FriðÞ Lv 10^VIII (Frið 12)

Þess hefk gangs of goldit;
gekk mér en þér eigi
með ambáttir átta
Ingibjörg* at þinga.
Saman höfum brenda bauga
í Baldrshaga lagða;
var þá vilgi fjarri
vörðr Hálfdanar jarða.

Hefk of goldit þess gangs; Ingibjörg* gekk at þinga mér en eigi þér með átta ambáttir. Höfum lagða brenda bauga saman í Baldrshaga; {vörðr {jarða Hálfdanar}} var þá vilgi fjarri.

I have paid for this access; Ingibjǫrg went to meet me, but not you, with eight maidservants. We have placed together burnished [gold] rings in Baldrshagi; {the guardian {of the lands of Hálfdan <Norwegian king>}} [= Norway > RULER = Helgi?] was then very far away.

Mss: 510(93r), 27ˣ(135r), papp17ˣ(359r), 109a IIˣ(147v), 1006ˣ(584), 173ˣ(85v) (Frið)

Readings: [1] gangs: gagns 27ˣ, papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ;    of: um 27ˣ, papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ    [2] gekk mér en þér eigi: so papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ, gekk mær þar 510, gekk mærin þær eigi 27ˣ    [3] með: við papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ    [4] Ingibjörg*: Ingibjörgu 510, Ingibjörga 27ˣ, Ingibjargar papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ;    at: so papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ, á 510, 27ˣ;    þinga: þingi papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ    [5] Saman: samit 27ˣ;    brenda: brendra 27ˣ    [6] lagða: so papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ, lagðar 510, 27ˣ    [7] var þá: so papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ, ‘varar’ 510, 27ˣ;    vilgi: so 27ˣ, ‘vigri’ 510, ‘vigli’ papp17ˣ, 173ˣ, ‘vigil’ 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ    [8] vörðr: so papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 1006ˣ, 173ˣ, verðr 510, varðs 27ˣ;    jarða: so papp17ˣ, 109a IIˣ, 173ˣ, garði 510, 27ˣ, jarðar 1006ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 272, Skj BII, 294, Skald II, 155; Falk 1890, 75, Frið 1893, 15, 45-6, Frið 1901, 23-4, Frið 1914, 14.

Context: Friðþjófr speaks another stanza about his former life, seemingly addressed to his foster-brother Bjǫrn.

Notes: [All]: This irregular dróttkvætt stanza is lacking in ms. 568ˣ. There are a number of places in it where 510’s text is very hard to understand and recourse has been had to B recension readings in such cases. — [1] hefk of goldit þess gangs ‘I have paid for this access’: Friðþjófr presumably refers here to his access to Ingibjǫrg in Baldrshagi, which he has alluded to in the previous stanza, and for which the brothers Helgi and Hálfdan punished him by sending him to Orkney. Only ms. 510 reads gangs ‘access, journey’, and that not certainly, for the ms. reads ‘ggs’ with superscript <n> above the line across the second <g> and the <s>. Cf. Guðr I 26/5-6 (NK 206): þess hefi ec gangs | goldit síðan ‘I have paid for this journey later’. All the other mss read gagns from gagn ‘gain, advantage’, which would give the sense ‘I have paid for this advantage’. Both readings give good sense. — [2]: This is the reading of the B recension mss; there is no satisfactory reading of the A mss here. — [4] Ingibjörg* ‘Ingibjǫrg’: All mss give oblique cases of this name, while the syntax indicates that it should be in nom. case. This emendation was first proposed by Falk (1890, 75). — [4] þinga ‘meet’: The B mss have þingi, dat. sg. of the noun þing ‘meeting’, preferred in Skj B, and a viable interpretation.  — [5-6]: These lines appear to refer to an exchange of rings that Friðþjófr and Ingibjǫrg carried out at Baldrshagi; it is not mentioned in the prose of the A recension, but the B text (ch. 4) mentions a ring, an inheritance from his father, that Friðþjófr gives Ingibjǫrg, and the last line of this chapter indicates that they exchanged rings (Frið 1901, 11). — [7-8]: These lines are difficult to understand in both recensions, but particularly so in the A text. Falk (1890, 75) suggested that the A mss’ varar might be a scribal error for varat ‘was not’, but this would make the line unmetrical. The B mss read var þá ‘was then’, and most eds, including the present one, have adopted this reading, understanding ‘the guardian of the lands of Hálfdan was then very far away’, ‘the guardian of the lands of Hálfdan’ being understood as a reference to one of the two brothers of Ingibjǫrg, who were called away to visit King Hringr, leaving Ingibjǫrg unguarded. An alternative view was expressed by Larsson (Frið 1901, 24 n.) who sees here a reference to the god Baldr in his sanctuary, understanding vilgi in its sense ‘not at all’, rather than as an intensifying adv. ‘very’ (cf. Fritzner: vilgi). This then gives the opposite sense ‘the guardian of the lands of Hálfdan was not far away’, that is, the deity was present in the sanctuary and saw to it that Friðþjófr was punished for breaking the tabu on conducting male-female relations in Baldrshagi. The problem with this interpretation is that the periphrasis ‘the guardian of the lands of Hálfdan’ (whichever Norwegian ruler this is meant to be) must be a ruler-kenning and is rather unlikely to be a kenning for the god Baldr, though in a late text this cannot be completely ruled out.

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. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
5. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
6. Frið 1893 = Larsson, Ludvig, ed. 1893b. Sagan ock rimorna om Friðþiófr hinn frækni. SUGNL 22. Copenhagen: Malmström.
7. Frið 1901 = Larsson, Ludvig, ed. 1901. Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna. ASB 9. Halle: Niemeyer.
8. Frið 1914 = Wenz, Gustaf, ed. 1914. Die Friðþjófssaga in ihrer Überlieferung untersucht und der ältesten Fassung kritisch herausgegeben. Halle: Niemeyer.
9. Falk, Hjalmar. 1890. ‘Om Friðþjófs saga’. ANF 6, 60-102.