’ (see Ket 26-7).
Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) unnecessarily emends all the pronouns and the verb form er in l. 1 from 3rd pers. sg. to 2nd pers. sg. in order to present the half-stanza as direct speech. — Alliteration on <f> is used in both long-lines of this stanza.
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.
Feigr er nú
Finnr inn ragi,
at hann fóttreðr
flein sinn rangan.
feigr er nu | finnrinn ragi | at hann fot treþr | flein sinn rangann |
(VEÞ)
feýgur er nu finnur hinn rage , | er hann fottredur fleýn sinn rangann ,
(VEÞ)
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