Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 15

Beatrice La Farge

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Keth Lv 15^VIII (Ket 23)

Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 23 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 15)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 573.

Ketill hœngr Lausavísur

14 15 16

Langleit ertu, fóstra,         ok lætr róa nefit;
ei hefi ek flagðit         felligra litit;
        eða hvert hefir þú förina görva?

Ertu langleit, fóstra, ok lætr nefit róa; ek hefi ei litit flagðit felligra; eða hvert hefir þú görva förina?

You are long-faced, foster-mother, and you let your nose row; I have not seen a more monstrous ogress; and where are you travelling to?

Mss: 343a(56v), 471(54r) (Ket)

Readings: [3] ei: eigi 471

Editions: Skj AII, 283-4, Skj BII, 305, Skald II, 161; FSN 2, 129, FSGJ 2, 171, Anderson 1990, 53, 99, 440; Edd. Min. 81.

Notes: [1-2] ertu langleit … ok lætr róa nefit ‘you are long-faced … and you let your nose row’: A long, snout-like nose and large, hanging lips are mentioned as characteristics of giants in several fornaldarsögur, e.g. in the description of Geirríðr Gandvíkrekkja ‘woman of Gandvíkr’, a figure descended from giants, in GrL (FSGJ 2, 191; see the examples mentioned by Schulz 2004, 152-3). — [1] fóstra ‘foster-mother’: Ketill addresses Forað as ‘foster-mother’ as an allusion to her (great) age, not because she is actually his foster-mother. — [3-4]: Lit. ‘I have not seen the more monstrous ogress’. Several mss (e.g. 173ˣ, 342ˣ) have the reading ei hefi ek ferligri | flagðkonu litit ‘I have not seen a more monstrous ogress’. The form felligra (cf. 471’s ferligra) is an example of the common assimilation of <r> to the following <l> in the consonant combination <rl> (cf. ANG §272.1). Some previous eds (Skj B, Skald, Edd. Min. and FSGJ) omit the enclitic article ‑it in flagðit (‘the ogress’) in l. 3 in order to reduce the number of syllables. Guðni Jónsson (FSGJ) and the eds of Edd. Min. also emend the wording to produce a full-line without a caesura in l. 3 and thus a half-stanza in ljóðaháttr: Leitat ek ferligra flagð ‘I have not seen a more monstrous ogress’. — [5] eða hvert hefir þú görva förina ‘and where are you travelling to’: Finnur Jónsson (Skj B), followed by Kock (Skald), regards this question as part of the stanza and a full-line in ljóðaháttr, whereas other eds (with the exception of Anderson 1990, 440) omit it. The only words which can alliterate are hvert and hefir, and for this reason Finnur Jónsson interprets hefir as a main verb and görva as an inf. ‘make, do’, not as auxiliary verb and p. p. (hefir görva ‘have made’). He however omits the enclitic article -ina appended to för ‘journey’, probably in order to reduce the number of syllables. The word förina alliterates with the two alliterating words flagðit and felligra in the preceding long-line and thus could be regarded as an example of what Sievers (1893, 83-4) calls Anreimung.

References

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