Anon Mv II 8VII/4 — fegin ‘happy’
‘Sie eg það, sæl frú;
sonu elr hver kvón
— frjóvaz af því flest víf
fegin — nema sjálf eg.
Gleðifullan gietnað
gjaltu mier, víf snjalt,
meyjan, að eg mega fá
móðurnafn og bera jóð.
‘Eg sie það, sæl frú; hver kvón elr sonu nema eg sjálf; flest víf frjóvaz, fegin af því. Snjalt víf, gjaltu mier gleðifullan gietnað, meyjan, að eg mega fá móðurnafn og bera jóð.
‘I see that, blessed lady; every woman bears sons except I myself; most women multiply, happy because of that. Wise lady, grant me a joyful conception, Virgin, so that I may receive the name of mother and bear offspring.
notes
[3, 4] fegin af því ‘happy because of that’: The sense is that most women are happy because they bear children. Skj B takes the prepositional phrase af því ‘because of that’ as the conj. ‘because’, which is not possible. Skald construes fegin ‘happy’ with hver kvón ‘every woman’ (l. 2), and treats flest víf frjóvaz af því (l. 3) as one cl. (‘most women become fertile from that’ (?); see NN §1694), which is unclear. Wrightson translates the cl. as ‘most wives are joyfully fruitful because of that’, with the alternative translations ‘because most joyful women conceive’ or ‘most joyful women conceive as a result of that (i.e. of being married)’.