Here's my translation:
Böðvarr Bjarki at the Court of King Hrólf
Chapter 23. lines 8-20
Bothvar and Hott introduce themselves!
Böðvarr gengr þangat til ok spyrr hverr þar væri í beinahrúgunni. Þá var honum svarat ok heldr óframliga: Höttr heiti ek, bokki sæll. Hví ertu hér, segir Böðvarr, eða hvat gørir þú? Höttr segir, Ek gøri mér skjaldborg, bokki sæll. Böðvarr sagði, Vesall ertu þinnar skjaldborgar! Böðvarr þrífr til hans ok hnykkir honum upp ór beinahrúgunni. Höttr kvað þá hátt við ok mælti, Nú viltu mér bana! Gør eigi þetta, svá sem ek hefi nú vel um buizk áðr, en þú hefir nú rótat í sundr skjaldborg minni, ok hafða ek nú svá gört hana háva útan at mér, at hon hefir hlíft mér við öllum höggum ykkar, svá at engi högg hafa komit á mik lengi, en ekki var hon enn svá búin sem ek ætlaða hon skyldi verða.
Böðvarr went there and asked who was there in the pile of bones. Then he was answered and rather shyly: Im called Höttr, my dear fellow. Why are you here, said Böðvarr, or what are you doing? Höttr said, "Im building myself a shield-fortress, my dear fellow. Böðvarr grabbed him and pulled him up from the pile of bones. Höttr then spoke properly and said, Now you will be my death! This wasnt built now, as well as I had previously prepared it, but you have now thrown asunder my shield-fortress, and I would have now built it so high around me, that it would have sheltered me from all your blows, so that no blow would reach me for a long time, but it was not yet as built-up as I intended it should be."
Kveðja,
Dan
Sarah Bowen wrote:
Sæl Daniel, Jed, Laurel, Simon, Thomas and anyone else who wants to join in! Simon asked for some background information on the tale, so here's some info taken from the introduction to Byock's translation... It is one of the major Scandinavian legendary tales and belongs to the mythic-heroic sagas known as fornaldar sagas. These tell of events which are supposed to have occurred long before the settlement of Iceland. Hrolf's saga was written in the 14th century and is similar to the English poem Beowulf. Both draw on a common tradition of storytelling, recounting events that are supposed to taken place in the 5th or 6th century in Denmark. Both Beowulf and Hrolf's saga provides information about a powerful champion (Beowulf and Bodvar) whose bearlike character may reflect the distant memory of early cultic practices. If you want to know how Bodvar came to be known as Bjarki, you'll have to read the first 23 chapters of the saga!!!Anyway, here are lines 8-20 from Gordon's reader in the attachment. Have fun! Sarah.
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Daniel Bray
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School of Studies in Religion A20
University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia"Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe." H. G. Wells (1866 - 1946)