Anon Krm 26^VIII

Hjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Hér mundu nú allir
burir Áslaugar bröndum
bitrum hildi vekja,
ef vandliga vissi
um viðfarar ossar,
hvé ófáir ormar
eitrfullir mik slíta.
Móðernis fekk ek mínum
mögum, svá at hjörtun dugðu.

Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Allir burir Áslaugar mundu nú vekja hildi hér bitrum bröndum, ef vissi vandliga um viðfarar ossar, hvé ófáir eitrfullir ormar slíta mik. Ek fekk mögum mínum móðernis, svá at hjörtun dugðu.

We hewed with the sword. All the sons of Áslaug would now start a battle here with sharp swords, if they knew fully about our treatment, how numerous poisonous snakes are tearing at me. I gave my sons such a mother that their hearts stood firm.

Mss: R702ˣ(31v), 147(103r), 6ˣ(91r) (Ragn); LR(223-224), R693ˣ(17r)

Readings: [1] Hjuggu vér með hjörvi: abbrev. as ‘H v m h:’ R702ˣ, abbrev. as ‘(Hi’) v(’ m’) hiaurfi’(?) 147, Hjuggum vér með hjörvi 6ˣ, LR, R693ˣ    [2] mundu: so 147, vildu all others;    nú: ‘[...]’ 147    [3] burir: ‘burar’ 147;    Áslaugar: ‘[...]sl(au)gar’(?) 147, ‘Außlaugar’ R693ˣ;    bröndum: ‘[...](und)[...]’(?) 147    [4] bitrum: ‘(bi)t[…]’(?) 147, ‘biaurtum’ 6ˣ;    hildi vekja: ‘[...] (vek)ia’(?) 147    [5] vandliga: ‘vandlig[…]’ 147, ‘vandlige’ LR    [6] um: of 6ˣ    [8] eitrfullir mik slíta: ‘(e)iturfull(í)r […] slita’(?) 147, ‘eitur ffllir mig slyta’ LR    [9] Móðernis fekk ek mínum: ‘modernis (f)[…] eg [...](um)’(?) 147    [10] mögum: ‘[...]ugum’ 147;    svá at: ‘su(a) at’(?) 147, svát 6ˣ;    hjörtun dugðu: ‘hiort[…] d[...](dv)’(?) 147, ‘hiortu duga’ 6ˣ, ‘hiortun duga’ LR

Editions: Skj AI, 648, Skj BI, 655, Skald I, 320; Rafn 1826, 22-23, 147-8, Pfeiffer 1860, 127, CPB II, 344, Wisén 1886-9, I, 65-6, Krm 1891, 228, Finnur Jónsson 1893b, 90, Finnur Jónsson 1905, 156; Ragn 1906-8, 189.

Notes: [2, 4] mundu … vekja ‘would … start’: Lit. ‘would wake’. A sense of strong probability is required here, in view of what is conveyed by the conditional clause in ll. 5-8. However, both the majority mss’ reading vildu and that of 147, mundu, adopted here, are 3rd pers. pl. pret. indic. rather than the expected subj. forms. Previous eds up to and including Wisén (1886-9) retain the majority mss’ reading vildu, while Finnur Jónsson (1893b; 1905; Skj B) and Kock (Skald) emend to vildi, 3rd pers. pl. pret. subj. of vilja, in order to obtain the appropriate sense ‘would wish’. The required sense of ‘would’ is however adequately conveyed by the reading mundu, 3rd pers. pl. pret. indic. of munu ‘will, shall, be likely to’ (see NS §§177(b) Anm. 1, and 195(b) Anm. 2). — [2-3] allir burir Áslaugar ‘all the sons of Áslaug’: In the 1824b text of Ragn (Ragn 1906-8, 129, 135-7, 161-8) and in RagnSon (Hb 1892-6, 459, 463-4) it is sons of Ragnarr by his second wife Áslaug, namely Ívarr (nicknamed beinlausi ‘the Boneless’ in RagnSon, Hb 1892-6, 459), Sigurðr ormr-í-auga ‘Snake-in-eye’, Hvítserkr and Björn járnsíða ‘Ironside’ who avenge him; in Saxo’s account it is sons of Regnerus by Thora, there presented as his second wife, who do so, namely Iuarus, Syuardus serpentini oculi ‘of the snake-like eye’ and Biornus ferrei lateris ‘of the iron side’ (Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 4-8, pp. 634-7; I, ix. 4. 12, pp. 638-41; I, ix. 4. 17, pp. 644-5; I, ix. 5. 1-5, pp. 662-5). In all three accounts they avenge him by having the figure of an eagle (apparently) carved on Ælle’s back; in RagnSon they have all the ribs cut from his backbone, so that his lungs are pulled out. In the fragmentary text of Ragn in 147, where the account of the revenge differs little from that in RagnSon, only Ívarr is specified in connection with it. See the Notes to Sigv Knútdr 1^I, which is quoted in this connection in RagnSon and in the 147 text of Ragn (Ragn 1906-8, xcii, 193). On the historical sons of Reginheri, Ragnarr’s likely historical prototype (cf. Note to st. 1/8 above), see McTurk (1991a, 39-50; 2011b; 2013, 95-8); Rowe (2012, 11-80). — [4] hildi ‘a battle’: Rafn (1826), Pfeiffer (1860), Valdimar Ásmundarson (Krm 1891) and Wisén (1886-9) treat hildi as a pers. n. for the valkyrie Hildr (cf. first Note to st. 4/2, and first Note to st. 10/2 above). The common-noun interpretation of ‘battle’ is preferred here, however, because it is outside any context of reference to the legend of Hildr and the Hjaðningar. The phrase vekja hildi ‘start a battle’ also occurs in Akv 14/16 and (with the verb in finite form) in HHund II 7/1-2 — [5-6] ef vissi vandliga um ossar viðfarar ‘if they knew fully about our treatment’: The speaker is referring solely to his own predicament here. On the frequency in poetry of oss-forms of the 1st pers. pl. poss. adj. várr ‘our’, see Finnur Jónsson (1901, 77). — [9-10] ek fekk mögum mínum móðernis, svá at hjörtun dugðu ‘I gave my sons such a mother that their hearts stood firm’: Lit. ‘I provided a maternal origin for my sons so that the hearts availed [them]’. In l. 9, móðernis, meaning strictly ‘maternal origin’ or ‘motherhood’, is the gen. object of fekk, 1st pers. sg pret. of fá, used here in the sense ‘give, provide’, with the gen. of what is given and the dat. of the receiver, see Note to st. 2/5-6, 8, above. The present ed. follows the example of the earliest eds up to and including Valdimar Ásmundarson (Krm 1891) in retaining the word ek ‘I’ here, which other eds, from and including Wisén (1886-9), omit, presumably for metrical reasons. — [10] hjörtun dugðu ‘their hearts stood firm’: The same phrase is found in the sg. in RvHbreiðm Hl 34/1^III Hjartat dugði … ‘The heart helped …’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
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. Wisén, Theodor, ed. 1886-9. Carmina Norrœnæ: Ex reliquiis vetustioris norrœnæ poësis selecta, recognita, commentariis et glossario instructa. 2 vols. Lund: Ohlsson.
6. Finnur Jónsson. 1893b. Carmina Norrœna: Rettet Tekst. Copenhagen: Nielsen & Lydiche.
7. Finnur Jónsson. 1901. Det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog omtr. 800-1300. SUGNL 28. Copenhagen: Møller.
8. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
9. Hb 1892-6 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1892-6. Hauksbók udgiven efter de Arnamagnæanske håndskrifter no. 371, 544 og 675, 4° samt forskellige papirshåndskrifter. Copenhagen: Det kongelige nordiske oldskrift-selskab.
10. Pfeiffer, Friedrich. 1860. Altnordisches Lesebuch. Leipzig: T. O. Weigel.
11. 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.
12. Ragn 1906-8 = Olsen 1906-8, 111-222.
13. Finnur Jónsson. 1905. ‘Krákumál’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1905, 151-83.
14. Rowe, Elizabeth Ashman. 2012. Vikings in the West: The Legend of Ragnarr Loðbrók and his Sons. Studia Medievalia Septentrionalia 18. Vienna: Fassbaender.
15. Krm 1891 = 2nd edn (pp. 225-8) of Krm as ed. in Valdimar Ásmundarson 1885-9, I.
16. Saxo 2015 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2015. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes. Trans. Peter Fisher. Oxford Medieval Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
17. Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1826. Krakas Maal eller Kvad om Kong Ragnar Lodbroks Krigsbedrifter og Heltedød efter en gammel Skindbog og flere hidtil ubenyttede Haandskrifter med dansk, latinsk og fransk oversættelse, forskjellige Læsemaader, samt kritiske og philologiske Anmærkninger. Copenhagen: Jens Hostrup Schultz; London: John and Arthur Arch.
18. Internal references
19. 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 24 April 2024)
20. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ragnars sona þáttr’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 777. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=85> (accessed 24 April 2024)
21. Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘ Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1001. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1347> (accessed 24 April 2024)
22. Not published: do not cite ()