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prose passages in saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum and in Gautreks
saga:48
Gesta Danorum
Ita digestis in cuneum catervis, ipse post bellatorum terga consistens
ac folliculo, quem cervici impensum habebat, ballistam extrahens,
quae primum exilis visa, mox cornu tensiore prominuit, denos ner-
vo calamos adaptavit, qui vegetiore iactu pariter in hostem detorti
totidem numero vulnera confixerunt.49
[After he [an old man, most probably óðinn] had distributed his
companies into this wedge formation, he took up his stance behind
the warriors’ back and, drawing out from a small bag hung round
his neck a crossbow, which appeared thin at one end but then pro-
jected in an extensive arc, he fitted ten shafts to its cord and, briskly
shooting them all at once, gave the enemy as many wounds.]
Gautreks saga
Þá fèkk Hrosshársgrani geir í hönd honum, ok segir at þat mundi
sýnast reirsproti.50
[then Hrosshárs-Grani put the spear into his [starkarðr’s] hand
and says that it would seem to be a reed [i.e., it looked as if it were
a reed].]
since then, all editors of Völuspá have adopted the reading er mær sýndiz
and editorial practice has transferred the uncertainty of this reading to
the textual notes.51 Neckel and kuhn give variant readings from other
48 sophus Bugge, Studier over de nordiske gude- og heltesagns oprindelse, 2 vols. (oslo: Cam-
mermeyer, 1881–89), 1:47.
49 Saxonis gesta danorum, ed. Jørgen olrik et al., 2 vols. (Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard,
1931–57), 1:31; translation from Saxo Grammaticus: The History of the Danes Books i–ix, ed.
Hilda Ellis Davidson, trans. Peter fisher (Bury St Edmunds: St Edmundsbury Press, 1998),
31.
50 Gautreks saga, in Fornaldarsögur Norðrlanda, ed. Carl Christian rafn, 3 vols. (Copenhagen:
n.p., 1829–30), 3:33. the earliest fragment of the saga is a single leaf from ca. 1400, and the
earliest manuscript containing complete saga, Am 152 fol., is dated to ca. 1500–25.
51 Bugge’s arguments were later reproduced by many commentators on the poem; for in-
stance, Sæmundar Edda, ed. Detter and Heinzel, 2:44–45; Die Lieder der Edda, ed. Gering
and Sijmons, 3.1:45.
sCRIBAL PRACtICes ANd tHRee LINes IN V ö L U S P Á
GRIPLA XXVI. - 12.12.B.indd 43 12/13/15 8:24:29 PM