Note to Anon Líkn 16VII
[1] í frosti ‘in the frost’: LP translates as ved vintertid ‘in winter-time’, but winter does not square well with the season of Holy Week. Coldness is often glossed in a moral sense as infidelity or as malice or absence of charity (see Hill 1968, 522-32); cf. the prayer in the OIcel. ember-days homily that God might drive grimléics frost ‘the frost of cruelty’ from our hearts (HómÍsl 1993, 17r; HómÍsl 1872, 36). Later poetry extends the moral sense, e.g. frost glæpa ‘frost of sins’ Lil 81/8; related is C15th jockul synda ‘glacier of sins’ Máríublóm 3/8 (ÍM I.2, 173). Closest to Líkn, in the context of Passion narrative, is the late medieval Niðrstv 19/5, which refers to Christ’s being beaten bædi j grimd ok frosti ‘both in fierceness and frost’ (ibid. 228).
References
- Bibliography
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- Hill, Thomas D. 1968. ‘The Tropological Context of Heat and Cold Imagery in Anglo-Saxon Poetry’. NM 69, 522-32.
- HómÍsl 1872 = Wisén, Theodor, ed. 1872. Homiliu-bók: Isländska homilier efter en handskrift från tolfte århundredet. Lund: Gleerup.
- HómÍsl 1993 = de Leeuw van Weenen, Andrea, ed. 1993. The Icelandic Homily Book: Perg. 15 4° in the Royal Library, Stockholm. Íslensk handrit/Icelandic Manuscripts Series in quarto 3. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi.
- ÍM = Jón Helgason, ed. 1936-8. Íslenzk miðaldarkvæði: Islandske digte fra senmiddelalderen. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
- Internal references
- George S. Tate 2007, ‘ Anonymous, Líknarbraut’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 228-86. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1024> (accessed 5 May 2024)
- Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Lilja 81’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 653-4.