KrákÁsl Lv 9^VIII (Ragn 30)

This stanza and Ragn 31, both spoken by Áslaug, clearly belong together. They are quoted in a chapter (18) of the Y-redaction (preserved in 1824b) of Ragn that apparently did not form part of the X-redaction (preserved in 147), and which rounds off the saga’s account of Ragnarr’s sons, beginning with Hvítserkr.

Sonr beið einn, sá er ek átta,
í austrvegi dauða;
Hvítserkr var sá heitinn,
hvergi gjarn at flýja.
Hitnaði hann af höfðum
höggvins vals at rómu;
kaus þann bana þengill
þróttarsnjallr, áðr felli.

Einn sonr, sá er ek átta, beið dauða í austrvegi; sá var heitinn Hvítserkr, hvergi gjarn at flýja. Hann hitnaði af höfðum vals höggvins at rómu; þróttarsnjallr þengill kaus þann bana, áðr felli.

One son of mine met his death in the east; that one was called Hvítserkr, in no way inclined to take flight. He was burnt by the heads of the slain cut down in battle; the prince, courageous in his strength, chose that manner of death before he fell.

Mss: 1824b(74v) (Ragn)

Readings: [1] er: om. 1824b    [6] höggvins: ‘havggvís’ 1824b    [8] þróttar‑: ‘þrotar’ 1824b

Editions: Skj AII, 239, Skj BII, 258-9, Skald II, 134; FSN 1, 293 (Ragn ch. 19), Ragn 1891, 219 (ch. 19), Ragn 1906-8, 168, 215 (ch. 18), Ragn 1944, 118-21 (ch. 20), FSGJ 1, 279 (Ragn ch. 18), Ragn 1985, 148 (ch. 18), Ragn 2003, 62 (ch. 18), CPB II, 351-2.

Context: Áslaug-Randalín lives to hear, as an old woman, the news of Hvítserkr’s heroic death in the east; once defeated in battle, he chose to burn to death on the piled heads of the slain, as she here describes.

Notes: [All]: This stanza presents few difficulties of interpretation. Hvítserkr (not a historical figure) is mentioned in the mid-C12th poem Háttalykill (RvHbreiðm Hl 21/1^III), not specifically as a son of Ragnarr, but close to sts 11-20 in which Ragnarr, Ælle, and inn beinlausi ‘the boneless one’, as well as Agnarr, Bjǫrn and Sigurðr are also mentioned; cf. McTurk (1991a, 89-90). In Saxo (Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 17, pp. 644-5), he appears as Withsercus, a son of Regnerus Lothbrog by his third wife Suanlogha. According to Saxo (Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 21, pp. 648-9), Withsercus is appointed King of the Scythians by his father Regnerus, but later (Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 29-32, pp. 654-7) is treacherously attacked by Daxon, King of the Hellespont, and eventually captured from the top of a pile of corpses while fighting off his assailants. Daxon is moved by his physical beauty to offer him his daughter in marriage, but Withsercus prefers to be bound and burnt to death with his captive friends. Regnerus avenges his death by banishing Daxon to Utgarthia, but later restores Daxon to his kingdom, insisting on an annual tribute from him. Withsercus’s choice of the manner of his own death and his refusal of the offer of his conqueror’s daughter in marriage recall the story of Eiríkr’s death reflected in Ragn 11-14, above, and de Vries (1927b, 136-7; cf. 1928c, 125) argues that this story influenced that of Hvítserkr’s death as described by Saxo and in Ragn 30 and 31. This is indeed likely, though, to judge from numerous differences in detail, Saxo may have had available to him not the full story of Eiríkr’s death but a version of the story of Hvítserkr’s already influenced by it. — [1] einn sonr, sá er ek átta ‘one son of mine’: Lit. ‘one son, whom I had’. All eds apart from those of CPB, Rafn (FSN), and Örnólfur Thorsson (Ragn 1985), supply by normalisation the rel. particle es, er in one form or another (sá es, sá er, sá’s, sá’r), where ms. 1824b has only sá. The loss of the relative particle er is a feature of C14th Old Norse, cf. NS §261; see also SkP VII, lxvii. — [2] í austrvegi ‘in the east’: According to Saxo 2015, I, ix. 4. 29, pp. 654-5, Withsercus was ruling Scythia, a region of southern Russia (Saxo 2015 II, p. 1740), when he hospitably welcomed Daxon, who treacherously attacked him.

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. 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.
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. SkP VII = Poetry on Christian Subjects. Ed. Margaret Clunies Ross. 2007.
8. McTurk, Rory. 1991a. Studies in Ragnars saga loðbrókar and Its Major Scandinavian Analogues. Medium Ævum Monographs new ser. 15. Oxford: Society for the Study of Mediæval Languages and Literature.
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. Vries, Jan de. 1927b. ‘Die ostnordische Überlieferung der Sage von Ragnar Lodbrok’. APS, 115-49.
12. Ragn 1985 = Örnólfur Thorsson 1985, 101-53.
13. Ragn 1891 = 2nd edn (pp. 175-224) of Ragn as ed. in Valdimar Ásmundarson 1885-9, I.
14. Saxo 2015 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2015. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes. Trans. Peter Fisher. Oxford Medieval Texts. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
15. Ragn 2003 = Ebel, Uwe, ed. 2003. Ragnars saga loðbrókar. Texte des skandinavischen Mittelalters 4. Vol. II of Ebel 1997-2003.
16. Internal references
17. 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 26 April 2024)
18. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 21’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1029.
19. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 11 (Eiríkr Ragnarsson, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 648.
20. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 30 (Kráka/Áslaug Sigurðardóttir, Lausavísur 9)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 684.
21. Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 31 (Kráka/Áslaug Sigurðardóttir, Lausavísur 10)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 685.