Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 32 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Ragnars saga loðbrókar 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 687.
(not checked:)
segja (verb): say, tell
(not checked:)
þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
(not checked:)
frá (prep.): from
(not checked:)
þegn (noun m.; °dat. -/-i; -ar): thane, man, franklin < þegnskapr (noun m.)
(not checked:)
skapr (noun m.): [liking] < þegnskapr (noun m.)
(not checked:)
þinn (pron.; °f. þín, n. þitt): your
(not checked:)
þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
(not checked:)
ráða (verb): advise, rule, interpret, decide
(not checked:)
ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me
(not checked:)
spyrja (verb; spurði): ask; hear, find out
(not checked:)
hvar (adv.): where
(not checked:)
2. sjá (verb): see
(not checked:)
hrafn (noun m.; °hrafns; dat. hrafni; hrafnar): raven
(not checked:)
3. á (prep.): on, at
(not checked:)
hrísla (noun f.; °-u; -ur): °busk, gren, kvist
(not checked:)
hrolla (verb): [shivers]
[4] hrolla ‘fluttering’: Lit. ‘flutter’. Kock (NN §2151) provides examples from Old Norse poetry (Anon Sól 38/5VII, Þjsk Lv 5/1I, Am 97/9) to justify his translation gunga på gren ‘rock (or swing) on a branch’, criticising Finnur Jónsson’s translation skutte sig ‘shake oneself’ (Skj B), and his later remarks in LP: hrolla, apparently on the grounds that Finnur takes the verb to mean ‘shiver’ or ‘hunch oneself up’, as if assailed by the cold. Olsen’s translation (Ragn 1906-8, 216), vakle ‘reeling, staggering’ (as if drunk on blood?) and Eskeland’s (Ragn 1944, 125) ModNorw. raga, meaning much the same, give tolerable sense in the context.
(not checked:)
dreyri (noun m.; °-a): blood
(not checked:)
2. fullr (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): full, complete
(not checked:)
opt (adv.): often
(not checked:)
þiggja (verb): receive, get
(not checked:)
3. at (prep.): at, to
(not checked:)
1. annarr (pron.; °f. ǫnnur, n. annat; pl. aðrir): (an)other, second
(not checked:)
í (prep.): in, into
[6] í öndvegi ‘in the high seat’: Bååth (1890, 4) questions the frequent translation of öndvegi, as ‘high seat’ (ModSwed. högsäte), presumably on the grounds that, as certain dictionaries (LP: ǫndugi, ‑vegi; CVC: önd-vegi and önd-ugi; AEW: ǫndvegi, ǫndugi; ÍO: öndvegi; cf. 2 vega) have since explained, the word probably meant originally ‘opposite seat’, i.e. a seat facing another across a table or making with its prominence a strong impression on a newcomer facing it. According to Shetelig and Falk (1937, 324), the application of the word to the high seat, the special seat for the host in the centre of the wall of a long hall (cf. Holmquist 1962, 291; Roesdahl 1987, 45), arose from the fact that this seat was given prominence by the ǫndvegissúlur, the pillars placed on either side of it. Use of the term here is evidently symbolic and implies a contrast between the world of the banqueting hall and that of the battlefield. On the rather different context of the word as used in Ragn 36/2, see the Notes to that line and to Ragn 37/8.
(not checked:)
ǫndvegi (noun n.)
[6] í öndvegi ‘in the high seat’: Bååth (1890, 4) questions the frequent translation of öndvegi, as ‘high seat’ (ModSwed. högsäte), presumably on the grounds that, as certain dictionaries (LP: ǫndugi, ‑vegi; CVC: önd-vegi and önd-ugi; AEW: ǫndvegi, ǫndugi; ÍO: öndvegi; cf. 2 vega) have since explained, the word probably meant originally ‘opposite seat’, i.e. a seat facing another across a table or making with its prominence a strong impression on a newcomer facing it. According to Shetelig and Falk (1937, 324), the application of the word to the high seat, the special seat for the host in the centre of the wall of a long hall (cf. Holmquist 1962, 291; Roesdahl 1987, 45), arose from the fact that this seat was given prominence by the ǫndvegissúlur, the pillars placed on either side of it. Use of the term here is evidently symbolic and implies a contrast between the world of the banqueting hall and that of the battlefield. On the rather different context of the word as used in Ragn 36/2, see the Notes to that line and to Ragn 37/8.
(not checked:)
2. finna (verb): find, meet
(not checked:)
4. en (conj.): than
(not checked:)
þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
(not checked:)
dreyrugr (adj.; °dreyrgan/dreyrugan; superl. dreyrgastr): bloody
(not checked:)
hræ (noun n.; °; -): corpse, carrion
(not checked:)
2. draga (verb; °dregr; dró, drógu; dreginn/droget(Hirð NKS 1642 4° 146v²⁹; cf. [$962$])): drag, pull, draw
(not checked:)
í (prep.): in, into
(not checked:)
dalr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -/-i; -ir, acc. -i/-a): valley
(not checked:)
fyrir (prep.): for, before, because of
(not checked:)
1. valr (noun m.; °dat. -i; -ir): corpse, the slain < valfugl (noun m.): [carnage-birds]
(not checked:)
fugl (noun m.): bird < valfugl (noun m.): [carnage-birds]
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
Once all the sons of Ragnarr are dead, none of their followers can find leaders of comparable excellence, although two of them search separately for such a leader. The two searchers finally meet at a royal funeral feast, one of them arriving before the other. Once they are both present, the one who arrived first initiates an exchange of stanzas between them. In this stanza he accuses the one who arrived second of having more experience of the banqueting hall than of the field of battle.
[5-8]: The meaning appears to be that the person addressed has more often received than given, has more often been regaled with food and drink in the banqueting hall than he has regaled the birds of battle (the valfuglar of l. 8) with corpses of the slain (so Kock NN §1464 and most translators). Kock rightly criticises Finnur’s emendation (Skj B) of dat. pl. öðrum to n. dat. sg. öðru, and his translation of þáttu at as (oftere) har du … kikket efter ‘you have (more often) … looked at’ in l. 5, thus producing the meaning ‘You have more often looked at something else than …’, which says very little, and seems to imply a mistaken view of þáttu as pret. of þekkja ‘perceive, recognise’, rather than of þiggja ‘receive, accept’.
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
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.
This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.
This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.