Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2007, ‘Gamli kanóki, Jónsdrápa 2’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 134-5.
Brigð kómu þess brátt, es hugði
bǫlfyldr konungr verða skyldu,
harðla fljótt, þvít huggan veitti
hreggskríns jǫfurr frænda sínum.
Alla náði eirar stillis
ítr postoli dýrð at líta,
humra nausts þás hǫfðu flestir
hreina þollar fréttir einar.
Brigð kómu brátt þess, es bǫlfyldr konungr hugði skyldu verða, þvít {jǫfurr {hreggskríns}} veitti huggan frænda sínum harðla fljótt. Ítr postoli náði at líta alla dýrð {stillis eirar}, þás {flestir þollar {hreina {nausts humra}}} hǫfðu einar fréttir.
Changes came about abruptly in that which the baleful king thought should happen, for {the lord {of the storm-shrine}} [HEAVEN > = God] granted comfort to his relative very quickly. The noble Apostle was able to see all the glory {of the disposer of mercy} [= God], of which {most fir-trees {of the reindeer {of the boat-house of lobsters}}} [SEA > SHIP > SEAFARERS] have only reports.
Mss: 649a(46v) (Jón4)
Readings: [8] hreina: hreinir 649a
Editions: Skj AI, 561, Skj BI, 547, Skald I, 265; Jón4 1874, 510, Bugge 1874, 934, Lange 1958a, 82.
Context: Prefaced to this st. is the explanation: Af eitrliga grímd Domiciani keisara ok veizlum várs dróttins til Johannem i Pathmos segir hann svá ‘About the poisonous enmity of the emperor Domitian and the aid of Our Lord to John on Patmos he says the following’ (Jón4 1874, 510). This is a reference to the torture to which Domitian is said to have subjected John in Rome (he was placed in a vat of boiling oil, from which he emerged unscathed) and to John’s banishment to the stone-quarries on the island of Patmos, where he was granted the visions described in the Book of Revelation (cf. Jón4 1874, 474-8).
Notes: [4] frænda sínum ‘to his relative’: John is called Christ’s frændi ‘relative’ because his mother was thought to be a sister of Christ’s mother Mary (Jón4 1874, 466, AÍ I, 56, HómÍsl 1993, 94; cf. the designation of John as systrungr ... ýta hilmis ‘son of the sister [systrungr] of the protector of men’ in st. 3/1-2). — [8] hreina ‘(gen. pl.) of reindeer’: The ms. reading is hreinir, which would be nom. pl. of the adj. hreinn ‘pure’. The subject of the sentence is evidently an extended (rekit) man-kenning whose base-word is a term for ‘tree’ (þollar ‘fir-trees’). The last part of the determinant is clearly itself a kenning for ‘sea’ (humra naust ‘boat-house of lobsters’). Since a man-kenning ‘tree of the sea’ would be without parallel, all eds follow Bugge and emend hreinir to hreina (gen. pl. of hreinn ‘reindeer’; Bugge 1874, 934 nn. 1 and 4). This yields a man-kenning of the type ‘tree of the ship’ (cf. Meissner, 278).
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