Anon (Vǫlsa) 1I
Wilhelm Heizmann (ed.) 2012, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Vǫlsa þáttr 1’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1092.
text and translation
Karl hefir búit ok kona ǫldruð
á andnesi einhverju.
Átti son við seima Bil
drengr ok dóttur drjúgskýrliga.
Karl ok ǫldruð kona hefir búit á einhverju andnesi. Drengr átti son ok drjúgskýrliga dóttur við {Bil seima}.
‘An old man and an aged woman used to live on a certain headland. The capable man had a son and a very sensible daughter with the Bil <goddess> of gold [WOMAN].’
notes and context
The prose text sets the story in the time before the expulsion of King Óláfr from Norway by King Knútr (late 1020s), and connects it with the Christianizing efforts of Óláfr. The king is informed about heathen practices being performed on a remote farm in northern Norway. The family at the farm, a farmer, a housewife and their son and daughter, are introduced and st. 1 cited with at þui sem j upphafi kuædissins segir ok suo hefr ‘as it says in the beginning of the poem, starting thus’. The prose resumes with the remainder of the household: a male and a female servant, and a dog called Lærir.
The stanza is missing in 292ˣ, and it was probably inserted into Flat as an introductory stanza deduced from the prose text.
readings
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.
-
GKS 1005 fol (Flat) — 121vb/39 - 121vb/40
imagesKarl hefir búit
ok kona ǫldruð
†a nnd nesi†
einhverju.
Átti son
við seima Bil
drengr ok dóttur
drjúgskýrliga.Karll hefir buít ok kona olldrut a nnd | nesi æínhueríu · atti son vid sæima bil dræingr ok dottur driug skyrlíga ·
(DW)
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