Anon (Ragn) 2VIII (Ragn 32)
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.
Seg ‘Speak’
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segja (verb): say, tell
þú ‘’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
frá ‘of’
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frá (prep.): from
þegn ‘’
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þegn (noun m.; °dat. -/-i; -ar): thane, man, franklin < þegnskapr (noun m.)
sköpum ‘exploits’
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skapr (noun m.): [liking] < þegnskapr (noun m.)
þínum ‘your’
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þinn (pron.; °f. þín, n. þitt): your
Þik ‘you’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
ráðumz ‘venture’
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ráða (verb): advise, rule, interpret, decide
ek ‘I’
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ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me
spyrja ‘to ask’
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spyrja (verb; spurði): ask; hear, find out
hvar ‘where’
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hvar (adv.): where
sáttu ‘did you see’
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2. sjá (verb): see
hrafn ‘a raven’
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hrafn (noun m.; °hrafns; dat. hrafni; hrafnar): raven
á ‘on’
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3. á (prep.): on, at
hríslu ‘a branch’
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hrísla (noun f.; °-u; -ur): °busk, gren, kvist
hrolla ‘fluttering’
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hrolla (verb): [shivers]
notes
[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.
dreyra ‘of blood’
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dreyri (noun m.; °-a): blood
fullan ‘full’
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2. fullr (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): full, complete
Optar ‘received’
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opt (adv.): often
þáttu ‘You’
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þiggja (verb): receive, get
at ‘from’
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3. at (prep.): at, to
öðrum ‘others’
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1. annarr (pron.; °f. ǫnnur, n. annat; pl. aðrir): (an)other, second
í ‘in’
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í (prep.): in, into
notes
[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.
öndvegi ‘the high seat’
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ǫndvegi (noun n.)
notes
[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.
fundinn ‘found’
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2. finna (verb): find, meet
en ‘more often than’
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4. en (conj.): than
þú ‘you’
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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you
dreyrug ‘bloody’
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dreyrugr (adj.; °dreyrgan/dreyrugan; superl. dreyrgastr): bloody
hræ ‘corpses’
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hræ (noun n.; °; -): corpse, carrion
drægir ‘could have dragged’
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2. draga (verb; °dregr; dró, drógu; dreginn/droget(Hirð NKS 1642 4° 146v²⁹; cf. [$962$])): drag, pull, draw
í ‘into’
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í (prep.): in, into
dal ‘a valley’
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dalr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -/-i; -ir, acc. -i/-a): valley
fyrir ‘for’
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fyrir (prep.): for, before, because of
val ‘carnage’
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1. valr (noun m.; °dat. -i; -ir): corpse, the slain < valfugl (noun m.): [carnage-birds]
kennings
valfugla.‘carnage-birds. ’
= RAVENS/EAGLES
carnage-birds. → RAVENS/EAGLES
fugla ‘birds’
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fugl (noun m.): bird < valfugl (noun m.): [carnage-birds]
kennings
valfugla.‘carnage-birds. ’
= RAVENS/EAGLES
carnage-birds. → RAVENS/EAGLES
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’.
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