WHEN THE “RIGHT” TEXT IS WRONG. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE BYNAME OF THE PRINCE SIGURĐR RISI

Abstract

The author discusses the byname of King Haraldr Fairhair’s son, Sigurðr, with the Sami women, Snæfríðr. In Old Icelandic, the form is hrísi, ‘illigitime son of a free women conceived in the bushes’. In Old Norwegian, h before r fell in beginnings of words and the byname had the form risi, which is an ambiguous form when the length of the vowel is not marked, and could stand both for older hrísi and risi, ‘giant|troll’. The author argues that the byname means ‘giant/troll’, and that it calls forth associations to a mythic pattern and to Sigurðr’s Sami background. This interpretation is supported by the translation of risi to gigas in the Norwegian Latin chronicle, Historia Norwegie, and by the fact that the Icelander Sturla Þórðarson in his version of Landnámabók, chose the form risi. Further, the author shows how the byname is treated by editors of scholarly editions. In editions of Icelandic texts, the form hrísi is of course used. The fact that there is a Norwegian source which says that the byname meant ‘troll/ giant’ is not used to problematize the meaning. In editions of Norwegian texts printed according to the manuscripts the form risi is of course used, but in normalized texts this form is changed to hrísi. In the future, the form hrísi must continue to be used in editions of Icelandic manuscripts (except in editions of Sturlubók) since this is the only form found in the manuscripts, but a comment problematizing the meaning would be useful. In editions of Norwegian manuscripts, risi must be the correct form.