KrákÁsl Lv 7VIII (Ragn 18)
Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 18 (Kráka/Áslaug Sigurðardóttir, Lausavísur 7)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 661.
text and translation
Eigi mundi yðvar
óhefnt vera lengi,
eitt misseri eptir,
ef ér dæið fyrri,
— lítt hirði ek því leyna —
ef líf hafa knætti
Eiríkr sitt ok Agnarr
óbornir mér niðjar.
Yðvar mundi eigi vera lengi óhefnt, eitt misseri eptir, ef ér dæið fyrri, — lítt hirði ek leyna því — ef Eiríkr ok Agnarr, niðjar óbornir mér, knætti hafa líf sitt.
‘You would not be long unavenged, [not] one half-year afterwards, if you were to die first — I hardly care to make a secret of it — if Eiríkr and Agnarr, descendants not born to me, had their lives. ’
notes and context
Áslaug here points out to her sons that if they had died and her stepsons, Eiríkr and Agnarr, were still alive, they, their stepbrothers, would have been quick to avenge them.
[1-4]: It will be clear from the Readings above that the 1824b text of this stanza differs from those of 147 and Hb in the first half-stanza in that ll. 2 and 4 of 1824b appear in Hb and 147 in reverse order, and Hb and 147 have the reading bræðra in place of 1824b’s lengi (l. 2). The meaning thus emerging from ll. 1, 4 in Hb and 147 (cf. ll. 1-2 in 1824b) would be: ‘You brothers would not be unavenged …’, with bræðra used appositively with the gen. 2nd pers. pl. pron. yðvar as a gen. object of óhefnt ‘unavenged’. In 1824b, which is followed in the present edn, it is yðvar alone that is the gen. object of óhefnt. Among previous eds of the half-stanza, Rafn (FSN) and Valdimar Ásmundarson (Ragn 1891) follow 1824b. Finnur Jónsson (Hb 1892-6) naturally follows the Hb text; less naturally, perhaps, so do Vigfusson and Powell (CPB) and Örnólfur Thorsson (Ragn 1985). All other eds, as well as Finnur Jónsson in Skj B, follow the line ordering of 1824b but read bræðra in place of lengi in l. 2, thus giving the same meaning as that emerging from Hb and 147: ‘You brothers would not be unavenged …’. A justification for choosing bræðra over lengi might be that lengi ‘long’ could be thought of as contradicting eitt misseri eptir ‘one half-year afterwards’ in l. 3. This difficulty is avoided, however, if the two phrases are considered to be in apposition, with eigi ‘not’ (l. 1) applying to both.
readings
- [1] Eigi: so Hb, ei 1824b, ‘(Eigi)’(?) 147
- [1] yðvar: ‘(yduar)’(?) so 147, yðar 1824b, Hb
- [2] óhefnt vera lengi: ‘ef (þier d)[…]’(?) 147, ef ér dæið fyrri Hb
- [3] misseri: ‘m(i)sser(i)’(?) 147, missari Hb
- [4] ef ér dæið fyrri: ‘(ohefnt) vera bræðra’(?) 147, óhefnt vera bræðra Hb
- [5] hirði ek: ‘h[…]d(i e)g’(?) 147, ráðumz Hb
- [6] ef líf hafa knætti: ‘(ef lif hafa) […]’(?) 147
- [7] Eiríkr sitt ok Agnarr: ‘[…] sitt (og agnar)’(?) 147
- [8] mér niðjar: ‘(mi)er (nidi)ar’(?) 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/20 - 65v/1
imagesei mundi yðar
óhefnt vera lengi,
eitt misseri eptir,
ef ér dæið fyrri,
— lítt hirði ek því leyna —
ef líf hafa knætti
Eiríkr sitt ok Agnarr
óbornir mér niðjar.Ei mvndí ydar vhefnt vera leínge. eit misserí ept| tir. ef þer dęít fyʀí. lítt hirdí ek þvi leyna. ef líf hafa knęttí. || Eíʀekr sit ok agnar. obornir mer niþiar.
(RM)
-
AM 147 4° (147) — 104r/21 - 104r/23
images†(Eigi)† mundi yðvar
†ef (þier d)[…]† ,
eitt †m(i)sser(i)† eptir,
†(ohefnt) vera bræðra† ,
— lítt †h[…]d(i e)g† því leyna —
†(ef lif hafa) […]†
†[…] sitt (og agnar)†
óbornir †(mi)er (nidi)ar† .[Eigi] mundi [yduar ef] [þier d[...] eit m[i] | sser[i eft]ir [ohefnt] vera brædra [lit] h[...]d[i] [e]g þui leyna [ef lif hafa] [...] | sitt [og agnar] obornir [mi]er [nidi]ar
(SGG)
-
AM 544 4° (Hb) — 105v - 105v
Eigi mundi yðar
images
ef ér dæið fyrri ,
eitt missari eptir,
óhefnt vera bræðra ,
— lítt ráðumz því leyna —
ef líf hafa knætti
Eiríkr sitt ok Agnarr
óbornir mér niðjar.
editions and texts
Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], E. 2. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Ragnarssaga loðbrókar V 8: AII, 236, BII, 256, Skald II, 133; FSN 1, 266 (Ragn ch. 9), Ragn 1891, 199 (ch. 9), Hb 1892-6, 460-1 (RagnSon ch. 2), Ragn 1906-8, 143, 183, 208 (ch. 10), Ragn 1944, 70-1, 73 (ch. 10), FSGJ 1, 253 (Ragn ch. 10), Ragn 1985, 127 (ch. 10), Ragn 2003, 38-9 (ch. 10), CPB II, 349.
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