Svart Skauf 6VIII/1 — missir ‘lacking’
‘Lítill er missir í mínum ungum;
atvinna brestr okkur bæði.
Hafðir þú áður hæri útvegu*;
nægtir voru þá og nógar vistir.
‘Lítill missir er í ungum mínum; atvinna brestr okkur bæði. Áður hafðir þú hæri útvegu*; nægtir voru þá og nógar vistir.
‘There is little lacking in my young ones; sustenance fails for us both. Earlier you had better remedies; there was abundance then and plentiful provisions.
readings
[1] missir: ‘missur’ Rask87ˣ
notes
[1] lítill missir er ‘there is little lacking’: The Rask87ˣ readings lítið and ‘missur’ have been emended in keeping with the other eds: ‘missur’ is not an Icelandic word, and missir lit. ‘want’ is m. nom. sg., requiring the m. nom. sg. (lítill ‘little’) of the adj. (lítið is n. nom. or acc. sg.). The sense of this clause must be that the vixen is defending her cubs by saying that there is nothing wrong with them; rather, the parents are to blame for the dire situation.