ÞjJ Lv 2VIII (ÞJ 2)/5 — Úlfr ‘the wolf’
Hlær, þá er hildar máva*
* hugr minn, koma þínum
— stafns verðk gjarn til Gefnar —
gælendr fyr mér hæli.
Úlfr veit um — Syn sjálfa
sædags lofak fagra —
— mér verðr grund at grandi
grafsilfrs — etit hafði.
* Hugr minn hlær, þá er gælendr máva* hildar koma hæli þínum fyr mér; verðk gjarn til Gefnar stafns. Lofak fagra Syn sædags sjálfa; grund grafsilfrs verðr mér at grandi; úlfr veit um [þat, er] hafði etit.
My mind laughs when appeasers of the seagulls of battle [RAVENS/EAGLES > WARRIORS] bring your woman before me; I desire the Gefn <goddess> of the headdress [WOMAN]. I praise the beautiful Syn <goddess> of the sea-day [GOLD > WOMAN] herself; the ground of engraved silver [WOMAN] causes me suffering; the wolf knows [what] he had eaten.
notes
[5, 8] úlfr veit um [þat, er] hafði etit ‘the wolf knows [what] he had eaten’: The word um (l. 5) poses a problem here; it cannot be the particle of/um, which cannot be separated from the verb it precedes (e.g. um etit hafði ‘had eaten’). The only possibility is to construe it with vita ‘know’ (vita um e-t) with a suppressed object, veit um [þat, er] hafði etit ‘knows about [that which] he had eaten’. The prose text which immediately follows this stanza gives a paraphrase of this cryptic statement as Fenris úlfrinn vissi, hvat hann taug, þá er hann beit höndina af Tý Óðinssyni ‘The Fenriswolf knew what he was chewing on when he bit the hand off Týr, the son of Óðinn’. The allusion is to the myth of the gods’ binding of Fenrir (cf. SnE 2005, 27-9). A drawing in the lower margin of fol. 121v (see above), showing a creature of wolf-like appearance with what appears to be an arm reaching into its mouth, also reaffirms the idea that it is a hand, and most likely Týr’s, that the wolf has eaten. The prose goes on to explain the relevance of such a comment with the additional information, spoken by Gestr/Jón that ek mun ok gjörst vita, hvar ek hefi frá horfit ‘I also know all too well from where I have looked away’. The implication seems to be that both Fenrir and Jón know the dire consequences of their actions (biting off Týr’s hand, leaving his sister, mother and patrimony in the power of the evil Roðbert), but proceed anyway. Another proverb which uses a similar image of a wolf being the victim of a hopeless situation appears in ch. 36 of GHr (FSGJ 3, 272), where the wicked Annis, having lured the protagonist into a bind, states því nú hefir vargrinn í stilli gengit ‘for now the wolf has walked into the trap’.