EirRagn Lv 4VIII (Ragn 14)
Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 14 (Eiríkr Ragnarsson, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 653.
Hlakkar ‘shrieking’
(not checked:)
hlakka (verb): [screams, exult]
hrafn ‘A raven’
(not checked:)
hrafn (noun m.; °hrafns; dat. hrafni; hrafnar): raven
of ‘above’
(not checked:)
3. of (prep.): around, from; too
höfði ‘head’
(not checked:)
hǫfuð (noun n.; °-s; -): head
hér ‘here’
(not checked:)
hér (adv.): here
mínu ‘my’
(not checked:)
minn (pron.; °f. mín, n. mitt): my
nú ‘is now’
(not checked:)
nú (adv.): now
krefr ‘claiming’
(not checked:)
krefja (verb): request
unda ‘of wounds’
(not checked:)
1. und (noun f.; °; -ir): wound
kennings
valr unda‘the falcon of wounds ’
= RAVEN
the falcon of wounds → RAVEN
valr ‘the falcon’
(not checked:)
2. valr (noun m.; °-s): falcon
kennings
valr unda‘the falcon of wounds ’
= RAVEN
the falcon of wounds → RAVEN
augna ‘eyes’
(not checked:)
auga (noun n.; °auga; augu/augun, gen. augna): eye
ósynju ‘at an ill-fated hour’
(not checked:)
ósynja (noun f.): [without cause]
[4] ósynju: ‘o sína’ 1824b
hér ‘is here’
(not checked:)
hér (adv.): here
Veiztu ‘You know’
(not checked:)
1. vita (verb): know
ef ‘if’
(not checked:)
3. ef (conj.): if
hrafn ‘a raven’
(not checked:)
hrafn (noun m.; °hrafns; dat. hrafni; hrafnar): raven
ór ‘from’
(not checked:)
3. ór (prep.): out of
höfði ‘head’
(not checked:)
hǫfuð (noun n.; °-s; -): head
høggr ‘hacks’
(not checked:)
hǫggva (verb): to strike, put to death, cut, hew
brún ‘brow’
(not checked:)
brún (noun f.; °; brýnn/-ir): brows < brúnsteinn (noun m.): brow-stone
kennings
brúnsteina mína‘my brow-stones ’
= EYES
my brow-stones → EYES
notes
[6] brúnsteina ‘brow-stones [EYES]’: Yet another example of brúnsteinn as an eye-kenning; cf. sts 9/2 and 10/3, above.
steina ‘stones’
(not checked:)
steinn (noun m.; °steins; steinar): stone, colour < brúnsteinn (noun m.): brow-stone
kennings
brúnsteina mína‘my brow-stones ’
= EYES
my brow-stones → EYES
notes
[6] brúnsteina ‘brow-stones [EYES]’: Yet another example of brúnsteinn as an eye-kenning; cf. sts 9/2 and 10/3, above.
mína ‘my ’
(not checked:)
minn (pron.; °f. mín, n. mitt): my
kennings
brúnsteina mína‘my brow-stones ’
= EYES
my brow-stones → EYES
launar ‘will be paying’
(not checked:)
launa (verb): reward
notes
[7] launar ‘will be paying a … reward’: For the many previous eds who emend leyni ‘conceals’ (3rd pers. sg. pres. subj.), to launi ‘pays a reward’ in Ragn 12/8, above, the occurrence here of the verb launa ‘reward’ is a justification for that emendation, which, however, is not accepted in the present edn. See the Note to 12/5-8, above.
unda ‘of wounds’
(not checked:)
1. und (noun f.; °; -ir): wound
kennings
valr unda‘the falcon of wounds ’
= RAVEN
the falcon of wounds → RAVEN
valr ‘the falcon’
(not checked:)
2. valr (noun m.; °-s): falcon
kennings
valr unda‘the falcon of wounds ’
= RAVEN
the falcon of wounds → RAVEN
kennings
marga fylli egðis.‘for many a full meal of the wolf. ’
= CORPSE
for many a full meal of the wolf. → CORPSE
notes
[7, 8] marga fylli egðis ‘many a full meal of the wolf [CORPSE]’: The ms. reading ‘ekils’ (gen. sg. of *ekill ‘driver’?) has been emended to Ekkils (from Ekkill, name of a sea-king, Þul Sækonunga 2/3III) by earlier eds, except for CPB, Skj B and Skald. Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 205) regards Ekkils as a subjective gen. (NS §124), combining with marga fylli (l. 8) to give the sense ‘many a full meal of (i.e. provided by) Ekkill’, but this is unconvincing, given the connection of sea-king names with kennings for ships and the sea rather than, as seems probable here, with the activities of ravens in connection with carnage. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) emends ‘ekils’ to ýti, dat. sg. of ýtir ‘pusher’, taking it as dat. object of launar (l. 7) with hrafn (l. 5) as subject, thus: ‘it (the raven) rewards the pusher of the wave-horse [SHIP > SEAFARER] (i.e. me, Eiríkr) poorly for many a full meal’. Kock (Skald) supplies eggi, dat. sg. of the unrecorded *eggir ‘egger on, encourager’ in place of ýti, otherwise letting it have the same meaning and place in the sentence as Finnur. The present ed. proposes the emendation of ‘ekils’ to egðis ‘of the eagle’ (see Þul Ara 1/5III) or ‘of the wolf’ (see Þul Vargs 1/9III), cf. LP: egðir 2. The latter meaning is probably preferable in the context, given the heavy emphasis in this stanza on a bird of battle in the form of a raven. Thus: ‘the falcon of wounds [RAVEN] will be paying a poor reward for many a full meal of the wolf [CORPSE]’. The many corpses are to be understood as having been served up by Eiríkr, the speaker of the stanza, as food for beasts of battle in the course of his warlike career.
illa ‘a poor’
(not checked:)
1. illa (adv.): badly
marga ‘for many a’
(not checked:)
2. margr (adj.; °-an): many
kennings
marga fylli egðis.‘for many a full meal of the wolf. ’
= CORPSE
for many a full meal of the wolf. → CORPSE
notes
[7, 8] marga fylli egðis ‘many a full meal of the wolf [CORPSE]’: The ms. reading ‘ekils’ (gen. sg. of *ekill ‘driver’?) has been emended to Ekkils (from Ekkill, name of a sea-king, Þul Sækonunga 2/3III) by earlier eds, except for CPB, Skj B and Skald. Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 205) regards Ekkils as a subjective gen. (NS §124), combining with marga fylli (l. 8) to give the sense ‘many a full meal of (i.e. provided by) Ekkill’, but this is unconvincing, given the connection of sea-king names with kennings for ships and the sea rather than, as seems probable here, with the activities of ravens in connection with carnage. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) emends ‘ekils’ to ýti, dat. sg. of ýtir ‘pusher’, taking it as dat. object of launar (l. 7) with hrafn (l. 5) as subject, thus: ‘it (the raven) rewards the pusher of the wave-horse [SHIP > SEAFARER] (i.e. me, Eiríkr) poorly for many a full meal’. Kock (Skald) supplies eggi, dat. sg. of the unrecorded *eggir ‘egger on, encourager’ in place of ýti, otherwise letting it have the same meaning and place in the sentence as Finnur. The present ed. proposes the emendation of ‘ekils’ to egðis ‘of the eagle’ (see Þul Ara 1/5III) or ‘of the wolf’ (see Þul Vargs 1/9III), cf. LP: egðir 2. The latter meaning is probably preferable in the context, given the heavy emphasis in this stanza on a bird of battle in the form of a raven. Thus: ‘the falcon of wounds [RAVEN] will be paying a poor reward for many a full meal of the wolf [CORPSE]’. The many corpses are to be understood as having been served up by Eiríkr, the speaker of the stanza, as food for beasts of battle in the course of his warlike career.
fylli ‘full meal’
(not checked:)
fylli (noun f.): fill
kennings
marga fylli egðis.‘for many a full meal of the wolf. ’
= CORPSE
for many a full meal of the wolf. → CORPSE
notes
[7, 8] marga fylli egðis ‘many a full meal of the wolf [CORPSE]’: The ms. reading ‘ekils’ (gen. sg. of *ekill ‘driver’?) has been emended to Ekkils (from Ekkill, name of a sea-king, Þul Sækonunga 2/3III) by earlier eds, except for CPB, Skj B and Skald. Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 205) regards Ekkils as a subjective gen. (NS §124), combining with marga fylli (l. 8) to give the sense ‘many a full meal of (i.e. provided by) Ekkill’, but this is unconvincing, given the connection of sea-king names with kennings for ships and the sea rather than, as seems probable here, with the activities of ravens in connection with carnage. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) emends ‘ekils’ to ýti, dat. sg. of ýtir ‘pusher’, taking it as dat. object of launar (l. 7) with hrafn (l. 5) as subject, thus: ‘it (the raven) rewards the pusher of the wave-horse [SHIP > SEAFARER] (i.e. me, Eiríkr) poorly for many a full meal’. Kock (Skald) supplies eggi, dat. sg. of the unrecorded *eggir ‘egger on, encourager’ in place of ýti, otherwise letting it have the same meaning and place in the sentence as Finnur. The present ed. proposes the emendation of ‘ekils’ to egðis ‘of the eagle’ (see Þul Ara 1/5III) or ‘of the wolf’ (see Þul Vargs 1/9III), cf. LP: egðir 2. The latter meaning is probably preferable in the context, given the heavy emphasis in this stanza on a bird of battle in the form of a raven. Thus: ‘the falcon of wounds [RAVEN] will be paying a poor reward for many a full meal of the wolf [CORPSE]’. The many corpses are to be understood as having been served up by Eiríkr, the speaker of the stanza, as food for beasts of battle in the course of his warlike career.
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
After being placed on the spears and seeing a raven flying by, Eiríkr recites this stanza just before dying his heroic death.
This stanza is comparable in sentiment to Ket 34, where, however, it is the eagle rather than the raven that functions as a bird of battle; see also Jesch (2002b). The stanza shows a striking degree of parallelism, with its near-repetition in l. 5 hrafn ór höfði ‘… a raven … from my head’ of hrafn of höfði ‘… a raven … over my head’, occurring in the same position in l. 1, the corresponding line of the first half-stanza; and with the repetition from l. 3 of the kenning valr unda ‘the falcon of wounds [RAVEN]’ in l. 7, the corresponding line of the second half-stanza, also in the same position. The problematic readings in ll. 2 and 4, and also in l. 7, to be discussed below, unfortunately obfuscate whatever poetic or rhetorical effect this parallelism may originally have had. — [1-4]: The present ed. follows Kock’s interpretation of this helmingr (see (c) below). (a) Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 205) retains hrafn in l. 1, emends sína to steina (gen. pl.) ‘stones, jewels’ in l. 2, and ‘osína’ to ósynju, f. dat. sg. ‘groundlessly, wantonly’, in l. 4, thus giving: ‘a raven is shrieking here over my head; the falcon of wounds [RAVEN] is now wantonly claiming the jewels of (which) my eyes (consist) (i.e. my eye-jewels (augnasteina) [EYES])’. (b) Finnur Jónsson in Skj B adopts Valdimar Ásmundarson’s emendations and interpretation of ll. 1-2 (hrafn to már ‘seagull’ in l. 1 and sína to sára ‘of wounds’ in l. 2), but in l. 4 also emends ‘o sína’ to ósynju, thus giving as the meaning of ll. 3-4: ‘the falcon of wounds [RAVEN] is here gratuitously claiming my eyes’. (Finnur’s alternative reading (in Skj A II n. 4) of sína in l. 2 as ‘sma’ (smá ‘small’) is questionable in itself and makes for an unsatisfactory reading of the line, both semantically and metrically.) (c) Kock (Skald; NN §§2368, 3245), evidently accepting Finnur’s reading of ll. 3-4, retains hrafn in l. 1 and emends sína in l. 2 to sýnu n. dat. sg. of sýnn ‘evident’, thus interpreting the first sentence as ‘a raven is now clearly shrieking here above my head’. However, sýnu, when used as an intensifying adv., usually appears with comparatives or superlatives, and that is not the case here (cf. LP: sýnn; Heggstad et al. 2008: sýnn 1, with examples at the end of both entries). (d) Örnólfur Thorsson (Ragn 1985) adopts the emendation ósynju ‘unrightfully’ in l. 4, but emends sína in l. 2 to sinna, gen. pl. of refl. poss. adj. sinn ‘his (own)’, taking it as complement to augna, gen. pl. object of krefr, and so producing the meaning ‘the falcon of wounds [RAVEN] is now unrightfully claiming my eyes as its own’. — [7]: This line is hypermetrical, and most eds have dealt with it by (a) converting the ms’s unda valr to a cpd undvalr ‘wound-hawk’ (so Olsen, Eskeland, Ebel) or unnvalr ‘wave-horse’ (Skj B; Skald) and (b) by emending the ms.’s ‘ekils’, which, with its short first syllable, would not be expected in the cadence of a dróttkvætt line (see Note to ll. 7, 8 below).
Stanza/chapter/text segment
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
Information tab
- text: if the stanza has been published, the edited text of the stanza and translation are here; if it hasn't been published an old edition (usually Skj) is given for reference
- sources: a list of the manuscripts or inscriptions containing this stanza, with page and line references and links (eye button) to images where available, and transcription where available
- readings: a list of variant manuscript readings of words in the main text
- editions and texts: a list of editions of the stanza with links to the bibliography; and a list of prose works in which the stanza occurs, allowing you to navigate within the prose context
- notes and context: notes not linked to individual words are given here, along with the account of the prose context for the stanza, where relevant
Interactive tab
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.
Full text tab
This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.
Chapter/text segment
This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.