KrákÁsl Lv 6^VIII (Ragn 17)

Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 17 (Kráka/Áslaug Sigurðardóttir, Lausavísur 6)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 660.

text and translation

notes and context

With her three-year-old son Sigurðr in tow, Áslaug receives the news of Rǫgnvaldr’s death from her newly returned sons Ívarr, Bjǫrn and Hvítserkr. She implies criticism of them for keeping her waiting so long for the news, and compares them unfavourably, also by implication, with Rǫgnvaldr, the youngest of her sons at the time of his heroic death at Hvítabær.

[1-4]: Among previous eds, only Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 207) (perhaps followed by Eskeland (Ragn 1944) is clear in taking heiman ‘from home’ in l. 3 together with kaga ‘gaze (at), watch’, in l. 1, in the sense of ‘watch … from home’. All others (including those of CPB, who, however, leave ll. 2-4 partly blank) seem to treat ll. 1-2 as syntactically independent, as does the present ed. Rafn (FSN) follows 1824b in ll. 3-4, while Valdimar Ásmundarson (Ragn 1891) emends heim af in l. 3 to harmi at and ‘hvsgafs’ in l. 4 to húsgangs ‘begging from house to house’; neither’s text lends itself to satisfactory interpretation. Olsen takes kaga ‘gaze at’, as transitive, with its object mávangs ‘the gull-field [SEA]’ in l. 2 in the gen. He emends 1824b’s heim af in l. 3 to heima ‘at home’, understanding it to modify the verb eruð immediately preceding it, while taking heiman to modify kaga in l. 1, as said; he also emends to húsgangs in l. 4, thus: ‘my sons let me gaze at the sea for a long time from home, (while) you, at home, are only moderately capable (meðalfærir, i.e. hardly even capable) of begging from house to house’. Olsen further considers, without committing himself to it, the alternative possibility of emending heim af in l. 3 to hreina, gen. pl. of hreinn m. ‘reindeer’ and taking it as the base-word in a kenning for ‘ships’, with mávangs ‘the gull-field’s’, ‘sea’s’, as determinant, and forming the gen. object of kaga, thus producing: ‘my sons let me gaze at the reindeer of the gull-field [SEA > SHIPS] for a long time from home …’. Finnur Jónsson’s emendation of af in l. 3 to ok ‘and’ (Skj B) gives very satisfactory sense in the context (heim ok heiman ‘homewards and from home’), intensifying the idea of ‘from house to house’ implicit in the emended form húsgangs in l. 4, which Finnur also adopts. His text of ll. 3-4 is followed by Kock (Skald), Guðni Jónsson (FSGJ), Örnólfur Thorsson (Ragn 1985) and also by the present ed.

readings

• [1] Kaga létu mik mínir: ‘(Ka)ga (l)ietu m(i)g min(ir)’(?) 147
• [2] mávangs: ‘(ma)g(v) […]gs’(?) 147
• [3] heim: ‘(heim)’(?) 147
• [3] ok: af 1824b, ‘[…]’ 147
• [3] heiman: ‘h[…]’ 147
• [4] húsgangs: ‘hvsgafs’ 1824b, ‘hus(g)[…]’(?) 147
• [4] meðalfærir: ‘[…](dal fæ) rir’(?) 147
• [5] Rögnvaldr: ‘rraug[…]valldur’ 147
• [5] rjóða: ‘ri(o)d(a)’(?) 147
• [6] rönd í gumna blóði: ‘[…] gumna bl[…]’ 147
• [7] hann kom yngstr til Óðins: ‘(hann) […] odin(s)’(?) 147
• [8] ógndjarfr sona minna: ‘ogn dia[…]ur (so)na (m)inna’(?) 147

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) — 65r/9 - 65r/12

  Kaga létu mik mínir
  mávangs synir löngum;
  ér eruð heim af heiman
  †hvsgafs† meðalfærir.
  Rögnvaldr tók at rjóða
  rönd í gumna blóði;
  hann kom yngstr til Óðins
  ógndjarfr sona minna.

  kaga letu mic minir. mavangs synir laungum. | er ervd heim af heíman. hvsgafs medal fęʀir. ʀavgnvalldr tok at río | da. ʀaund í gvmna blode. hann kom yngstr til oþíns. ogn diarfr sona | mínna.

  (RM)

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• AM 147 4° (147) — 104r/2 - 104r

  †(Ka)ga (l)ietu m(i)g min(ir)†
  †(ma)g(v) […]gs† synir löngum;
  ér eruð †(heim) […] h[…]†
  †hus(g)[…] […](dal fæ) rir†.
  †rraug[…]valldur† tók at †ri(o)d(a)†
  †[…] gumna bl[…]† ;
  †(hann) […] odin(s)†
  †ogn dia[…]ur (so)na (m)inna† .

  [Ka]ga [l]ietu m[i]g min[ir] [ma]g[v][...]gs synir laungum er | erud [heim] [...] h[...] hus[g][...][dal] [fæ]rir ʀaug[...]valldur tok | at ri[o]d[a] [...]d [...] gumna bl[...] [hann] [...] odin[s] ogn dia[...]ur | [so]na [m]inna

  (SGG)

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