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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Keth Lv 18VIII (Ket 31)/5 — sæti ‘he lived’

Upp mun ek nú rísa         ok ganga haugi af,
        alls mér Böðmóðr býðr.
Bróðir minn,         þótt sæti brautu nær,
        mundi eigi betr um boðit.

Ek mun nú rísa upp ok ganga af haugi, alls Böðmóðr býðr mér. Bróðir minn, þótt sæti nær brautu, mundi eigi betr um boðit.

I will now rise up and leave the mound since Bǫðmóðr invites me. My brother, even if he lived near the road, would not have invited me better.

notes

[4-6] Bróðir minn, þótt sæti nær brautu, mundi eigi betr um boðit ‘My brother, even if he lived near the road, would not have invited me better’: ‘Lived’, lit. ‘sat’ (sæti). The phrasing is reminiscent of those in warnings in Hávm 89/1-2, Sigrdr 26/2-3 and 27/4-5. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) unnecessarily emends l. 6 to: myndit betr hafa boðit ‘he would not have invited me better’; cf. NN §2391. Finnur Jónsson translates 31/4-6 as: min broder vilde ikke have budt bedre selv om han havde bot ved vejen ‘my brother would not have invited me better, even if he lived by the road’ (Skj B). Kock (NN §1479) argues that the emphasis should rather lie on the brother, viz. ‘even if it was my brother who lived near the road’ and considers the phrase bróðir minn forms a syntactical unit with the subordinate clause þótt sæti brautu nær.

grammar

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