HalldR Lv 1I/8 — ber ‘carry it’
Fyll horn, kona; frák, at belldi
Ôleifr konungr undri miklu,
þás sǫðlaði sínum mági
bukk at ríða; ber mér ok þér.
Fyll horn, kona; frák, at Ôleifr konungr belldi miklu undri, þás sǫðlaði mági sínum bukk at ríða; ber mér ok þér.
Fill the horn, woman; I have heard that King Óláfr performed a great wonder when he saddled a he-goat for his kinsman to ride; carry it to me and to you.
readings
[8] ber: so 73aˣ, 71ˣ, 76aˣ, Flat, fœr 61, berr Flat
notes
[8] ber ‘carry’: (a) The verb is taken here (as in Skj B and Skald) as imp. ber, the spelling in the Bæb transcripts. This links with the call for a drink in l. 1 and produces a syntactic and semantic match with Ólhelg Lv 1/8 fœr mér ok þér ‘bring it to me and you’. In both cases the utterance is slightly illogical: ‘carry/bring [the horn] to me and you’. (b) It could alternatively be taken as 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. berr, the spelling in Flat, probably with the sense ‘suits’, which would also fit with the dat. mér ok þér ‘me and you’. The subject would be unexpressed: presumably the drinking-horn mentioned earlier in the stanza. (c) The 61 reading fœr ‘bring’ matches Ólhelg Lv 1/8 exactly but has less ms. support and fails to provide alliteration.