Busla Busl 2^VIII (Bós 2)

Heyr þú bæn Buslu;         brátt mun hon sungin,
svá at heyraz skal         um heim allan
ok óþörf öllum,         þeim sem á heyra,
en þeim þó fjandligust,         sem ek vil fortala.

Heyr þú bæn Buslu; hon mun sungin brátt, svá at skal heyraz um allan heim ok öllum óþörf, þeim sem á heyra, en þó fjandligust þeim, sem ek vil fortala.

Hear Busla’s plea; it will soon be sung, so that it will be heard over the whole world, and harmful for all those who hear [it], but yet most ruinous for that one whom I wish to curse.

Mss: 586(14r), 577(53v), 510(11r), 340ˣ(270-271), 361ˣ(11r) (Bós)

Readings: [2] brátt mun hon: hun mun brátt 577, brátt mun 510;    sungin: sungin verða 510    [3] at: om. 340ˣ;    skal: skal corrected from ‘ma’ or ‘man’ 510    [6] þeim: om. 510;    sem: so 577, 510, 340ˣ, 361ˣ, om. 586    [7] þó: om. 510

Editions: Skj AII, 330, Skj BII, 350-1, Skald II, 189; Bós 1666, 18, FSN 3, 203, Bós 1893, 16, FSGJ 3, 291-2, Bós 1996, 12-13; Edd. Min. 123.

Notes: [All]: The second opening stanza stresses the danger of the curses, whose harmful effect generally applies to all who hear them. However, in this case they mainly affect the king, against whom the curses are directed. — [All]: The word choices óþörf ‘harmful, ill’ (l. 5), fjandligust ‘very baleful, most ruinous’ (l. 7) and fortala ‘curse’ (l. 8) point emphatically toward the vilifying nature of the stanzas to come. — [1] Buslu (gen. sg.) ‘Busla’s’: The name is attested in Old Norse only here. The appellative busla is used in Modern Icelandic with the meaning ‘whore’ (Sigfús Blöndal 1920-4, 121) or ‘slob, slovenly person’ (cf. Bós 1996, 72) and probably belongs etymologically to the IE root *bhu ‘inflate, swell’ (ÍO: 1 busla). — [2] hon mun sungin brátt ‘it will soon be sung’: Here ‘sing’ probably indicates an etymological root shared by the Old Norse word for ‘magic, magical song’ (galdr). Related are ON gala ‘sing, cry out, pronounce a magical incantation’, OE, OHG galan ‘sing’ (AEW: gala), which scholarship suggests hints at a magical song sung in falsetto voice (cf. Wesche 1940, 40-5; ARG I, 304-5).

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. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
5. Sigfús Blöndal. 1920-4. Islandsk-dansk ordbog / Íslensk-dönsk orðabók. Reykjavík, Copenhagen and Kristiania (Oslo): Verslun Þórarins B. Þorlákssonar / Aschehoug.
6. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
7. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
8. Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
9. ARG = Vries, Jan de. 1956-7. Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte. 2 vols. 2nd edn. Berlin: de Gruyter.
10. Bós 1996 = Sverrir Tómasson, ed. 1996. Bósa saga og Herrauðs. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
11. Bós 1666 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1666. Herrauds och Bosa saga Med en ny vttolkning iämpte Gambla Götskan. Uppsala: Henrich Curio.
12. Wesche, Heinrich. 1940. Der althochdeutsche Wortschatz im Gebiete des Zaubers und der Weissagung. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache 1. Halle: Niemeyer.
13. Bós 1893 = Jiriczek, Otto L., ed. 1893. Die Bósa-Saga in zwei Fassungen nebst Proben aus den Bósa-Rímur. Strassburg: Karl J. Trübner.