Sat ek á bólstri í Baldrshaga;
kvað, hvat ek kunna, fyr konungs dóttur.
Nú skal Ránar raunbeð troða,
en annarr mun Ingibjargar.
Ek sat á bólstri í Baldrshaga; kvað, hvat ek kunna, fyr dóttur konungs. Nú skal troða raunbeð Ránar, en annarr mun Ingibjargar.
I sat on a cushion in Baldrshagi; I recited what I knew before the daughter of the king. Now I must tread the testing bed of Rán <sea-goddess> [SEA], but another will [tread the bed] of Ingibjǫrg.
[1] á bólstri ‘on a cushion’: According to ONP: bolstr, the first prose citation of this word dates from c. 1300. For the etymology, see AEW: bolstr, bulstr. For comparable usage, cf. Sigsk 48/1, Guðr I 15/2. The word-picture of Friðþjófr reclining on a cushion in Ingibjǫrg’s quarters, with its suggestions of luxury and sexual intimacy, looks forward to the imagery of the second helmingr, in which similar sexual imagery evokes the watery embraces of Rán, a sea-deity who takes drowned men to her bed at the bottom of the ocean.