Carolyne Larrington and Peter Robinson (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Sólarljóð 48’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 329.
Virði þat ok viti inn virki guð,
sá er skóp hauðr ok himin,
hversu munaðarlausir margir fara,
þótt við skylda skili.
Inn virki guð, sá er skóp hauðr ok himin, virði þat ok viti: hversu margir fara munaðarlausir, þótt við skylda skili.
May the precious God, who created earth and heaven, value and know that, how many journey loveless, though they part from their kin.
Mss: 166bˣ(47r), papp15ˣ(5r), 738ˣ(82r), 214ˣ(151r), 1441ˣ(585), 10575ˣ(7r), 2797ˣ(235)
Readings: [1] þat ok viti: ok viti þat papp15ˣ, 1441ˣ, 10575ˣ [2] inn: sá inn papp15ˣ [4] hversu: hversi 10575ˣ; munaðarlausir: einmana papp15ˣ, 1441ˣ, 2797ˣ, einmunalausir 738ˣ, einmanalausir 10575ˣ [5] fara: lifa fara 214ˣ
Editions: Skj AI, 635, Skj BI, 643, Skald I, 313; Bugge 1867, 365, Falk 1914, 19, Björn M. Ólsen 1915, 16, Fidjestøl 1979, 66, Njörður Njarðvík 1991, 78, Njörður Njarðvík 1993, 54, 124-5.
Notes: [4] munaðarlausir (m. nom. pl.) ‘loveless’: Found in 166bˣ and a number of other mss; other usages of munaðr and munuðr ‘desire, voluptuousness’ elsewhere in the poem (10/1, 18/1, 77/3) usually refer to sexual desire, which does not seem to be the case here. It is possible that the first element of the cpd was originally munar from munr m. ‘mind, delight, love’; an emendation to munarlausir ‘without love, loveless’ is adopted by Skj B and Skald. Papp15ˣ and 1441ˣ have einmana indeclinable adj. ‘solitary, lonely’, and Falk accepts this reading; the forms of 738ˣ, and 10575ˣ seem to be a blend of the two readings, with uncertain meaning. The l. is hypermetrical; accordingly Skj B and Skald substitute hvé for hversu, and produce a lesser number of syllables through emending to munarlausir. — [5] margir fara: Skj B and Skald add of, enclitic particle, to give margir of fara in order to regularise the metre. The meaning is unchanged.
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