[5, 8] sælli meyju áhlýðandi ‘while the blessed Virgin is listening’: This is an absolute dat. (see NS §120). Kock (Skald; NN §1679) retains the dat. (sælli meyju ‘blessed Virgin’), but connects it with the verb inna ‘relate’ (l. 7) and translates it as åt den heliga jungfrun ‘in honour of the blessed Virgin’. This construction is unclear. Wrightson (2001) also retains the dat., but connects it with sanna jartegn ‘a true miracle’ (l. 7) (‘a true miracle performed by the blessed Virgin’). Skj B emends to sællar meyjar ‘of the blessed Virgin’ (l. 5) and also connects it with sanna jartegn ‘a true miracle’ (l. 7) (‘a true miracle of the blessed Virgin’). Earlier eds treat áhlýðandi lýðum (l. 8) as one nominal phrase, and Skj B translates it as i folks påhør ‘in the hearing, presence of people’. Wrightson has ‘to attentive people’. LP: áhlýðandi gives the construction as an absolute dat. with lýðum ‘while people are listening’. However, in OIcel. the -i ending in dat. pl. is late and rare (see ANG §435, Anm. 1).
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- 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.
- ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
- Wrightson, Kellinde, ed. 2001. Fourteenth-Century Icelandic Verse on the Virgin Mary: Drápa af Maríugrát, Vitnisvísur af Maríu, Maríuvísur I-III. Viking Society for Northern Research Text Series 14. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.