George S. Tate (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Líknarbraut 27’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 257-8.
Kross mun á þingi þessu
þjóðum sýndr með blóði
— uggs fyllaz þá allir
aumir menn — ok saumi.
Líta seggja sveitir,
svipur ok spjót á móti
sér ok sjá með dreyra
sjálfs Krists viðir Mistar.
Á þessu þingi mun kross sýndr þjóðum með blóði ok saumi; allir aumir menn fyllaz þá uggs. Sveitir seggja líta ok {viðir Mistar} sjá á móti sér svipur ok spjót með dreyra Krists sjálfs.
‘At this assembly the Cross will be shown to the people [lit. pl.] with blood and nails; all wretched men will be filled then with terror. Hosts of men look, and the trees of Mist <valkyrie> [WARRIORS] see before them the whips and spear with the blood of Christ himself.’
The appearance of the Cross in the heavens (often with other instruments of the Passion) at the Last Judgement is an iconographic and liturgical commonplace. The response Hoc signum crucis erit in coelo cum Dominus ad judicandum venerit; tunc manifesta abscondita cordis nostri ‘This sign of the cross will be in the heaven when the Lord comes to render judgement; then will be manifest the hidden things of our heart’ recurs in the Feast of the Invention of the Cross (3 May) and in the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (14 September) (See Ordo Nidr., 339, 394, 414). The appearance of the blood-covered Cross is part of the chilling imagery of the Judgement in Has 32-3, in which the terror is so great that even the angels quake with fear and dread (ugg ok hræzlu 32/8) – a detail occurring also in the Icel. homily on All Saints (HómÍsl 1993, 21v; HómÍsl 1872, 45) and in the late medieval Rósa 124/2 (ÍM I.2, 33). The appearance of the Cross at Judgement is likewise mentioned in Píslardrápa 31/4 (ÍM I.2, 62) and Milska 67 (ÍM I.2, 53), the latter with other instruments of the Passion. These instruments, the arma Christi, are also depicted in the Islensk tegnebog (Fett 1910, pl. 4).
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
Kross mun á þingi þessu
þjóðum sýndr †[...]† blóði
— uggs fyllaz þá allir
aumir menn — ok saumi.
Líta seggja †sue[...]†,
svipur ok spjót á móti
sér †[...]† sjá með dreyra
sjálfs Krists viðir Mistar.
Kross mun a þinge þessu | þíodum syndr [...] bloðe vggs fyllaz þa aller aumer menn ok saume líta seggia sue[...] suípur ok | spíot a móti ser [...] sea med dreýra síalfs kristz vider mistar.
(GST)
Kross mun á þingi þessu
þjóðum sýndr með blóði
— uggs fyllaz þá allir
aumir menn — ok saumi.
Líta seggja sveitir,
svipur ok spjót á móti
sér ok sjá með dreyra
sjálfs Krists viðir Mistar.
Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], C. 1. Líknarbraut 27: AII, 155, BII, 167, Skald II, 88, NN §§1392, 2710A, cf. 3040; Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 43, Rydberg 1907, 15-16, 50, Tate 1974, 72.
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