Anon Krm 1VIII/8 — Loðbrók ‘Loðbrók’
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].
readings
[8] Loðbrók (‘Lodbrok’): so all others, ‘lodbork’ 1824b
notes
[8] Loðbrók ‘Loðbrók (“Hairy-breeches”)’: For a survey of theories of the origin of this appellation, see McTurk (1991a, 6-39). There it is suggested that it was originally a woman’s (or goddess’s) name, Loðbróka, which came to be regarded, in the form Loðbrók, as a man’s name or nickname; see further Note to Ragn 39/4. More recently Rowe (2012, 155-7, 164-6) suggested that it was originally a nickname deriving from a memory of the state of the nether garments of the viking Reginheri, a likely historical prototype for Ragnarr loðbrók, as a result of his suffering from dysentery when attacking Paris in 845 (as recorded in a near-contemporary source, the anonymous Miracula Sancti Germani c. 849-58, see Waitz 1887, 16; cf. Skyum-Nielsen 1967, 23, 38). The 1824b spelling lodbork is of interest in resembling that of Lodparchi in the reference by Adam of Bremen (c. 1076) to ‘Inguar, son of Lodparch(us)’ (Inguar filius Lodparchi) (Trillmich 1961, 208), for whom the viking leader Inwære, mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle s. a. 878 (ASC I, 74, 75), is almost certainly a historical prototype. The forms of the (nick)name loðbrókar/Loðbróku/loðbork as it appears in 1824b (cf. Ragn 37, Note to [All] and Ragn 39, Note to l. 4) seem to reflect doubt on the part of the 1824b scribe as to how it should be spelt.