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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Mágj Lv 3VIII (Mág 3)

Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Máguss saga jarls 3 (Mágus jarl, verses 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 601.

Mágus jarlverses
23

Veit ek í öndvegi         öðru sitja,
sá er í ráðum         reyndr at illu.
Rigar þú í rúmi;         ragr ertu, Ubbi;
þér er verst gefit,         er þik varðar mest.

Ek veit sitja í öðru öndvegi, sá er reyndr at illu í ráðum. Þú rigar í rúmi; ertu ragr, Ubbi; verst er gefit þér, er varðar þik mest.

I know there sits in the second high-seat the one who is steeped in evil in his plans. You are squirming in your seat; you are a scoundrel, Ubbi; you are worst in that which concerns you most.

Mss: 152(174vb), 590aˣ(25v), 58ˣ(320r-v), papp25ˣ(83v) (Mág)

Readings: [5] í rúmi: so 590aˣ, papp25ˣ, ‘Irumj’ corrected from ‘Irung’ in scribal hand 152, ‘Irun’ 58ˣ    [7] þér er: þat er þik 58ˣ, þat er þér papp25ˣ    [8] er þik: so 58ˣ, papp25ˣ, þat þik 152, þat er þér 590aˣ;    mest: so 58ˣ, papp25ˣ, mestu 152, helst 590aˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 461, Skj BII, 494, Skald II, 269; Mág 1858, 72, Mág 1963, 133 (Mág).

Context: Even more laughter follows the second stanza. For a third time the old man walks before everyone in the hall and utters a third stanza in a low voice.

Notes: [5] þú rigar ‘you are squirming’: The uncommon verb riga, for which there are four citations in ONP, including this one, seems to have the basic sense ‘move sth. back and forth, lift heavily’ cf. ON reigjast ‘straighten the body, throw back the head’, OE wrīgian ‘strive, move forward’ and the ModEngl. adj. wry ‘distorted, twisted’. There is also an intransitive use, such as we find here (cf. Fritzner: riga, intransitive). LP glosses riga as bevæge sig frem og tilbage, dingle ‘move oneself back and forth, shake’. In spite of this gloss, Skj B translates l. 5 as du er rank nok i sædet ‘you are certainly erect in your seat’, which is contrary to other evidence for the verb’s meaning. — [5] í rúmi ‘in your seat’: Mss 590aˣ and papp25ˣ have this reading, while the scribe of 152 corrected his original meaningless ‘Irung’ to ‘Irumj’, which may be understood as í rúmi. Ms. 58ˣ has ‘Irun’, which makes no sense. — [6] ragr ‘a scoundrel’: It is difficult to convey the precise sense of the Old Norse adj. ragr, which connotes sexual perversion (so-called passive homosexuality in men), cowardice and moral turpitude (cf. Meulengracht Sørensen 1983). — [6] Ubbi: Name of the evil counsellor in Mág, who drives the hostile action against the sons of Ámundi and persuades both the emperor (or king) of Saxland and his son Karl to continue the feud. He is eventually killed by being tied to the legs of horses and dragged throughout the country. — [7-8]: These lines are very similar in sentiment to a passage of the prose text in the longer recension (Mág 1858, 72 with editorial normalisation): ‘ok þú, Ubbi, munt þó verst duga, sem þér er vandast um, ok konungr hefir mest traust á þinni fylgð’ ‘“and you, Ubbi, will yet do your worst, when you are in difficulties, and the king has most trust in your guidance”’, and a similar statement occurs in the shorter recension (Mág 1884, 22). — [7] verst er gefit þér ‘you are worst’: Lit. ‘worst is given to you’.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  3. 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.
  4. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
  5. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
  6. Meulengracht Sørensen, Preben. 1983. The Unmanly Man: Concepts of Sexual Defamation in Early Northern Society. Trans. Joan Turville-Petre. VC 1. [Odense]: Odense University Press.
  7. Mág 1858 = Gunnlaugur Þórðarson, ed. 1858. Bragða-Mágus saga með tilheyrendi þáttum. Copenhagen: Páll Sveinsson.
  8. Mág 1884 = ‘Mágus saga jarls’, in Cederschiöld 1884, pp. lxxx-ccccviii, 1-42.
  9. Mág 1963 = Dodsworth, John Brian, ed. 1963. ‘Mágus saga jarls, edited with complete variants from the pre-Reformation manuscripts’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Cambridge.
  10. Internal references
  11. 2017, ‘ Unattributed, Máguss saga jarls’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 596. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=15> (accessed 28 March 2024)
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