KrákÁsl Lv 11VIII (RagnSon 1) (Kráka/Áslaug)
Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars sona þáttr 1 (Kráka/Áslaug Sigurðardóttir, Lausavísur 11)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 780.
text and translation
Sitja veiðivitjar
vals á borgar hálsum;
böl er, þat er hefr um hafnat
hrafn Sigurðar nafni.
Blási nýtinjótar
nás í spán at hánum;
ofsnemma lét Óðinn
álf valmeyjar deyja.
{Veiðivitjar vals} sitja á hálsum borgar; böl er, þat er hrafn hefr um hafnat nafni Sigurðar. Blási {nýtinjótar nás} í spán at hánum; Óðinn lét {álf {valmeyjar}} deyja ofsnemma.
‘Hunting-visitors of the slain [RAVENS] sit on the heights of the fortress; it is a misfortune that the raven has forsaken the name of Sigurðr. Let the devourers of the dead [RAVENS/EAGLES] whistle for him; Óðinn caused the elf of the carnage-maiden [VALKYRIE > WARRIOR] to die too early. ’
notes and context
Áslaug speaks this stanza on hearing from Helgi hvassi ‘the Keen’ of the death of one of her sons by Ragnarr, Sigurðr ormr-í-auga ‘Snake-in-eye’, in a battle against the emperor Ǫrnúlfr.
[3]: As it stands, this line is unmetrical, reading böl er þat hefr um hafnat. It is likely that, in this C14th ms., the rel. particle er after þat has been omitted. In pre-1250 normalisation it would have scanned as a regular A-line, bǫls, þats hefr of hafnat. The rel. particle has been restored here in line with normalisation to the period 1250-1300. — [3-4]: Now that Sigurðr is dead, the raven no longer takes his name into account when wondering who might provide it with sustenance in the shape of the slain in battle. — [7-8]: Óðinn is here seen in his capacity as a god of war (Turville-Petre 1964, 50-5), causing warriors to die in battle as part of the process of selection for admission to Valhǫll (cf. SnE 2005, 21, 30). — [7]: This is the only line in the stanza that lacks an appropriate hending, in this case skothending.
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.
editions and texts
Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], E. 3. Vers af Fornaldarsagaer: Af Ragnarssonaþáttr: AII, 242, BII, 261, Skald II, 136, NN §§182, 1469; RagnSon 1773, 283-4 (ch. 58), FSN 1, 358 (RagnSon ch. 5), RagnSon 1891, 241 (ch. 5), Hb 1892-6, 466 (RagnSon ch. 5), FSGJ 1, 301-2 (RagnSon ch. 5); Rafn 1822, 247-8, CPB II, 352.
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