KrákÁsl Lv 6VIII (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.
Kaga ‘gaze at’
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kaga (verb)
[1] Kaga létu mik mínir: ‘(Ka)ga (l)ietu m(i)g min(ir)’(?) 147
létu ‘let’
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láta (verb): let, have sth done
[1] Kaga létu mik mínir: ‘(Ka)ga (l)ietu m(i)g min(ir)’(?) 147
mik ‘me’
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ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me
[1] Kaga létu mik mínir: ‘(Ka)ga (l)ietu m(i)g min(ir)’(?) 147
mínir ‘My’
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minn (pron.; °f. mín, n. mitt): my
[1] Kaga létu mik mínir: ‘(Ka)ga (l)ietu m(i)g min(ir)’(?) 147
má ‘the gull’
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már (noun m.): gull < mávangr (noun m.): [gull-field]
[2] mávangs: ‘(ma)g(v) […]gs’(?) 147
kennings
mávangs‘the gull-field ’
= SEA
the gull-field → SEA
vangs ‘field’
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1. vangr (noun m.): field, plain < mávangr (noun m.): [gull-field]
[2] mávangs: ‘(ma)g(v) […]gs’(?) 147
kennings
mávangs‘the gull-field ’
= SEA
the gull-field → SEA
synir ‘sons’
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sonr (noun m.; °-ar, dat. syni; synir, acc. sonu, syni): son
löngum ‘for a long time’
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langr (adj.; °compar. lengri, superl. lengstr): long
ér ‘you’
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ér (pron.; °gen. yðvar/yðar, dat./acc. yðr): you
notes
[3] ér ‘you’: Lit. ‘you (pl.)’. Both mss have the earlier form ér of the 2nd pers. pl. nom. ‘you’; cf. Ragn 15/1 and 18/4.
eruð ‘are’
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
hús ‘of begging’
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hús (noun n.; °-s; -): house < húsgangr (noun m.)
[4] húsgangs: ‘hvsgafs’ 1824b, ‘hus(g)[…]’(?) 147
notes
[4] húsgangs ‘of begging from house to house’: Húsgangr m. is a legal term, found in the final subsection (§143) of the Ómagabálkr ‘Dependents’ section’ in the Codex Regius of Grágás (Grg Ib, 28), and translated by Dennis et al. (1980-2000, II, 52) as ‘house-to-house vagrancy’. Áslaug’s words are insulting, contributing to her purpose of taunting her sons into taking revenge.
gangs ‘from house to house’
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gangr (noun m.): going, walking; course; success < húsgangr (noun m.)
[4] húsgangs: ‘hvsgafs’ 1824b, ‘hus(g)[…]’(?) 147
notes
[4] húsgangs ‘of begging from house to house’: Húsgangr m. is a legal term, found in the final subsection (§143) of the Ómagabálkr ‘Dependents’ section’ in the Codex Regius of Grágás (Grg Ib, 28), and translated by Dennis et al. (1980-2000, II, 52) as ‘house-to-house vagrancy’. Áslaug’s words are insulting, contributing to her purpose of taunting her sons into taking revenge.
meðal ‘hardly’
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meðal (prep.): between < meðalfœrr (adj.)
[4] meðalfærir: ‘[…](dal fæ) rir’(?) 147
færir ‘capable’
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fœrr (adj.): capable < meðalfœrr (adj.)
[4] meðalfærir: ‘[…](dal fæ) rir’(?) 147
Rögnvaldr ‘Rǫgnvaldr’
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Rǫgnvaldr (noun m.): Rǫgnvaldr
[5] Rögnvaldr: ‘rraug[…]valldur’ 147
tók ‘proceeded’
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2. taka (verb): take
at ‘to’
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5. at (nota): to (with infinitive)
rönd ‘a shield’
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rǫnd (noun f.; °dat. -/-u; rendr/randir): shield, shield-rim
[6] rönd í gumna blóði: ‘[…] gumna bl[…]’ 147
gumna ‘of men’
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gumi (noun m.; °-a; gumar/gumnar): man
[6] rönd í gumna blóði: ‘[…] gumna bl[…]’ 147
blóði ‘the blood’
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blóð (noun n.; °-s): blood
[6] rönd í gumna blóði: ‘[…] gumna bl[…]’ 147
hann ‘he’
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hann (pron.; °gen. hans, dat. honum; f. hon, gen. hennar, acc. hana): he, she, it, they, them...
[7] hann kom yngstr til Óðins: ‘(hann) […] odin(s)’(?) 147
kom ‘went’
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koma (verb; kem, kom/kvam, kominn): come
[7] hann kom yngstr til Óðins: ‘(hann) […] odin(s)’(?) 147
yngstr ‘the youngest’
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ungr (adj.): young
[7] hann kom yngstr til Óðins: ‘(hann) […] odin(s)’(?) 147
notes
[7] yngstr ‘the youngest’: At the time of her reciting this stanza Áslaug’s youngest son is in fact the three-year-old Sigurðr ormr-í-auga, who according to the saga prose (Ragn 1906-8, 142) is at her side as she does so. The reference here is to Rǫgnvaldr, who died before Sigurðr was born, and was her youngest son at the time of his death. See the Contexts of Ragn 7-8, above. The reference til Óðins ‘to Óðinn’ is to Rǫgnvaldr joining the einherjar, Óðinn’s warriors in Valhǫll, after his heroic death (cf. SnE 2005, 21).
Óðins ‘Óðinn’
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Óðinn (noun m.): Óðinn
[7] hann kom yngstr til Óðins: ‘(hann) […] odin(s)’(?) 147
ógn ‘in battle’
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ógn (noun f.; °-ar; -ir): terror, battle < ógndjarfr (adj.): terror-bold
[8] ógndjarfr sona minna: ‘ogn dia[…]ur (so)na (m)inna’(?) 147
djarfr ‘bold’
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djarfr (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): bold < ógndjarfr (adj.): terror-bold
[8] ógndjarfr sona minna: ‘ogn dia[…]ur (so)na (m)inna’(?) 147
sona ‘sons’
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sonr (noun m.; °-ar, dat. syni; synir, acc. sonu, syni): son
[8] ógndjarfr sona minna: ‘ogn dia[…]ur (so)na (m)inna’(?) 147
minna ‘of my’
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minn (pron.; °f. mín, n. mitt): my
[8] ógndjarfr sona minna: ‘ogn dia[…]ur (so)na (m)inna’(?) 147
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
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.
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