Sigv Austv 8I/3 — Ôstu ‘Ásta’s’
Mista ek fyr austan
Eiðaskóg á leiðu
Ôstu bús, es æstak
ókristinn hal vistar.
Ríks fannka son Saxa;
saðr vas engr fyrir þaðra
(út vask eitt kveld heitinn)
inni (fjórum sinnum).
Ek mista bús Ôstu á leiðu fyr austan Eiðaskóg, es æstak ókristinn hal vistar. Fannka son ríks Saxa; engr saðr vas fyrir inni þaðra; vask heitinn út fjórum sinnum eitt kveld.
I missed [felt the want of] Ásta’s farm on the way east of Eidskogen when I asked the unchristian man for lodging. I did not meet the son of powerful Saxi; no truth was present in that place; I was ordered out four times in one evening.
readings
[3] Ôstu: so 325VI, 73aˣ, 68, 61, Holm4, Flat, Tóm, Kˣ, Ásta Holm2, R686ˣ, 972ˣ, 325VII, Bb, ‘osta’ 75a
notes
[3] bús Ôstu ‘Ásta’s farm’: (a) The reference seems to be to Ásta, King Óláfr’s mother, and hence to the king’s hospitality. Judging from ÓHLeg (1982, 80-1) she resided by the great lake of Mjǫrs (Mjøsa) in southern Norway, hence on the route that Toll (1924) and Sahlgren (1927-8, I, 181-2) believe Sigvatr took from the north, though Beckman (1934, 214 n. 2) is right that it is not necessary to assume that Sigvatr visited her on this particular journey. (b) Sveinbjörn Egilsson (LP (1860): buss) reads búss/buss in some mss as burs (nom. sg. burr ‘son’), hence ‘I longed for Ásta’s son [Óláfr]’. (c) Ternström (1871, 47) instead reads ástabús ‘loving farmstead’, in reference to desired lodging. The name Ásta may be a fiction (according to de Vries 1932-3, 173, like Ǫlvir in st. 6) chosen only for the ironic implications of its literal meaning.