Bǫðmóðr Lv 1VIII (Ket 28)
Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 28 (Bǫðmóðr Framarsson, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 580.
introduction
Ket 28-33 (Bǫðmóðr Lv 1-3 and Keth 17-19 in alternation) is a dialogue comprising six stanzas in ljóðaháttr metre between Bǫðmóðr ‘Battle-brave’ and Ketill (Ket ch. 5, FSGJ 2, 173-7). Bǫðmóðr’s father, the viking king Framarr, worships Óðinn, who has decreed that Framarr be invulnerable to iron (i.e. weapons). When Ketill’s daughter Hrafnhildr refuses Framarr’s hand in marriage, Framarr challenges Ketill to single combat near the mound called Árhaugr ‘Mound of Plenty’ on the first day of Yule. At the appointed time Ketill travels to the mound and sits on it, facing the wind. A fierce snowstorm is raging, but since Framarr and his subjects bring offerings to the mound, snow never settles on it. On the evening before the first day of Yule, Bǫðmóðr, who is a hospitable and popular man, goes out to the mound to see whether Ketill has arrived and to invite him to the Yule festivities in his house.
text and translation
Hverr er sá inn hávi, er á haugi sitr
ok horfir veðri viðr?
Frostharðan mann hygg ek þik feiknum vera;
hvat þér hvergi* hlýr.
Hverr er sá inn hávi, er sitr á haugi ok horfir viðr veðri? Ek hygg þik vera feiknum frostharðan mann; hvergi* hvat hlýr þér.
‘Who is the tall one who sits on the mound and faces into the wind? I think you are a terribly frost-hard man; nowhere does anything shelter you.’
notes and context
This stanza is introduced by the words: Böðmóðr kvað vísu ‘Bǫðmóðr spoke a stanza’.
The description of Ketill is reminiscent of Hávm 50, where the situation of a friendless man is compared to that of a lone tree in a village (þorp), unsheltered by bark or needles. Bǫðmóðr’s question to Ketill asking about his identity resembles the questions Ketill addresses to his opponents Gusi (Ket 3a), the anonymous troll (Ket 13) and Forað (Ket 16). Ketill’s great size is mentioned at the beginning of ch. 1 of the saga (FSGJ 2, 151). — There is a change of scribal hands in ms. 471, shortly before the beginning of this stanza. Anderson (1990, 103 n. 273) identifies the new, much later hand as that of Magnús Magnússon, a C17th scholar and antiquarian (Anderson 1990, 70-3).
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.
-
AM 343 a 4° (343a) — 57r/38 - 57v/1
Hverr er sá inn hávi,
images
er á haugi sitr
ok horfir veðri viðr?
Frostharðan mann
ek þik feiknum vera;
hvat þér hvergis hlýr. -
AM 471 4° (471) — 55r - 55r
Hverr er sá inn hávi,
images
er á haug sitr
ok horfir veðri viðr?
Frostharðan mann
hygg ek þik feiknum vera;
hvat þér hvorgis hlýr. -
AM 173 folx (173x) — 10r/23 - 10r/26
Hveʀ er sa hinn Hafe | a hꜹgi sitr | frostharði mann | finna vil ec þic |
(VEÞ)
-
AM 340 4°x (340x) — 20/25 - 21/3
imagesHuor er sꜳ hinn hꜳffe ,, || er ä hauge situr , og horffer vedre vidur , frost | hardann Mann hugar , tel eg þig feýknum vera | huad þier huorgiz hlýr.
(VEÞ)
-
AM 342 4°x (342x) — 73r/27 - 73r/28
images -
AM 552 q 4°x (552qx) — 8r/4 - 8r/5
images -
AM 109 a II 8°x (109a IIx) — 161r/28 - 161v/1
images
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