KrákÁsl Lv 9VIII (Ragn 30)
Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 30 (Kráka/Áslaug Sigurðardóttir, Lausavísur 9)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 684.
Sonr ‘son’
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sonr (noun m.; °-ar, dat. syni; synir, acc. sonu, syni): son
notes
[1] einn sonr, sá er ek átta ‘one son of mine’: Lit. ‘one son, whom I had’. All eds apart from those of CPB, Rafn (FSN), and Örnólfur Thorsson (Ragn 1985), supply by normalisation the rel. particle es, er in one form or another (sá es, sá er, sá’s, sá’r), where ms. 1824b has only sá. The loss of the relative particle er is a feature of C14th Old Norse, cf. NS §261; see also SkP VII, lxvii.
beið ‘met’
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bíða (verb; °bíðr; beið, biðu; beðit): wait, suffer, experience
einn ‘One’
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1. einn (num. cardinal; °f. ein, n. eitt; pl. einir; superl. debil. -asti(Anna238(2001) 155³²)): one; alone
notes
[1] einn sonr, sá er ek átta ‘one son of mine’: Lit. ‘one son, whom I had’. All eds apart from those of CPB, Rafn (FSN), and Örnólfur Thorsson (Ragn 1985), supply by normalisation the rel. particle es, er in one form or another (sá es, sá er, sá’s, sá’r), where ms. 1824b has only sá. The loss of the relative particle er is a feature of C14th Old Norse, cf. NS §261; see also SkP VII, lxvii.
sá ‘’
notes
[1] einn sonr, sá er ek átta ‘one son of mine’: Lit. ‘one son, whom I had’. All eds apart from those of CPB, Rafn (FSN), and Örnólfur Thorsson (Ragn 1985), supply by normalisation the rel. particle es, er in one form or another (sá es, sá er, sá’s, sá’r), where ms. 1824b has only sá. The loss of the relative particle er is a feature of C14th Old Norse, cf. NS §261; see also SkP VII, lxvii.
notes
[1] einn sonr, sá er ek átta ‘one son of mine’: Lit. ‘one son, whom I had’. All eds apart from those of CPB, Rafn (FSN), and Örnólfur Thorsson (Ragn 1985), supply by normalisation the rel. particle es, er in one form or another (sá es, sá er, sá’s, sá’r), where ms. 1824b has only sá. The loss of the relative particle er is a feature of C14th Old Norse, cf. NS §261; see also SkP VII, lxvii.
ek ‘mine’
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ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me
notes
[1] einn sonr, sá er ek átta ‘one son of mine’: Lit. ‘one son, whom I had’. All eds apart from those of CPB, Rafn (FSN), and Örnólfur Thorsson (Ragn 1985), supply by normalisation the rel. particle es, er in one form or another (sá es, sá er, sá’s, sá’r), where ms. 1824b has only sá. The loss of the relative particle er is a feature of C14th Old Norse, cf. NS §261; see also SkP VII, lxvii.
átta ‘’
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2. eiga (verb; °á/eigr (præs. pl. 3. pers. eigu/eiga); átti, áttu; átt): own, have
notes
[1] einn sonr, sá er ek átta ‘one son of mine’: Lit. ‘one son, whom I had’. All eds apart from those of CPB, Rafn (FSN), and Örnólfur Thorsson (Ragn 1985), supply by normalisation the rel. particle es, er in one form or another (sá es, sá er, sá’s, sá’r), where ms. 1824b has only sá. The loss of the relative particle er is a feature of C14th Old Norse, cf. NS §261; see also SkP VII, lxvii.
í ‘in’
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í (prep.): in, into
austrvegi ‘the east’
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austrvegr (noun m.; °dat. -i/-; acc. -a/-u): the East (e.g. the Baltic, Russia), the way east
dauða ‘death’
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dauði (noun m.; °-a; -ar): death
Hvítserkr ‘Hvítserkr’
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Hvítserkr (noun m.): Hvítserkr
var ‘was’
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
heitinn ‘called’
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2. heita (verb): be called, promise
hvergi ‘in no way’
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1. hvergi (adv.): nowhere
gjarn ‘inclined’
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gjarn (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): eager
at ‘to’
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5. at (nota): to (with infinitive)
flýja ‘take flight’
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flýja (verb): to flee, take flight
Hitnaði ‘was burnt’
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hitna (verb): heat, grow hot
hann ‘He’
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hann (pron.; °gen. hans, dat. honum; f. hon, gen. hennar, acc. hana): he, she, it, they, them...
af ‘by’
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af (prep.): from
höfðum ‘the heads’
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hǫfuð (noun n.; °-s; -): head
höggvins ‘cut down’
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hǫggva (verb): to strike, put to death, cut, hew
[6] höggvins: ‘havggvís’ 1824b
vals ‘of the slain’
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1. valr (noun m.; °dat. -i; -ir): corpse, the slain
at ‘in’
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3. at (prep.): at, to
rómu ‘battle’
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róma (noun f.): battle
kaus ‘chose’
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kjósa (verb): choose
bana ‘manner of death’
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bani (noun m.; °-a; -ar): death, killer
þengill ‘the prince’
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þengill (noun m.): prince, ruler
þróttar ‘courageous’
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þróttr (noun m.): strength, might, valour < þróttarsnjallr (adj.)
[8] þróttar‑: ‘þrotar’ 1824b
snjallr ‘in his strength’
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snjallr (adj.): quick, resourceful, bold < þróttarsnjallr (adj.)
áðr ‘before’
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áðr (adv.; °//): before
felli ‘he fell’
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falla (verb): fall
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
Áslaug-Randalín lives to hear, as an old woman, the news of Hvítserkr’s heroic death in the east; once defeated in battle, he chose to burn to death on the piled heads of the slain, as she here describes.
This stanza presents few difficulties of interpretation. Hvítserkr (not a historical figure) is mentioned in the mid-C12th poem Háttalykill (RvHbreiðm Hl 21/1III), not specifically as a son of Ragnarr, but close to sts 11-20 in which Ragnarr, Ælle, and inn beinlausi ‘the boneless one’, as well as Agnarr, Bjǫrn and Sigurðr are also mentioned; cf. McTurk (1991a, 89-90). In Saxo (Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 17, pp. 644-5), he appears as Withsercus, a son of Regnerus Lothbrog by his third wife Suanlogha. According to Saxo (Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 21, pp. 648-9), Withsercus is appointed King of the Scythians by his father Regnerus, but later (Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 29-32, pp. 654-7) is treacherously attacked by Daxon, King of the Hellespont, and eventually captured from the top of a pile of corpses while fighting off his assailants. Daxon is moved by his physical beauty to offer him his daughter in marriage, but Withsercus prefers to be bound and burnt to death with his captive friends. Regnerus avenges his death by banishing Daxon to Utgarthia, but later restores Daxon to his kingdom, insisting on an annual tribute from him. Withsercus’s choice of the manner of his own death and his refusal of the offer of his conqueror’s daughter in marriage recall the story of Eiríkr’s death reflected in Ragn 11-14, above, and de Vries (1927b, 136-7; cf. 1928c, 125) argues that this story influenced that of Hvítserkr’s death as described by Saxo and in Ragn 30 and 31. This is indeed likely, though, to judge from numerous differences in detail, Saxo may have had available to him not the full story of Eiríkr’s death but a version of the story of Hvítserkr’s already influenced by it.
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