Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Máríuvísur II 3’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 703-4.
Herra nökkurr hugdýrr
hreinn bygði stað einn;
kæra hans af konum bar
kurteis, sem frá er spurt.
Unnuz þau hun og hann
hjartaliga; vili bjartr
láta ekki má í mót
milli þess, er hvárt vill.
Nökkurr hugdýrr, hreinn herra bygði einn stað; kurteis kæra hans bar af konum, sem er frá spurt. Þau unnuz hjartaliga, hun og hann; bjartr vili milli þess má ekki láta í mót, er hvárt vill.
A certain splendid-minded, pure lord lived in a city; his courteous wife surpassed other women, as is told. They loved each other dearly, she and he; the shining accord between them cannot do anything against that which the other [lit. each one] wants.
Mss: 713(85), 721(13v)
Readings: [5] þau: svá 721 [8] þess: so 721, ‘þ̄’ 713
Editions: Skj AII, 492, Skj BII, 533, Skald II, 292, Metr. §8A; Kahle 1898, 38, 99, Sperber 1911, 9, 62, Wrightson 2001, 56.
Notes: [4] kurteis ‘courteous’: This is a loanword from OFr. corteis or from ME curteis (see AEW: kurteiss). — [5] þau (n. nom. pl.) ‘they’: The n. gender is used because the pron. refers back to a male and a female. — [8] milli þess ‘between them’: The phrase is difficult to interpret (see Sperber). We might have expected the pron. to be in the pl. (milli þeira ‘between them’). Þess (n. gen. sg.) lit. ‘of it’ could refer to each member of the couple (cf. hvárt n. nom. sg. ‘the other’, l. 8), and n. is used because of the ‘mixed gender’ (see above). The sense of this last cl. is that there was such affection between them that they never opposed one another’s wishes. For láta í mot lit. ‘oppose’ (l. 7) see Fritzner: láta í mót.
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