Anon (Ragn) 1VIII (Ragn 16)/7 — fögrum ‘aright’
Þér segju vér þína
— þat er nauð, kona! — dauða.
Ill eru einkarmanni
ørlög sona Þóru.
Þung spjöll vitum önnur
æ nýjari en þessi:
— nú hefi ek fram komit fögrum —
flaug örn of ná dauðan.
Segju vér þér þína dauða; þat er nauð, kona! Ørlög sona Þóru eru ill einkarmanni. Vitum önnur þung spjöll æ nýjari en þessi: örn flaug of dauðan ná; nú hefi ek komit fram fögrum.
We tell you that your [kinsmen] are dead; woman, it is a sad task! The fate of Þóra’s sons will be hard for your husband [to bear]. We know of no more recent heavy tidings than these: an eagle flew around a dead body; now I have told the news aright.
notes
[7] nú hefi ek komit fram fögrum ‘now I have told the news aright’: I.e. ‘performed correctly’. The present edn follows CPB, FSN, and Skald in adopting the reading fögrum found in both 1824b and 147. Kock argues convincingly (NN §§11, 1459; cf. Kock 1918, 36-7) for acceptance of fögrum here as an adverbial (instr.) dat. pl., meaning ‘in fair words’ in the sense of ‘properly, correctly’. This involves an understanding of koma fram as intransitive, meaning ‘come forward, perform’. Other eds take it as transitive (‘bring forward, convey’) and supply it by emendation with a dat. object meaning ‘news’: fregnum (Ragn 1891; Ragn 1985); fregnu (Ragn 1906-8, 206-7; Ragn 1944 and 2003); and fréttum (Skj B; FSGJ).