Anon (Ragn) 6VIII (Ragn 36)/2 — of ‘in’
Samira okkr at öldrum
of öndvegi þræta,
hvar okkar hefir unnit
hváðarr framar öðrum.
Þú stótt, þar er bar bára
branda hjört at sundi,
en ek sat, þar er rá reiddi
rauðan stafn til hafnar.
Samira okkr þræta of öndvegi at öldrum, hvar hváðarr okkar hefir unnit framar öðrum. Þú stótt, þar er bára bar hjört branda at sundi, en ek sat, þar er rá reiddi rauðan stafn til hafnar.
It is not fitting for the two of us to wrangle, in our seats at a drinking session, over where each of us has achieved more than the other. You stood where a wave bore the stag of prow-sides [SHIP] to the sound, and I sat where the sail-yard brought the red prow into harbour.
notes
[2] of öndvegi ‘in our seats’: The reading of, retained by the eds of Skald, CPB, Ragn 1891 and Ragn 1985, read as af ‘from’ (?) by Rafn (FSN) and emended to í ‘in’ by all other eds, means strictly ‘over, above’ in a physical sense, with locational meaning if followed by the dat. (giving here the meaning ‘(each) on (his) seat’, ‘each in his place’, with öndvegi understood as dat. sg.) or directional if followed by the acc. (giving here the meaning ‘across the seat(s), from one seat to another’, with öndvegi understood as acc. sg. or pl.). The prose text indicates that both speakers are sitting on the same side of the table as their hosts: the first to arrive is directed to the higher or northern bench (á enn ędra bekk), where he takes up the space of two men, and the second is directed to sit further in (innar) on that same bench, where he evidently takes up the space of three men, since five men have to make way for the two of them together (cf. Ragn 1906-8, 170-1); and it is in the centre of the northern bench that the high seat, occupied by the host, was traditionally located (CVC: önd-vegi and önd-ugi). The prose is however inconsistent in its account of where on the bench the speakers are seated in relation to one another. The second speaker (of sts 33, 35, 37), is first said to have been placed innar ‘further in’, i.e. nearer the host than the first speaker (Ragn 1906-8, 171), but is described later as sitting útar ‘further out’ (Ragn 1906-8, 172). This inconsistency has implications for the translation of st. 37/8, below.