Carolyne Larrington and Peter Robinson (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Sólarljóð 47’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 328.
Öllum lengri var sú in eina nótt,
er ek lá stirðr á stráum;
þat merkir þat, er guð mælti,
at maðr er moldu samr.
Sú in eina nótt, er ek lá stirðr á stráum, var lengri öllum; þat merkir þat, er guð mælti, at maðr er moldu samr.
That one night, when I lay stiff on the straw, was longer than all; that demonstrates what God has spoken, that man is the same as earth.
Mss: 166bˣ(47r), papp15ˣ(5r), 738ˣ(82r), 214ˣ(151r), 1441ˣ(585), 10575ˣ(7r), 2797ˣ(234)
Readings: [2] var: so papp15ˣ, 738ˣ, 214ˣ, 1441ˣ, 10575ˣ, 2797ˣ, er 166bˣ; in: om. papp15ˣ, 738ˣ, 214ˣ, 1441ˣ, 10575ˣ, 2797ˣ [3, 4] stráum þat: strám þá corrected from ‘strámi þá’ papp15ˣ, fram strám þá 2797ˣ [4] merkir: merktak 1441ˣ [5] er: om. papp15ˣ, 214ˣ, 10575ˣ, 2797ˣ; mælti: mæli 2797ˣ [6] at: áðr at 214ˣ, om. 2797ˣ; moldu: moldar papp15ˣ, 1441ˣ; samr: so 738ˣ, 214ˣ, 10575ˣ, 2797ˣ, sami 166bˣ, sannr corrected from ‘samr’ papp15ˣ, sonr 1441ˣ
Editions: Skj AI, 635, Skj BI, 643, Skald I, 313, NN §2564C; Bugge 1867, 364, Falk 1914, 19, Björn M. Ólsen 1915, 16, Fidjestøl 1979, 66, Njörður Njarðvík 1991, 77-8, Njörður Njarðvík 1993, 53, 124.
Notes: [2] var ‘was’: Found in all mss except for 166bˣ and one other. The past tense is required here to match lá ‘lay’. — [5] er guð mælti ‘what God has spoken’: Skj B, Skald and Falk emend to es mælti goð to give a regular alliterating l. — [6] maðr er moldu samr ‘man is the same as earth’: Cf. Gen. III.19: quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris ‘for dust thou art and into dust thou shalt return’ and HómÍsl 1872, ch. 26. Similar sentiments are found in the ON and OIcel. Rune Poems for the letter M: maðr er moldar auki ‘man is the augmentation of earth’. It is likely that the sentiment is semi-proverbial. — [6] samr ‘same’: 166bˣ has the weak form sami, as well as 6 other mss which follow it closely. Samr as in 738ˣ, 10575ˣ and 2797ˣ is grammatically correct.
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