HvítRagn Lv 1VIII (Ragn 21)/8 — búnar ‘prepared’
Hyggjum at, áðr heitim,
at hefnt megi verða;
látum ýmsu illu
Agnars bana fagna.
Skjótum húf á hrannir,
höggum ís fyrir barði;
sjám á hitt, hvé snekkjur
snemst vér fáim búnar.
Hyggjum at, áðr heitim, at hefnt megi verða; látum bana Agnars fagna ýmsu illu. Skjótum húf á hrannir, höggum ís fyrir barði; sjám á hitt, hvé vér fáim búnar snekkjur snemst.
Let us think before we promise [anything], so that vengeance may be achieved; let us allow Agnarr’s slayer to encounter various misfortunes. Let us thrust the hulk onto the waves, let us hack away the ice before the prow; let us see to this: how we can get the ships prepared as soon as may be.
readings
[8] fáim búnar: so Hb, megu búnar 1824b, ‘[…] (bunar)’(?) 147
notes
[7-8] fáim búnar snekkjur ‘we can get the ships prepared’: The Hb reading fáim is preferred here to 1824b’s megu(m), which, however, Rafn (FSN) and Örnólfur Thorsson (Ragn 1985), are exceptional among previous eds in retaining. The verb mega ‘may, can, know how to’ is used more readily with the inf. than with a p. p. (such as búnar ‘prepared’), and these two eds are no doubt assuming an understood inf. fá here (i.e. megum fá snekkjur búnar ‘may be able to get ships prepared’), since fá ‘get’ is used readily enough with the p. p. in the sense of ‘get something done’, see Heggstad et al. 2008: fá 6. It should be noted that Finnur Jónsson's normalised text in Hb 1892-6, 461 has the 3rd pers. sg. pres. subj. form fái ‘may/can get’ here, supplying by emendation a sg. verb form to follow the sg. subject indicated by the Hb reading hverr ... várr ‘which ... of us’; see the previous Note.