Ormr Woman 4III/3 — sǫng ‘sang’
Skorða vas í fǫt fœrð
fjarðbeins afarhrein
nýri (sǫng nadd-Freyr)
nisting (of mjaðar Hrist).
Skorða fjarðbeins vas fœrð í afarhrein fǫt nýri nisting; nadd-Freyr sǫng of Hrist mjaðar.
The prop of the fjord-bone [STONE > WOMAN] was clothed in exceedingly clean garments with new stitching; the spear-Freyr <god> [WARRIOR] sang about the Hrist <valkyrie> of mead [WOMAN].
readings
[3] sǫng: slǫng A
notes
[3] sǫng ‘sang’: In the present edn this reading (3rd pers. sg. pret. indic. of syngja), found in all mss except A, is retained, in view of its much stronger support in the paradosis and its status as the lectio difficilior as contrasted with slǫng ‘slung, cast’. The subject of the verb is nadd-Freyr ‘the spear-Freyr’ (l. 3), while of Hrist mjaðar ‘about the Hrist of mead’ (l. 4) is understood as the theme of the ‘song’. The song could be a lament (grátr) over the dead woman. The word order is more complex in this interpretation than if A is followed, but it is not greater than the complexity seen in st. 2. All previous eds adopt the reading slǫng ‘slung’ (< slyngva), uniquely attested in A. The word order for the stanza as a whole is then as follows: Skorða fjarðbeins vas fœrð í afarhrein fǫt; nadd-Freyr slǫng nýri nisting of Hrist mjaðar ‘The prop of the fjord-bone [STONE > WOMAN] was clothed in exceedingly clean garments; the spear-Freyr <god> [WARRIOR] cast new stitching about the Hrist <valkyrie> of mead [WOMAN]’. However, a reliance on A seems unwarranted. The reading nýtri ‘useful, good’ (f. dat. sg.), likewise found only in A, for nýri ‘new’ (l. 3) in all other mss, is unlikely to be original because it entails loss of skothending with Freyr. This raises the suspicion that both nýtri and slǫng are innovations, perhaps the product of scribal enhancement.