Anon (Ragn) 7^VIII (Ragn 37)

Fylgðum Birni báðir
at branda gný hverjum
— váru reyndir rekkar —
en Ragnari stundum.
Var ek, þar er bragnar börðuz
á Bolgaralandi;
því bar ek sár á síðu;
sittu innar meir, granni!

Fylgðum báðir Birni, en stundum Ragnari, at {hverjum gný branda}; váru reyndir rekkar. Ek var, þar er bragnar börðuz á Bolgaralandi; því bar ek sár á síðu; sittu innar meir, granni!

We both accompanied Bjǫrn, and sometimes Ragnarr, in {every clash of swords} [BATTLE]; they were proven warriors. I was where men fought in Bolgaraland; hence I bore a wound in my side; sit further in, neighbour!

Mss: 1824b(76v) (Ragn)

Editions: Skj AII, 241, Skj BII, 260, Skald II, 135; FSN 1, 298 (Ragn ch. 20), Ragn 1891, 222-3 (ch. 20), Ragn 1906-8, 173, 220 (ch. 19), Ragn 1944, 128-31 (ch. 21), FSGJ 1, 284 (Ragn ch. 19), Ragn 1985, 152 (ch. 19), Ragn 2003, 67 (ch. 19), CPB II, 353.

Context: The second of the two speakers states that both of them were followers of Bjǫrn (járnsíða) and Ragnarr, and the prose which follows the stanza confirms that they have finally recognised one another as former companions.

Notes: [All]: The Ragnarr and Bjǫrn referred to in ll. 1 and 4 are presumably Ragnarr loðbrók, the hero of Ragn, and Bjǫrn járnsíða ‘Ironside’, the second of Ragnarr’s five sons by Kráka-Áslaug (see the Contexts of Ragn 7 and 8 above). On the historical prototype(s) of Ragnarr loðbrók, see the Introduction. The historical prototype of Bjǫrn járnsíða appears to have been one Berno, who according to the Chronicon Fontanellense for 855 (Pertz 1829, 304) and the contemporary Annales Bertiniani for 858 (Rau 1969, 96-7) was active between those years as a viking leader on the Seine. This Berno also seems to have been the prototype of the viking leader referred to as Lotroci regis filius, nomine Bier Coste … ferree ‘the son of King Lothrocus, named Bier of the Iron Side’ by William of Jumièges, writing in c.1070 (van Houts 1992-5, I, 8-11, 16-17). According to William, this Bier, son of Lothrocus, sailed with the viking Hastingus to Rome in order to conquer it, but bad weather forced them to land at Luni, which they took by a ruse and destroyed, mistaking it for Rome. On discovering their mistake they parted company and Bier sailed first to England, suffering shipwreck en route, and then to Frisia, where he died (van Houts 1992-5, I, 8-9, 22-7). William’s account of the conquest of Luni by Hastingus, derived from Dudo of St Quentin (who makes no mention of Bier; see Lair 1865, 129-38) is almost certainly unhistorical (de Vries 1923a, 254-5; 1928d, 122-5; Christiansen 1998, 16-20, 184 n. 88); it finds an echo in Ragn’s account of how the sons of Ragnarr, having proceeded victoriously to Luni, abandoned there the idea of going as far as Rome (see the Context of Ragn 23, above, and McTurk 1991a, 108-10, cf. 206-7, 226-7). It is not impossible, however, that Bier’s historical prototype Berno was active in the Mediterranean as well as on the Seine (de Vries 1923a, 253-6). — [6] á Bolgaralandi ‘in Bolgaraland’: I.e. in the land of the Bulgars. The Bulgars, originally a Turkic nomadic people, lived in two locations in the Viking Age, having divided into two branches in the mid-C7th: the Balkans (in roughly the area of modern Bulgaria) and the middle Volga (Haywood 2000, 38). If Bolgaraland ‘the land of the Bulgars’ in l. 6 refers to one of these two locations, and if the bragnar ‘men’ in l. 5 are Ragnarr and Bjǫrn, referred to in the first half-stanza, there is no clear evidence of these figures having fought as far east as this, either in history or legend. It seems safest not to look for a precise location of Bolgaraland here, and to follow Renaud (2005, 70 n. 59) in seeing ll. 5-6 as referring generally to the activities of the sons of Ragnarr loðbrók in southern Europe. — [7] bar ek ‘I bore’: This is the more likely understanding of the abbreviated reading here, even if pres. ber ek/berk ‘I bear’, adopted by all previous eds apart from Rafn (FSN), Valdimar Ásmundarson (Ragn 1891) and Guðni Jónsson (FSGJ), gives marginally better sense in the context. — [8]: No more specific translation than what is given above is possible, in view of the inconsistency in the accompanying prose of Ragn; see the Note to st. 36/2, above.

References

1. Bibliography
2. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
5. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
6. Houts, Elisabeth M. C. van, ed. and trans. 1992-5. The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni. 2 vols. Oxford Medieval Texts. Oxford: Clarendon.
7. McTurk, Rory. 1991a. Studies in Ragnars saga loðbrókar and Its Major Scandinavian Analogues. Medium Ævum Monographs new ser. 15. Oxford: Society for the Study of Mediæval Languages and Literature.
8. Ragn 1906-8 = Olsen 1906-8, 111-222.
9. Christiansen, Eric, trans. 1998. Dudo of St Quentin: History of the Normans. Woodbridge: Boydell.
10. Ragn 1944 = Eskeland, Severin, ed. and trans. 1944. Soga om Ragnar Lodbrok med Kråka-kvædet. Norrøne bokverk 16. 2nd ed. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget. [1st ed. 1914].
11. Haywood, John. 2000. Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age. London: Thames & Hudson.
12. Lair, Jules, ed. 1865. De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum auctore Dudone Sancti Quintini decano. Caen: F. Le Blanc-Hardel.
13. Pertz, G. H., ed. 1829. ‘Fragmentum chronici Fontallensis a. 841-859’. In Monvmenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores II. Hannover: Hahn, 301-04.
14. Renaud, Jean, trans. 2005. Saga de Ragnarr aux Braies velues, suivie du Dit des fils de Ragnarr et du Chant de Kráka. Toulouse: Anacharsis.
15. Vries, Jan de. 1923. ‘Die historischen Grundlagen der Ragnarssaga Loðbrókar’. ANF 39, 244-74.
16. Ragn 1985 = Örnólfur Thorsson 1985, 101-53.
17. Ragn 1891 = 2nd edn (pp. 175-224) of Ragn as ed. in Valdimar Ásmundarson 1885-9, I.
18. Ragn 2003 = Ebel, Uwe, ed. 2003. Ragnars saga loðbrókar. Texte des skandinavischen Mittelalters 4. Vol. II of Ebel 1997-2003.
19. Rau, Reinhold, ed. and revised. 1969. Quellen zur karolingischen Reichsgeschichte, part 2: Jahrbücher von St Bertin. Jahrbücher von St Vaast. Xantener Jahrbücher, with German translations by J. V. Jasmund and C. Rehdantz (= Ausgewählte Quellen zur deutschen Geschichte des Mittelalters. Freiherr vom Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe. Ed. Rudolf Buchner. VI). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
20. Internal references
21. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ragnars saga loðbrókar’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 616. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=81> (accessed 18 April 2024)
22. Not published: do not cite (Rloð^VIII)
23. Not published: do not cite (Run^VI)
24. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 23 (Ragnarr loðbrók, Lausavísur 7)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 670.
25. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 37 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Ragnars saga loðbrókar 7)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 697.