Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2003, Page 325
“Mansgngr” revisited
311
Okynni vensk, ennis
ungr J)or5ak vel fordum,
haukaklifs, at hefja,
Him, jrvergnfpur rnfnar;
verdk f feid, £>ås foldar
faldr kømr i hug skaldi
berg-Oneris, bruna
brått midstalli hvåta. {Islenzk fornrit 2:148)
(Translated: The woman must suffer my moods; earlier, when I was
young, I was openhearted; - I feel depressed every time berg-Oneris
foldar faldr comes into my mind.) Arinbjqrn asks about what woman he
has composed a mansQngr, “you have hidden her name in this verse”.
(As a matter of faet Sigurdur Nordal has been able to interpret berg-
Oneris foldar faldr as the name Åsgerdr, i.e. the widow of borolfr.)
Now Egill answers with another stanza:
Sef-Skuldar felk sjaldan,
sorg Hlés vita borgar,
i nidjerfi Narfa
nafn aurmyils drafnar,
fmt geir-Rotu ggtva
gny[)ings bragar fingrum
rogs at ræsis veigum
reifendr sumir Jjreifa. {op. cit. p. 149)
In this rather intricate stanza, Egill States that he is not in the habit of
concealing the name of his sister-in-law in poetry, but some people are
shrewd enough to understand his verse. Then he says: “As the saying
goes, you can tell everything to a friend; I shall tell you who the woman
is I am composing about; it is Åsgerdr your relative, and I wish you
would give me support to obtain that marriage”.
Arinbjgm replies that he is very mueh willing to do this, and the re-
sult is that Egill marries Åsgerdr.
Arinbjgm understands correctly the first stanza as a mansgngr, but
there is no hint that he is offended when he is told of the name hidden in
the stanza. It would be equally absurd to believe that the mansgngs-
dråpa of Ingolfr about Valgerdr and the many mansgngskvædi of Qlvir