Keth Lv 12^VIII (Ket 19)

Einhlítr ek þóttumz,         áðr en hér kómum,
um flestar allar         farir várar,
hvat sem ferlig         flögð um gleipa.
Lastik dreng dæsinn;         dreif ek á vit fanga.

Ek þóttumz einhlítr um flestar allar farir várar, áðr en kómum hér, hvat sem ferlig flögð um gleipa. Lastik dæsinn dreng; dreif ek á vit fanga.

I considered myself self-reliant on almost all our [my] journeys, before we [I] came here, whatever hideous ogresses chatter about. I speak ill of the sluggish man; I moved forcefully in search of a catch.

Mss: 343a(56v), 471(53v), 340ˣ(16) (Ket)

Readings: [3] flestar allar: om. 471    [5, 6] hvat sem ferlig flögð um gleipa: hvat er flögð mæla 471    [7] dæsinn: so 471, ‘drasinn’ 343a    [8] dreif ek (‘dreyf eg’): so 340ˣ, ‘drefic’ 343a, drep ek 471

Editions: Skj AII, 282-3, Skj BII, 304, Skald II, 161, NN §2391; FSN 2, 128, FSGJ 2, 170, Anderson 1990, 53, 98, 439; Edd. Min. 80.

Context: Ketill identifies himself by name in prose in answer to Forað’s question in Ket 18 and then replies in verse with a long answer to her prose remark that it would be better if he were at home rather than out among the skerries fishing, prefaced by the words: Ketill kvað vísu ‘Ketill spoke a stanza’.

Notes: [All]: Lines 1-2 are constant, but ll. 3-8 vary considerably in the mss. The text above follows 343a (and 340ˣ), except that they both have the reading ‘drasinn’ rather than dæsinn in l. 7; in the other mss ll. 3-4 are absent, and the remaining two lines read: hirði (or heyrði) ek um eigi | hvat er flögð (or tröll) mæla; | nauðir mik hvöttu; | nauðsyn er at bjarga ‘I don’t care about (or did not hear) whatever ogresses (or trolls) say; necessities incited me, there is need of help’ (cf. Ket 20/3-4 below). Ms. 471 presents the stanza in nearly the same form as 343a and 340ˣ, but the second long-line reads: um farir várar, | hvat er flögð mæla ‘about our journeys, whatever ogresses say’. Both Edd. Min. and Skald prefer 471’s text here, while Skj B collapses 343a’s ll. 3-4 into one line, of flestar allar farar ‘regarding most all [my] journeys’. — [7] dæsinn dreng ‘the sluggish man’: The form dæsinn appears only in 471, while 343a and 340ˣ have the reading ‘drasinn’, a form unattested elsewhere. Finnur Jónsson and Kock regard dæsinn as correct (cf. CPB II, 558), and as a variant of the adj. dásinn ‘sluggish’ (LP: dásinn and dæsinn), attested in the negative form ódæsinn ‘unsluggish’ in Arn Magndr 10/2^II and Note there, with the vowel secured by aðalhending with ræsir ‘ruler’. — [8] dreif ek ‘I moved forcefully’: The reading ‘drefik’ in 343a is no doubt a scribal error; 340ˣ has the reading ‘dreyf eg’ (= dreif ek ‘I moved forcefully’), which has been adopted here. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) emends the verb to the present form drífk (= dríf ek ‘I move forcefully’). A form of the verb drífa ‘drive; rush, move forcefully’ makes better sense in connection with a fishing expedition than does a form of the verb drepa ‘strike’ (471). Kock prefers 471’s reading drep, but it is unclear how the words drep ek á vit fanga are to be translated. Heusler and Ranisch (Edd. Min.) emend to dreg (1st pers. sg. pres. of draga ‘draw, drag, pull’), which has no basis in the ms. tradition: dreg ek á vit fanga ‘I go in search of a catch’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
7. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
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. Anderson, Sarah M. 1990. ‘The Textual Transmission of Two Fornaldarsögur: Ketils saga høings and Gríms saga loðinkinna’. Ph.D. thesis. Cornell University…
11. Internal references
12. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Magnússdrápa 10’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 219-20.
13. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 18 (Forað, Lausavísur 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 568.
14. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 20 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 13)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 570.