Anon (Vǫlsa) 9I/8 — Grímr ‘Grímr’
Víst eigi mætta ek við um bindast
í mik at keyra, ef vit ein lægum
í andkætu.
Þiggi Maurnir þetta blæti!
En þú, Grímr, gestr várr, gríp þú við Vǫlsa!
Víst mætta ek eigi um bindast við at keyra í mik, ef vit lægum ein í andkætu. Þiggi Maurnir þetta blæti! En þú, Grímr, gestr várr, gríp þú við Vǫlsa!
Certainly I would not be able to resist driving [it] into myself, if we two were lying alone in mutual pleasure. May Maurnir receive this offering! But you, Grímr, our guest, you grab Vǫlsi!
notes
[8] Grímr: The prose text tells that King Óláfr and his two followers all call themselves Grímr (see Context to st. 3). According to Steinsland, the name refers to Óðinn. She sees in the story a conflict between the younger patriarchal religion of Óðinn and an older matriarchal fertility religion connected with the ritualistic worship of giantesses (Steinsland and Vogt 1981, 91-2, 104; Steinsland 1997, 90). However, Grímr (from gríma ‘face mask’) is a popular assumed name, and the motif occurs several times in the fornaldarsögur (Norna-Gests þáttr, Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar, Helga þáttr Þórissonar), so that this, rather than a name for Óðinn, may be present here. The number three, the number of the guests, is conspicuous; it is paralleled in the number of the males of the household (farmer, son, servant) and of the females (housewife, daughter, maid). Eitrem (1924, 88) suggests a ritualistic meaning behind it.