Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1975, Page 355
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Eddelon konungsson upp å skoginn: Jjeir våru tolf saman: J)eir
liof8u engi våpn nema sverb ein: en er }:>eir våru komnir å skoginn,
kornn i moti ]:>eim tvau dyr rennilig ok furbuliga mikil er fingalptar
heita: ]>au eru me8 Joess håttar skopun, at J>au hafa manns hendr
ok manns hofub ok alla mannsskopun ofan at lendum, en brjost
ok kloer sem å uargadyrum: två spena hof bu jmu sem konu brjost
væri: aptari hlutr dyrsins er bæ&i digr ok langr ok lendar sem å
hesti ok hofa å aptari fotum, hala langan ok digran ok klepp å
endanum: fieirra åsjona var hræbulig: tennr mjok storar, ginit mik-
it ur måta: ur augunum jootti sem eldr brynni: karldyrit hafbi
skegg sitt ok svart sem bik: ]»au hofbu skjoldu ok sverb. (Mobius,
Blv, p. 17.)
They kill all of Eddelon’s men with their tails and swords. At
that moment Åki appears and feils one of the fingalptar with a
club. (It is of some interest to note that Åki, now called Trémann,
here bears at least a superficial resemblance to Oddr in the latter’s
role as Næframa&r; Boer Q-Os, pp. 142 ff.) The other beast knocks
Eddelon down with its tail. Åki runs to his aid, »en dyrit rekr båb-
ar klær fyrir brjost komna manni svå at i beini stob: en honum [sic
MS; Mobius reads wrongly: hann] lå vib at kikna [å bak aptr:
added in AM 523, 4to on p. 59 of Mobius’ edition].« Åki wrings its
neck, and Eddelon stabs it in the abdomen, »svå at upp gékk at
hjoltum: féll konungsson ])å undan dyrinu, en dyrit å hann ofan: lå
hann j)å i uviti en kominn at dauba:...«. Åki pulis him from beneath
the monster and revives him.
The similarities, both in wording and in content, of these two
passages are quite compelling: the heroes have landed on a nearly
deserted coast; there they remain for a time; one pleasant day they
advance further inland; toward evening they are attacked by a.
finngålkn (or a pair of them) from the forest; all (or almost all)
of the men are killed, some by the tails, some by the teeth and
swords of the monsters; a rescuer arrives just in time to save the
leader (or leaders) of the slain band; at some point in the struggle
the finngålkn falls on the leader almost suffocating him. The dif-
ferences are minimal. The only significant divergence is the attack
by two monsters on a small band led by one man in Blv as oppos-
ed to the attack by one monster on a larger band led by two men
Opuscula V — 22