Gripla - 2020, Síða 203

GRIPLA202
Hyggið] so M, Hugðir B, Dvelr þú s; Egða] so B, Agða M, s; and-
spilli] ann- M; brunnu] brunni M; bjargs] ‘baurks’ B; marga] marg-
ann M; veðrs] so s, veðr M, B; betra] betri B
“Hyggið at, mildr malmrunnr, hvé margir eldar brunnu í sal”, kvað
Vǫr banda Egða andspilli. “Svá marga bjargs vetr átt ólifat”, kvað Bil
blæju Skjǫldunga veðrs valdi. “Nú’s skammt til betra.”
“Pay attention, generous weapon-tree [warrior], how many fires
burned in the hall”, said the Vǫr (goddess) of ribbons [woman]
to the confidant of the Egðir (i.e. Gísli). “So many winters of
safe-keeping you have unlived”, said the Bil (goddess) of the head-
dress [woman] to the ruler of the Skjǫldungs’ storm [battle >
warrior]. “Now it is a short time until something better.”
We notice that there are some variant readings to the stanza, but none that
alters the meaning. In the kenning Egða andspillir ‘confidant of the Egðir’,
only one of the manuscripts, the fragmentary AM 445 c 4to (B), has the
reading Egða; the other two have Agða. Nevertheless, it is clear that the
skald is referring to the people of Agder – the Egðir – here; there is no
Old Norse word *agði(r).7 The form Agða is thus most easily explained as
secondary to Egða, formed by analogy with the provincial name Agðir, even
though the manuscript evidence (two of three manuscripts) would seem to
indicate that Agða is the most original reading.8
7 There are admittedly some apocryphal persons in the sagas named Agði, but in most in-
stances the name is clearly extracted from place-names (eponyms). That must be the case
with the mountain dweller (bergbúi) Agði in sneglu-Halla þáttr, based on Agðanes (Eyfirðinga
sǫgur, ed. by Jónas Kristjánsson, íslenzk fornrit IX (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag,
1956), 265), and Agði Þrymsson in Hversu nóregr bygðist, based on Agðir (Flateyjarbok. En
samling af norske Konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre Fortællinger om Begivenheder i og uden-
for norge samt Annaler, ed. by Guðbrandr Vigfusson and C.R. Unger, 3 vols (Christiania:
P. T. Mallings Forlagsboghandel, 1860–1868), vol. 1, 23). Apparently, the troll Agði jarl
in Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns is not linked to a place-name, cf. Die saga von Þorsteinn bæj-
armagn. saga af Þorsteini bæjarmagni. Übersetzung und Kommentar, ed. by Andrea Tietz,
Münchner Nordistische Studien 12 (München: Herbert Utz Verlag, 2012), 52 ff.
8 Finnur Jónsson, norsk-islandske kultur- og sprogforhold i 9. og 10. årh. (København: Andr.
Fred. Høst & Søn, 1921), 303, believed that this was an old, unmutated genitival form Agða
to Egðir, similar to the forms that form the first parts of the provincial names Rogaland and
Þelamǫrk. A gen. pl. Agða would, however, be difficult to explain as original in accordance
with the rules of Old Norse sound change. Judged by its form, Egðir must originally have