Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 38 (Framarr víkingakonungr, Lausavísur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 593.
Skelfr nú skegg á karli; skeika vápn gömlum;
frýr hann hjör hvössum; hræðiz faðir meyjar.
Brýnduz benteinar, svát bíta máttu
hölða hugprúða, ef þér hugr dygði.
Nú skelfr skegg á karli; vápn skeika gömlum; hann frýr hvössum hjör; {faðir meyjar} hræðiz. {Benteinar} brýnduz, svát máttu bíta hugprúða hölða, ef hugr dygði þér.
‘Now the beard is trembling on the fellow; weapons go askew for the old man; he blames his sharp sword; the father of the maiden [= Ketill] is afraid. The wound-twigs [SWORDS] were whetted so that they were able to bite courage-proud warriors, if courage had stood you in good stead.’
Framarr mocks Ketill’s futile attempts to wound him. In the saga this stanza is introduced by the words: Framarr kvað vísu ‘Framarr spoke a stanza’.
This stanza contains echoes of Ket 15, in which Ketill comments on the course of the battle against the first unwanted suitor (Áli Uppdalakappi) for the hand of his daughter: Ketill says there (l. 4) that the beard of his opponent is ‘coloured (with blood)’ and that his opponent is afraid: biðill meyjar hræðiz ‘the girl’s suitor is afraid’ (l. 8). — [5-8]: Several mss including 342ˣ omit ll. 5-6 and read: frýr hann hjör hvassan; | hræðiz nú faðir meyjar | at høggva hugprúðan, | því honum hugr ei dugir ‘he blames his sharp sword (acc.); the father of the maiden is now afraid to strike the courage-proud [man], because his courage does not support him’.
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.
Skelfr nú skegg á karli;
skeika vápn gömlum;
frýr hann hjör hvössum;
hræðiz faðir meyjar.
Brýnduz benteinar,
svát bíta mátti
hölða hugprúða,
ef þér hugr dygði.
Skelfr skegg á karli;
skeika vápn gömlum;
frýr hann hjör hvössum;
hræðiz faðir meyjar.
Brýnduz benteinar,
svát bíta máttu
hölðum hugprúðum ,
ef þér hugr dygði.
Skelfr nu skeɢ a karli | skeika vopn gomlum | fryr hann hior hvassann | hræðiz nu faðir meyiar | at hoɢva hugpruþan | þvi honum hugr ei dugar |
(VEÞ)
Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], E. 8. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Ketill hœngs saga VII 5: AII, 286-7, BII, 307-8, Skald II, 163, NN §3289; FSN 2, 138, FSGJ 2, 179, Anderson 1990, 58, 107, 442; Edd. Min. 84.
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.
This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.
This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.