EirRagn Lv 3^VIII (Ragn 13)

Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 13 (Eiríkr Ragnarsson, Lausavísur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 651.

text and translation

notes and context

After taking a ring from his arm, Eiríkr sends messengers to Áslaug, with the instruction that a slender maiden may have his rings. He confidently expresses the view that his stepmother (Áslaug) will convey to her sons the news of his death.

[3-4]: These lines raise the question of who is meant by the mjó mær ‘slender maiden’ to whom Eiríkr bequeaths his rings. Is it Áslaug, as some have thought, or some unknown, unnamed figure? (a) Most previous eds apart from those of CPB and Kock leave open the question of the slender maiden’s identity and the present ed. adopts the same position. (b) Finnur Jónsson (Hb 1892-6, 460) adopts Hb’s reading ‘meirr’, i.e. meir ‘(ever)more, hereafter’ in l. 3 (cf. Kock, to be discussed in (d), below), and takes the adj. mjó ‘slender’ in l. 4 as f. nom. sg. and substantival, giving the meaning ‘she, the slender one (hun den slanke) may have my belongings hereafter’. (c) In Skj B, however, Finnur adopts from 1824b the reading mær ‘maiden’ in l. 3 and from Hb the reading mjó (in place of mik, 1824b) in l. 4, taking mjó here, f. nom. sg., as an attributive adj., and producing the meaning ‘that the slender maiden may have my rings’. (d) Kock (NN §1455) adopts the Hb readings meir ‘hereafter’ and mjó ‘slender’, and emends Áslaugu in l. 4 to Áslaug um, thus making Áslaug nom., supplying a pleonastic um to fill out the line, and giving the meaning ‘that the fair (slender) Áslaug may have my rings hereafter’. The emendation seems unjustified, however; the oblique case of Áslaugu is sufficiently marked and syntactically out of place in l. 4 to suggest a syntactic link with an earlier part of the half-stanza. — [7-8]: The Hb reading of these two lines, adopted by all previous eds (apart from those of CPB, who follow Hb but omit sínum from l. 8, without replacing it, and Rafn (FSN), who simply follows 1824b), is undeniably preferable to that of 1824b as far as alliteration and (in l. 8) syllable-count are concerned and has also been followed here. The 1824b text lacks in l. 7 the double alliteration that would be expected in a dróttkvætt odd line, since ‑móðir, the second element in stjúpmóðir and bearing only secondary stress, cannot be regarded as alliterating with mín, at least for the purposes of dróttkvætt (cf. Russom 1998, 64); and l. 8, in which resolution of the two syllables of mögum (if not those of þögul) would be expected (Poole 2005e, 271), is short of the six syllables required in a dróttkvætt line. For an alternative treatment of these two lines, still taking account of the readings of 1824b, see McTurk (2014b, 110‑13).

readings

• [1] Bera skuluð: Þau berið Hb
• [2] nú eru órir firar lagðir (‘nv ero orrrir firar lagþir’): eru austrfarar liðnar Hb
• [3] mær: ‘meirr’ Hb
• [4] mjó: so Hb, mik 1824b
• [6] er: ef Hb
• [7] mildum: so Hb, sínum 1824b
• [8] sínum til: so Hb, þögul 1824b

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.

• NKS 1824 b 4° (1824b) — 64r/16 - 64r/19

  Bera skuluð orð it efra,
  — nú eru órir firar lagðir —
  at mær hafi mína
  mik, Áslaugu, bauga.
  Þá mun mest af móði,
  er mik spyrja dauðan,
  mín stjúpmóðir sínum
  mögum þögul segja.

  bera skuloð ord ít ęfra. nv ero orʀir fir | ar lagþir. at męr hafí mina. mic aslaugv bauga. þa man. | mest af mode. er mic spyria dauðan. mín stíopmodir sinum. | mogum þavgul segía.

  (RM)

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• AM 544 4° (Hb) — 105v - 105v

  Þau berið orð it efra,
  — eru austrfarar liðnar —
  at †meirr† hafi mína
  mjó, Áslaugu, bauga.
  Þá mun mest af móði,
  ef mik spyrja dauðan,
  mín stjúpmóðir mildum
  mögum sínum til segja.

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