Keth Lv 5^VIII (Ket 9)

Mun ek af auði         eigi láta
ok fyr einum þér         aldri renna.
Fyrr skal þér höggvin         hlíf fyr brjósti
ok fyr sjónum         svart at ganga.

Ek mun eigi láta af auði ok aldri renna fyr þér einum. Fyrr skal hlíf höggvin fyr brjósti þér ok at ganga svart fyr sjónum.

I will not give up my wealth, and [I will] never run before you alone. Before that the shield before your breast will be hacked [to pieces], and everything will go black before your eyes.

Mss: 343a(55v), 471(52r) (Ket)

Readings: [5] þér: om. 471;    höggvin: so 471, höggin 343a    [7] ok: en 471

Editions: Skj AII, 281, Skj BII, 302, Skald II, 160, NN §2391; FSN 2, 120-1, FSGJ 2, 162-3, Anderson 1990, 48-9, 91-2, 434; Edd. Min. 79.

Context: This stanza is introduced by the words: Ketill kvað ‘Ketill said’ immediately after Ket 8.

Notes: [5-8]: Kock (NN §2391) argues that the pron. þér ‘you’ dat. sg., should be omitted as it is in 471 and several other mss. The half-stanza then refers to the defeat and death of the speaker (Ketill) rather than to that of his opponent (Gusi). The entire stanza could then be paraphrased as: ‘I will sooner die (second half-stanza) than flee from you (first half-stanza)’. With the pron. þér the paraphrase would be: ‘You will die (second half-stanza) sooner than I flee from you (first half-stanza)’. Kock supports his contention by adducing Ket 11/5-8. — [5-6] skal hlíf höggvin ‘the shield will be hacked [to pieces]’: Hlif ‘the shield’ lit. ‘protection’. Höggvin or höggin (so 343a) is a f. form of the p. p. of the verb höggva ‘hew, cut’ (ANG §503). This is an elliptical passive construction in which the inf. vera ‘be’ has been left out (cf. LT: ²vera).

References

1. Bibliography
2. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
6. LT = La Farge, Beatrice and John Tucker. 1992. Glossary to the Poetic Edda, based on Hans Kuhn’s Kurzes Wörterbuch. Skandinavistische Arbeiten 15. Heidelberg: Winter.
7. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
8. 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.
9. Anderson, Sarah M. 1990. ‘The Textual Transmission of Two Fornaldarsögur: Ketils saga høings and Gríms saga loðinkinna’. Ph.D. thesis. Cornell University…
10. Internal references
11. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 8 (Gusi finnakonungr, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 559.
12. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 11 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 6)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 561.