Sigurðar saga fóts (The Saga of Sigurðr Foot)

MIRATOR 11:1/2010 84féll af mæði og sárum. Sneri him fiercely, so that King Sigurðr fellÁsmundur honum á sárin, svo að from exhaustion and wounds.eigi skyldi inn blæða, en Ásmundur Ásmundr turned him woundsdownwards,so that he should notgekk sjálfur burt af vígvelli. Lét hannog taka Sigurð og færa heim í bleed inwards, 66 and walkedborgina og fá til lækna að græða unassisted from the battlefield. Hehann. Svo voru og læknar til fengnir also had people take Sigurðr and bringað græða Ásmund, og greru þeir him back into the town, and bringbáðir að heilu. Vildi Sigurður þá healers to look after him. Healers weresigla heim til Vallands, en Ásmundur also brought to see to Ásmundr, andbauð honum hinar sömu sættir og both men returned to health. Thenfyrr, en Sigurður kvað ekki mundu af Sigurðr wanted to sail home to France;sættum verða. ‘En sé eg, að mér Ásmundr offered him the samestendur eigi héðan af að berjast við settlements as before, but Sigurðr saidþig og launa þér svo lífgjöfina, en that they would not come to terms. ‘Iveit eg sakir ónáttúru minnar, að eg see, however, that it won’t do me anymun þér aldri trúr verða, því að eg good to fight against you any more,fyrirman öllum mönnum að njóta and that I should repay you forSignýjar nema mér einum.’ granting me my life; but I know that,‘Það má og vel verða,’ sagði because of my contrary nature, I willÁsmundur, ‘því að enn er Signý never prove true to you, because I takeóspillt af mér. Vil eg nú ok gefa þér it badly that anyone should have theSignýju, ef það er hennar vilji.’ enjoyment of Signý, except me alone.’Sigurður varð þá glaður við og ‘In fact, that is possible too,’ saidmælti: ‘Þetta er svo mikillÁsmundr, ‘because Signý is stilldrengskapur, að þú sýnir mér, að unspoiled by me. I also wish now toaldri mun fyrnast, meðan Húnaland give Signý to you, if that is her wish.’er byggt.’With that Sigurðr became glad, andsaid, ‘The great magnanimity that youshow me never shall be forgottenwhile the land of the Huns is66 Although the Dictionary of Old Norse Prose gives only ‘bleed inwards (into the body)’ for blæða inn(s.v. blða), citing this passage and Vilmundar saga viðutan (in Loth ed., Late Medieval IcelandicRomances, iv 137–201, at 148), the idea seems to be that inward bleeding is mortally dangerous. This isperhaps most memorably expressed in Finnboga saga, Finnboga ríma and Vilmundar rímur where a bearis killed by stabbing it and then holding its skin together to make sure that it bleeds in rather than out; forreferences and discussion see Ólafur Halldórsson, ‘Rímur af Finnboga ramma’, in Grettisfærsla: Safnritgerða eftir Ólaf Halldórsson, gefið út á sjötugsafmæli hans 18. apríl 1990 (Rit 38), Stofnun ÁrnaMagnússonar: Reykjavík, 1990, 275–280 ( repr. from Gripla 1 (1975)). Other occurrences of blæða innare found in chapter 17 of Njáls saga (Brennu-Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson ed., 50); and Geðraunir(Rímnasafn, Finnur Jónsson ed., ii 224).