Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 20 (Bjǫrn Ragnarsson, Lausavísur 2)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 665.
Duga mun hugr ok hjarta
í hugsnöru brjósti,
þó at miðr um þat mæli,
manni innan rifja.
Eigi er oss í augum
ormr né fránir snákar;
bræðr gæddu mik mínir;
man ek stjúpsonu þína.
Hugr mun duga manni ok hjarta innan rifja í hugsnöru brjósti, þó at mæli miðr um þat. Ormr er oss eigi í augum né fránir snákar; bræðr mínir gæddu mik; ek man stjúpsonu þína.
Courage will serve a man well, as will a heart within the ribs in a courage-swift breast, even though he may speak rather little about it. There is no snake in our eyes, nor glittering serpents; my brothers enriched me; I remember your stepsons.
Mss: 1824b(66r), 147(104v) (Ragn); Hb(105v-106r) (RagnSon)
Readings: [1] mun: man Hb; hjarta: so 147, Hb, ‘hjata’ 1824b [2] hugsnöru (‘hugh snaurv’): so with ‘hvgh’ corrected from ‘havgh’ 1824b, ‘hug (snauru)’(?) 147, hauksnöru Hb [3] miðr: minnr Hb [4] rifja: ‘rifi(a)’ 147 [5] Eigi er oss í augum: ‘[…]ss i […]ugum’ 147 [6] fránir: ‘(fr)[…](nir)’(?) 147; snákar: ‘(s)[…](kar)’(?) 147 [7] bræðr: ‘br[…]dur’ 147; gæddu: ‘gędd’ 1824b, ‘[…]dd[…]’ 147, glöddu Hb [8] ‑sonu: ‘(sonu)’(?) 147, sunu Hb
Editions: Skj AII, 236-7, Skj BII, 256, Skald II, 133; FSN 1, 267-8 (Ragn ch.9), Ragn 1891, 200 (ch. 9), Hb 1892-6, 461 (RagnSon ch. 2), Ragn 1906-8, 145, 183, 209 (ch. 10), Ragn 1944, 74-5 (ch. 10), FSGJ 1, 255 (Ragn ch. 10), Ragn 1985, 128 (ch. 10), Ragn 2003, 40 (ch. 10), CPB II, 349.
Context: Bjǫrn járnsíða implies that reticence need not indicate lack of courage and that he and his brothers other than Sigurðr, while lacking the latter’s snake-like mark in the eye, can nevertheless match his resolve. Referring to his mother’s stepsons as his brothers, he makes it clear that their memory means much to him.
Notes: [All]: Stanza 19, spoken by Sigurðr, the son born to Áslaug while her other sons were absent at Hvítabær, finally confirms his elder brothers in their resolve to undertake the revenge mission to Sweden, an idea which they, with Ívarr as their spokesman, had initially resisted (Ragn 1906-8, 143-4). Bjǫrn, the first of the three elder brothers to speak after Sigurðr, here justifies his position with a gnomic exposition of heroic doctrine in ll. 1-4, and may even be implying, with his reference to the snake-like quality of Sigurðr’s eyes in ll. 5-6, that while his own eyes and those of the other two brothers do not share that quality, he and they are no lesser heroes than Sigurðr’s namesake, their grandfather Sigurðr Fáfnisbani; on the motif of glittering eyes, see Ragn 8, Notes to [All] and ll. 5-8 (a) above. — [1]: The sg. mun ‘will’ is here doing service for two conjoined subjects, hugr ‘courage’ and hjarta ‘heart’, agreeing in number with the subject closer to it (Barnes 2008, 257-8; cf. Faarlund 2004, 201-2). — [2] hugsnöru ‘courage-swift’: In place of this adj. previous eds have without exception adopted the Hb reading hauksnöru ‘hawk-keen’ (attested in RvHbreiðm Hl 11/2III), no doubt with a view to obviating repetition of hug- from l. 1. It may be argued that the repetition is effective, however, partly in reinforcing the idea of courage, and partly in extending the scope for multiple interpretation, in allowing the meaning ‘mind, thought’ for hugr (SnE 2005, 43), as well as the meaning ‘courage’, to be present. The word occurs in later mss of ǪrvOdd Ævdr (Ǫrv 134/1-2), in the meaning ‘keen-minded’, see the second Note to [All] there. — [7] gæddu mik ‘enriched me’: I.e. ‘benefited me, were of value to me’. All previous eds apart from Rafn (FSN), who is followed here, adopt the Hb reading glöddu ‘gladdened’ in place of gæddu ‘enriched, benefited’, but this seems unnecessary: gæddu makes just as good sense, and involves minimal emendation. — [7] bræðr mínir ‘my brothers’: The reference here is to Bjǫrn’s half-brothers, Eiríkr and Agnarr, the sons of Ragnarr by Þóra and the stjúpsynir ‘stepsons’ of Áslaug referred to in the next line. In reporting the deaths of Eiríkr and Agnarr to her sons by Ragnarr in the prose of Ragn, Áslaug had earlier referred to Fall þeirra Eiriks ok Agnars, bredra ydara, enn stiupsona minna ‘The fall of Eiríkr and Agnarr, your brothers and my stepsons’ (Ragn 1906-8, 143, ll. 3-5); cf. the Notes to 16/1-4 (f) and 18/8 above.
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.
This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.
This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.