Anon Krm 1VIII/2 — löngu ‘long ago’
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Hitt var ei fyr löngu,
er á Gautlandi gengum
at grafvitnis morði.
Þá fengu vér Þóru;
þaðan hétu mik fyrðar,
þá er ek lyngölun lagðak,
Loðbrók, at því vígi.
Stakk ek á storðar lykkju
stáli bjartra mála.
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Hitt var ei fyr löngu, er gengum at morði grafvitnis á Gautlandi. Þá fengu vér Þóru; fyrðar hétu mik Loðbrók þaðan, þá er ek lagðak lyngölun at því vígi. Ek stakk stáli bjartra mála á lykkju storðar.
We hewed with the sword. It was not long ago when we set about the slaying of the digging-wolf [SNAKE] in Götaland. That was when we married Þóra; people have called me Loðbrók (‘Hairy-breeches’) from the time when I stabbed the heather-fish [SNAKE] to death in that fight. I thrust the blade with bright ornaments at the loop of the earth [SNAKE].
notes
[2] ei fyr löngu ‘not long ago’: With many previous eds this ed. takes the mss’ ‘ei’ or ‘æi’ as the negative ei ‘not’. Wisén (1886-9) and Finnur Jónsson (1893b) have vasa, vasat ‘was not’ (for var ei ‘was not’) respectively, producing a metrically short line. The poet is here allowing the speaker to present himself as dying relatively young, in accordance with the conventions of an internationally attested heroic biographical pattern (de Vries 1963, 216; Ó Cathasaigh 1977, 2-7; McTurk 1991a, 86-9). The eds of CPB and Finnur Jónsson (1905; Skj B) read the ms. forms as æ ‘always, ever’, in the sense of ‘ever so long ago’ (so CPB), while Kock (NN §2273), who is evidently troubled by the juxtaposition of æ ‘always’ and fyr löngu ‘long ago’, emends to æfar löngu ‘exceedingly long ago’, but this is hardly justified.