Keth Lv 3^VIII (Ket 5)

Hængr ek heiti         kominn ór Hrafnistu
hefnir Hallbjarnar;         hví skríðr þú svá, inn armi?
Friðmálum mæla         mun ek eigi við Finn ragan;
heldr mun ek boga benda         þann er mér Brúni gaf.

Ek heiti Hængr, kominn ór Hrafnistu, {hefnir Hallbjarnar}; hví skríðr þú svá, inn armi? Ek mun eigi mæla friðmálum við ragan Finn; heldr ek mun benda boga, þann er Brúni gaf mér.

I am named Hœngr (‘Salmon’), come from Hrafnista, {avenger of Hallbjǫrn} [= Ketill]; why do you glide thus, wretch? I will not speak words of peace to a cowardly Saami; rather I will bend the bow, which Brúni gave me.

Mss: 343a(55v), 471(52r) (Ket)

Readings: [4] hví skríðr þú svá inn armi: hygg ek eigi friðar biðja 471    [5] ‑málum: ‑mælum 471    [6] eigi: om. 471

Editions: Skj AII, 280, Skj BII, 301, Skald II, 159, NN §2391; FSN 2, 119, FSGJ 2, 161, Anderson 1990, 48, 91, 433; Edd. Min. 78.

Context: This stanza is introduced by the words: Ketill kvað vísu ‘Ketill spoke a stanza’. It is Ketill’s answer to Gusi’s question about who he is (Gusi Lv 2 (Ket 4)).

Notes: [All]: In papp32ˣ parts of this stanza are combined with parts of Ket 7, Hæng kalla mik (see Anderson 1990, 291). — [1-4]: Alliteration on h is used in two consecutive long-lines. — [3] hefnir Hallbjarnar ‘avenger of Hallbjǫrn [= Ketill]’: It is unclear why Ketill refers to himself as the ‘avenger of Hallbjǫrn’, since Hallbjǫrn, Ketill’s father, is alive and well in Hrafnista, according to Ket. In any case this self-designation identifies Ketill as the son of Hallbjǫrn, since the duty of taking revenge for a father devolves upon a son. Several other mss give the reading arfi Hallbjarnar ‘heir of Hallbjǫrn’. — [4] hví skríðr þú svá ‘why do you glide thus’: The verb skríða is used three times in the exchange between Ketill and Gusi (Ket 3a, 4 and 5): with reference to Gusi’s movement down from the sledge (Ket 3a), to the movement of a wolf, referring to Ketill (Ket 4), who is on skis (cf. Ket 6), and to Gusi’s mode of transport (Ket 5). In all three stanzas the verb appears to be demeaning, most overtly in Ket 4, where Gusi compares Ketill to a wolf. In Ket 5 it refers to the Saami use of sledges drawn by reindeer (cf. Ket 3a) and may denigrate such a mode of transport. — [6] ragan Finn ‘a cowardly Saami’: The adj. ragr (or argr) denotes every kind of unmanliness and is thus an extremely insulting mode of address (cf. Noreen 1922a, 40, 60-1; Meulengracht Sørensen 1980; 1983). — [8] þann er ‘which’: Both mss read þann, but have been normalized to þann er to reflect the syntax of the period 1250-1300, rather than that of the C14th and later, when the loss of the rel. particle er in the combination demonstrative + rel. particle became common (cf. NS §261).

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
6. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
7. Noreen, Erik. 1922a. Studier i fornvästnordisk diktning: Andra samlingen. Uppsala Universitets årsskrift, filosofi, språkvetenskap och historiska vetenskaper 4. Uppsala: Akademiska bokhandeln.
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. Anderson, Sarah M. 1990. ‘The Textual Transmission of Two Fornaldarsögur: Ketils saga høings and Gríms saga loðinkinna’. Ph.D. thesis. Cornell University…
10. Meulengracht Sørensen, Preben. 1980. Norrønt nid: Forestillingen om den umandige mand i de islandske sagaer. [Odense]: Universitetsforlag.
11. Internal references
12. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ketils saga hœngs’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 548. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=71> (accessed 26 April 2024)
13. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 3 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 553.
14. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 4 (Gusi finnakonungr, Lausavísur 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 555.
15. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 6 (Gusi finnakonungr, Lausavísur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 557.
16. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 5 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 556.
17. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 7 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 558.