Gusi Lv 2VIII (Ket 4)/3 — vargr ‘a wolf’
Hvat er þat manna, er mér í móti ferr
ok skríðr sem vargr af viði?
Æðru skaltu mæla, ef þú undan kemz
þrysvar fyr Þrumu; því tel ek þik ósnjallan.
Hvat er þat manna, er ferr í móti mér ok skríðr sem vargr af viði? Skaltu mæla æðru, ef þú kemz undan þrysvar fyr Þrumu; því tel ek þik ósnjallan.
What kind of man is that, who comes towards me and creeps like a wolf from the wood? You will have to speak words of fear, if you escape three times before Þruma; for this reason I account you cowardly.
notes
[3] ok skríðr sem vargr af viði ‘and creeps like a wolf from the wood’: The words vargr and viðr alliterate in several other texts (HHund I 41/3-4, HHund II 33/7-8, Anon Sól 9/6VII). The word vargr is used as a term for ‘wolf’ but also for a ‘criminal’ and occasionally ‘outlaw’ (cf. von See 1999c, 118-20). Like wolves, outlaws are associated with forests (cf. the designation of outlaws as skógarmenn ‘men of the forest’). Gusi’s characterisation of Ketill here may evoke the idea of both outlaw and wolf, as is the case in the other texts adduced above.