Keth Lv 6^VIII (Ket 11)

Mun ek eigi gulli         við Gusi skipta
né heldr fyrri         til friðar mæla.
Mér er bráðr bani         betri miklu
en hugleysi         ok heðankváma.

Ek mun eigi skipta gulli við Gusi né heldr mæla fyrri til friðar. Bráðr bani er mér miklu betri en hugleysi ok heðankváma.

I will not share gold with Gusir nor ever [be] the first to sue for peace. A quick death is much better for me than lack of courage and escape from here.

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

Readings: [3] heldr: so 471, om. 343a    [5] bráðr bani: so 471, bragr 343a    [7] en hugleysi: so 471, en mér er hugr 343a

Editions: Skj AII, 281, Skj BII, 302, Skald II, 160; FSN 2, 121, FSGJ 2, 163, Anderson 1990, 49, 92, 435; Edd. Min. 79.

Context: This stanza is introduced by the words Ketill kvað ‘Ketill said’ immediately after the end of Ket 10.

Notes: [2] við Gusi ‘with Gusir’: Gusi (acc.) is the strong form of the name Gusir/Gusi; see Note to Ket 3b/1. — [3] né heldr … fyrri ‘nor ever [be] the first’: Here the reading of 471 is to be preferred because it provides a metrical line. The adj. fyrri, translated as ‘the first’, is lit. comp. ‘the earlier’, but is often used with sup. meaning. — [5] bráðr bani ‘a quick death’: The reading of 471 is again preferable to that of 343a (and some other mss), whose bragr ‘the foremost, outstanding one’ or ‘poetry’ (cf. LP: 1. and 2. bragr) does not make sense in context. — [7] en hugleysi ‘than lack of courage’: Again the reading of 471 is superior to that of 343a in terms of sense, because a word, alliterating on <h> and with negative, rather than positive connotations (so hugr ‘mind, courage’), is required to form a pair with l. 8.

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. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
5. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
6. 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.
7. Anderson, Sarah M. 1990. ‘The Textual Transmission of Two Fornaldarsögur: Ketils saga høings and Gríms saga loðinkinna’. Ph.D. thesis. Cornell University…
8. Internal references
9. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 10 (Gusi finnakonungr, Lausavísur 5)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 560.
10. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 3 (Gusi finnakonungr, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 554.