Gusi Lv 2VIII (Ket 4)/6 — fyr ‘before’
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.
readings
[6] þrysvar fyr Þrumu: þrysvar í Þrumu firði 471
notes
[6] þrysvar fyr Þrumu ‘three times before Þruma’: The word Þrumu is usually interpreted here as the name of an island in Agder in southern Norway (cf. LP: 1. Þruma 1; Note to Þul Eyja 3/8III). In mss 343a and 471 the place mentioned is identified in a prose remark (FSGJ 2, 161): þeir fundust fyrir Ófara-Þrumu ‘they [i.e. Ketill and Gusi] met near Ófara-Þruma’. In 471 the p. n. appears in the stanza as Þrumu firði ‘Þruma fjord’. In the reading í þrumu which appears in some mss (papp32ˣ, 109a IIˣ and 1006ˣ) the word þruma could be interpreted in another way, namely as a poetic designation for ‘battle’: as Finnur Jónsson notes (LP: 2. þruma), the common noun þruma means ‘thunder, noise’ and appears as a variant reading to the synonym þrima as a poetic designation for ‘battle’ in Þhorn Gldr 1/2I. Since Ketill meets the Saami Gusi shortly after he leaves the home of Brúni north of Finnmark and returns to Brúni after he has killed Gusi, an island (or fjord) in southern Norway does not accord well with the geography of the saga (Ketill’s home is in Namdalen in Nord-Trøndelag).