Rloð Lv 5^VIII (Ragn 9)

Brynhildar líz brögnum
brúnstein hafa fránan
d*óttur mögr inn dýri
ok dyggligast hjarta.
Sjá berr alla ýta
undleygs boði magni,
Buðla niðr, er baugi
bráðgörr, hatar rauðum.

{Inn dýri mögr {d*óttur Brynhildar}} líz brögnum hafa {fránan brúnstein} ok dyggligast hjarta. {Sjá niðr Buðla}, {bráðgörr boði {undleygs}}, er hatar rauðum baugi, berr alla ýta magni.

{The noble son {of the daughter of Brynhildr}} [= Kráka/Áslaug > = Sigurðr ormr-í-auga] seems to men to have {a glittering brow-stone} [EYE] and a most steadfast heart. {This descendant of Buðli} [= Sigurðr ormr-í-auga], {a precocious profferer {of the wound-flame}} [SWORD > WARRIOR], who hates a red ring, surpasses all men in strength.

Mss: 1824b(62v), 147(99v) (Ragn)

Readings: [1] Brynhildar: ‘[…]hilld[…]’ 147;    líz (‘lizt’): so 147, leizt 1824b;    brögnum: ‘bra(vg)num’(?) so 147, ‘baravgtunn’ 1824b    [2] brúnstein hafa fránan: ‘(b)[…]st[…]fa (fr[…]an)’(?) 147    [3] d*óttur: dróttar 1824b, ‘d[…]tt(ur)’(?) or ‘d[…]tt(ar)’(?) 147;    mögr inn dýri: ‘maurgh enn dyre’ 1824b, ‘m[…]gur enn dy(r)i’(?) 147    [4] dyggligast: ‘dyggl(í)g(as)t’(?) so 147, ‘dyggꜳst’ 1824b;    hjarta: ‘hi(arta)’(?) so (?) 147, ‘hiatꜳ’ 1824b    [5] Sjá berr alla ýta: ‘sa berr all[…]’ 147    [6] undleygs: ‘yndleygs’ 1824b, ‘[…]dl[…]gs’ 147;    boði magni: ‘(b[…]di […]g)[…]’(?) 147    [7] Buðla niðr er baugi: ‘budla […]ur (er) b(a)ugí’(?) 147    [8] hatar: ‘hat(ar)’(?) 147;    rauðum (‘radum’): ‘(Rau)du(m)’(?) 147

Editions: Skj AII, 234, Skj BII, 253-4, Skald II, 132; FSN 1, 258-9 (Ragn ch. 8), Ragn 1891, 193 (ch. 8), Ragn 1906-8, 136, 181, 201-2 (ch. 9), Ragn 1944, 56, 58-9 (ch. 9), FSGJ 1, 246 (Ragn ch. 9), Ragn 1985, 121 (ch. 9),  Ragn 2003, 31 (ch. 9), CPB II, 347-8.

Context: After proffering to his infant son Sigurðr a gold ring on which the child appears to turn his back, Ragnarr recites this stanza, acknowledging that the child is the grandson of Brynhildr, daughter of Buðli.

Notes: [1] líz ‘seems’: Third pers. sg. pres. tense of lítaz. Rafn (who was unaware of 147) and Vigfusson and Powell (who apparently did not make use of it) retain here the 1824b pret. reading leizt (‘seemed’), which makes tolerable but less good sense in the context; the pres. tense reading is adopted by all subsequent eds. — [2] fránan brúnstein ‘a glittering brow-stone [EYE]’: Cf. Ragn 8, Note to [All] and to ll. 5-8 (a). — [3] d*óttur ‘of the daughter’: The present edn follows all previous eds in making this emendation. — [3] mögr ‘son’: Although neither 1824b nor 147 has this reading in full (see Readings, above), comparison of the readings in the two mss strongly suggests that mögr is the correct reading here, as do considerations of context. — [4] dyggligast ‘most steadfast’: CPB and FSN follow 1824b in reading respectively dyggvast, dyggast, which would give much the same meaning but leaves the line with one fewer than six syllables. However, the reading dyggligast is justified by reference to 147. — [6] boði undleygs ‘a profferer of the wound-flame [SWORD > WARRIOR]’: CPB and Ragn 1891 both read unnleygs ‘of the wave-flame [GOLD]’, here (cf. Anon Gyð 2/2^VII), thus making Ragnarr’s son Sigurðr a generous dispenser of gold. This would certainly be consistent with what is said of him in ll. 7-8 (see below), but the ‑dl- spelling is confirmed by both 1824b and 147. While Rafn (FSN) retains the 1824b reading yndleygs, which does not yield a satisfactory meaning, all subsequent eds apart from CPB and Valdimar Ásmundarson (Ragn 1891) read undleygs. On kennings of the ‘wave-fire’ type for gold, see Turville-Petre (1976, xlix-l), and Clunies Ross (1987, 138-50). — [7-8]: The prose immediately preceding this stanza in 1824b, Ragn 1906-8, 136 (and apparently also in 147, Ragn 1906-8, 181), describes Ragnarr taking a gold finger-ring (gull) from his hand and giving it to his newborn son as a naming gift (ath nafnnfesti). When he proffers the ring, his hand comes into contact with the boy’s back (kemr vid bak sveininum), and Ragnarr interprets this as meaning that the child wishes to reject the ring (enn þat virdir Ragnar sva, sem han villde hata gullinu). This looks like a somewhat awkward attempt to explain the reference here to Sigurðr ‘hating’ a ring, which the X and Y redactors of the saga (as preserved respectively in 147 and 1824b) may not have understood. What seems to be implied is that Ragnarr’s son Sigurðr is in prospect a noble chieftain, who wins valuable rings in battle and ‘hates’ them in the sense of breaking them up in order to distribute them to his followers, in the manner of a hringbroti m. ‘ring-breaker’ (LP: hringbroti), i.e. a generous man. See LP: hata and hati ‘hater’ 1. — [7] niðr Buðla ‘descendant of Buðli [= Sigurðr ormr-í-auga]’: As the son of Áslaug, daughter of Brynhildr, Sigurðr ormr-í-auga is the great-grandson of Buðli, Brynhildr’s father. — [8] rauðum ‘red’: An adj. frequently applied to gold and to rings in Old Norse poetry; see LP, LT: rauðr.

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. Clunies Ross, Margaret. 1987. Skáldskaparmál: Snorri Sturluson’s ars poetica and Medieval Theories of Language. VC 4. [Odense]: Odense University Press.
6. 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.
7. Turville-Petre, Gabriel. 1976. Scaldic Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon.
8. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
9. Ragn 1906-8 = Olsen 1906-8, 111-222.
10. Ragn 1944 = Eskeland, Severin, ed. and trans. 1944. Soga om Ragnar Lodbrok med Kråka-kvædet. Norrøne bokverk 16. 2nd ed. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget. [1st ed. 1914].
11. Ragn 1985 = Örnólfur Thorsson 1985, 101-53.
12. Ragn 1891 = 2nd edn (pp. 175-224) of Ragn as ed. in Valdimar Ásmundarson 1885-9, I.
13. Ragn 2003 = Ebel, Uwe, ed. 2003. Ragnars saga loðbrókar. Texte des skandinavischen Mittelalters 4. Vol. II of Ebel 1997-2003.
14. Internal references
15. Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Gyðingsvísur 2’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 518-19.
16. 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)
17. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 38 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Ragnars saga loðbrókar 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 699.