Anon Mhkv 14III
Roberta Frank (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Málsháttakvæði 14’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1229.
text and translation
Bráðsét láta bragnar opt;
bregðr at þeim, er heldr á lopt;
allmargr er til seinn at sefask;
svá kǫllum vér ráð, sem gefask.
Ekki var þat forðum farald;
Finnan gat þó œrðan Harald;
hánum þótti sólbjǫrt sú;
slíks dœmi verðr mǫrgum nú.
Bragnar láta opt bráðsét; bregðr at þeim, er heldr á lopt; allmargr er til seinn at sefask; svá kǫllum vér ráð, sem gefask. Ekki var þat farald forðum; Finnan gat þó Harald œrðan; hánum þótti sú sólbjǫrt; mǫrgum verðr nú dœmi slíks.
‘Men often let things be hastily seen; the one who aims high is transformed; very many a man is too slow to calm down; we judge counsels as they turn out. It wasn’t a malady in the old days; still, the Saami girl drove Haraldr out of his mind; to him she seemed bright as the sun; instances of such happen to many now. ’
notes and context
[2]: Both the translation and meaning of this proverb are uncertain. Möbius (1874) rendered the line: dem aufwärts strebenden wendet es (das glück) sich zu ‘luck turns to the upwardly striving man’, referring to the Latin proverb audaces fortuna juvat ‘fortune favours the bold’. CPB II, 366 restricted its translation to the relatively unambiguous phrase: ‘… aloft’. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) ventured: man holder sig til den, som udbreder noget ‘one sticks to the man who circulates something’. Kock (NN §3272) suggested: till den drar man sig, som jiver ‘one goes toward the man who gives’, i.e., ‘one follows the paymaster’. The translation provided here is equally provisional. — [5-8]: The refrain is abbreviated in the ms. (and even then only partially legible), and the full text is here supplied from st. 11/5-8.
readings
- [1] Bráðsét: ‘Braðse[...]’ R, ‘braðset’ RFJ
- [3] sefask: ‘sefa[...]’ R, sefaz RFJ
- [5, 6, 7, 8] Ekki var þat forðum farald Finnan gat þó œrðan Harald hánum þótti sólbjǫrt sú slíks dœmi verðr mǫrgum nú: abbrev. as ‘[...]ar[...] f. far’ R, ‘ecki var[...] f. far’ RFJ, ‘ekki varðat f. far’ RJS
sources
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.
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GKS 2367 4° (R) — 54v/35 - 54v/35
images†Braðse[...]† láta bragnar opt;
bregðr at þeim, er heldr á lopt;
allmargr er til seinn at †sefa[...]†;
svá kǫllum vér ráð, sem gefask.
;
;
;
.Braðse[...] lata bragnar opt bregðr at þeim er helldr alopt allmargr er til seiɴ at sefa[...] kꜹllvm ⸌⸌ ver rað sem gefaz ⸝⸝ [...]ar[...] f. far |
(VEÞ)
editions and texts
Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], A. [1]. Málsháttakvæði 14: AII, 133, BII, 141, Skald II, 75, NN §3272; Möbius 1874, 7, Wisén 1886-9, I, 74-5.
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