Hér mun ek þiggja; hygg ek, at valdi
Finns fjölkyngi feiknaveðri,
ok í allan dag einn jós ek við þrjá;
hvalr kyrði sjá; hér mun ek þiggja.
Ek mun þiggja hér; ek hygg, at fjölkyngi Finns valdi feiknaveðri, ok í allan dag jós ek einn við þrjá; hvalr kyrði sjá; ek mun þiggja hér.
I will accept [lodging] here; I think that a Saami’s wizardry caused the baleful weather, and the whole day long I baled [water] [as if] alone in competition with three; a whale calmed the sea; I will accept [lodging] here.
[7] hvalr kyrði sjá ‘a whale calmed the sea’: Chapter 3 of the saga relates that the whale which protects Ketill’s boat against the fury of the storm appears to him to have the eyes of a human being. The implication is that the benevolent whale is in fact a shape-shifting magician. The motif of a benevolent whale is the reversal of a motif found in other fornaldarsögur, where a shape-shifter assumes the form of a whale to attack the ship of the hero; cf. GHr chs 2, 16 (FSGJ 3, 167, 238-9); Korm ch. 18 (ÍF 8, 265-6). In Frið ch. 3 a whale ridden by giantesses attacks the ships of the hero (FSGJ 3, 87-8).