Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Máríudrápa 7’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 484.
Jésú, geym, svá að geystar,
guðs orð, megim forðaz
kvalar þinnar vier þrælar
þrifhróðigrar móður.
Vaktaðu várar sektir
verðlaust, og gief trausta,
heilagr Kristr, í hæstri
himins dýrð gleði fyrðum.
Jésú, geym guðs orð, svá að vier þrælar þrifhróðigrar móður þinnar megim forðaz geystar kvalar. Heilagr Kristr, vaktaðu sektir várar verðlaust, og gief fyrðum trausta gleði í hæstri dýrð himins.
‘Jesus, keep God’s word, so that we servants of your fortunate mother may escape violent torments. Holy Christ, account our debts discharged, and give men secure bliss in the highest glory of heaven.’
[1-4]: Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) emends orð (l. 2) to orðs, gen. sg. and paraphrases Jesu, beskyt din trivsel-berömte moder, så at vi guds ords tjænere kan undgå hæftig pine ‘Jesus, protect your prosperity-famous mother, so that we servants of the word of God may avoid violent torments’. As Kock (NN §3349) points out, this is somewhat clumsy and leaves þinnar ‘your’ (l. 3) somewhat isolated. As an evocation of Mary as intercessor, an image which recurs in st. 22, it is an acceptable arrangement, though, as Kock suggests, Finnur’s translation of geyma (l.1) as beskytte ‘to protect, guard’ is rather narrow in its range. Geyma has connotations of minding and heeding, as well as protecting, and may here enjoin Jesus to heed the concessions which Mary has extracted from God on mankind’s behalf as a result of her intercessions. Finnur’s emendation to orðs may be avoided, if B’s guðs orð (acc.) is taken as the object of geyma. Although geyma often takes a gen. object, as in 13/7-8, in the early period, several examples of geyma with acc. object (which anticipates modern usage) do occur (see Fritzner: geyma 2).
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.
Jésú, geym, svá að geystar,
guðs orð, megim forðaz
kvalar þinnar vier þrælar
þrifhróðigrar móður.
†vakt[...]ðu† várar sektir
verðlaust, og gief trausta,
†[...]gr† Kristr, í hæstri
himins dýrð gleði fyrðum.
Ihesu geým suo at geýstar guds ord megim fordaz kualar | þínnar ver þręlar þrifhrodegrar módur vakt…ðu varar sekter verdlaust ok gef trausta …gr | kristr í hęstri himins dyrd glede fýrdum.
(EB)
Jésú, geym, svá að geystar,
guðs orð, megim forðaz
kvalar þinnar vier þrælar
þrifhróðigrar móður.
†vakt[...]ðu† várar sektir
verðlaust, og gief trausta,
†ḥẹịḷạg̣ṛ† Kristr, í hæstri
himins dýrð gleði fyrðum.
Skj: [Anonyme digte og vers XIV], [B. 1]. En drape om jomfru Maria (Máríudrápa) 7: AII, 465, BII, 498, Skald II, 272, NN §§2671, 3349; Konráð Gíslason 1860, 556, Rydberg 1907, 33, 54, Attwood 1996a, 103, 304.
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.
This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.
This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.