Busla Busl 3VIII (Bós 3)/1 — Villiz ‘become lost’
Villiz vættir, verði ódæmi,
hristiz hamrar, heimr sturliz,
vestni veðrátta, verði ódæmi,
nema þú, Hringr konungr, Herrauð friðir
ok honum Bósa bjargir veitir.
Vættir villiz, ódæmi verði, hamrar hristiz, heimr sturliz, veðrátta vestni, ódæmi verði, nema þú, Hringr konungr, veitir Herrauð friðir ok honum Bósa bjargir.
May spirit beings become lost, may the monstrous become reality, may the cliffs falter, may the world become disturbed, may the weather become chaotic, may the monstrous become reality, unless you, King Hringr, make peace with Herrauðr and grant freedom to Bósi.
notes
[1] vættir villiz ‘may spirit beings become lost’: Vættir (archaic Engl. ‘wights’) are lesser mythological beings (cf. Dillmann 2007). Like landvættir ‘guardian spirits of a country’ they are evidently attributed a protective function. These beings are meant to be so confused by Busla’s magic that they lose their orientation. The goal of this operation is to provoke them in this manner against the king. There is a comparable passage in Eg (ÍF 2, 170-1), in which Egill forces the landvættir to drive King Eiríkr blóðøx ‘Bloodaxe’ and his wife, Gunnhildr, out of Norway by setting up an insult-pole (níðstǫng, cf. Almqvist 1965-74, I, 89-118). A stanza which has wording similar to Busl 3 is located at the end of the so-called Allra flagða þula ‘Reckoning of all trolls’ in VSj (Loth 1962-5, 4, 66-8; the stanza is at p. 68).