Cite as: Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Vitnisvísur af Máríu 12’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 748.

Rekkr með reiðiþokka rjóðr anzaði fljóði: ‘Legg þú niðr, in leiða, lygð á mig til blygðar;

brims ætla eg bríma brík að fastna ríka, en fielausa fýsaz faldreið skal eg aldri.’

Rjóðr rekkr anzaði fljóði með reiðiþokka: ‘Legg þú niðr, in leiða, lygð á mig til blygðar; eg ætla að fastna {ríka brík {bríma brims}}, en {fielausa faldreið} skal eg aldri fýsaz.’

The red-faced champion answered the woman with a wrathful mind: ‘Cease, loathsome one, the lie about me to shame me [lit. for shame]; I intend to be engaged to {a rich plank {of the fire of the ocean}} [GOLD > WOMAN], and {a penniless headdress-chariot} [WOMAN] I shall never desire.’

Mss: 713(84), 721(12r)

Readings: [5] brims: blóms 713, 721    [8] faldreið: so 721, fald 713;    skal eg: so 721, skal eg þig 713

Editions: Skj: [Anonyme digte og vers XIV], [B. 3]. Vitnisvísur af Maríu 12: AII, 484-5, BII, 522, Skald II, 286, NN §1676; Kahle 1898, 52, 102-3, Sperber 1911, 25-6, 71, Wrightson 2001, 32.

Notes: [2] rjóðr ‘red-faced’: Lit. ‘red, ruddy’. This adj. must refer to the fact that he was red-faced with anger or shame (see NN §1676). — [3, 4] legg þú niðr ... lygð ‘cease ... the lie’: Both Skj B and Skald silently emend to leggr þú niðr lit. ‘you lay down the lie’ (i.e. ‘you lie’). However, the verb-adv. collocation leggja niðr is not attested in that sense; rather, it means ‘to cease, quit, bring to an end’ (see Fritzner: leggja niðr, esp. leggja niðr 5-6.). — [3] in leiða ‘loathsome one’: Wrightson treats the def. art. in ‘the’ as the adv. enn ‘again’ and construes leiða (taken as an adj., f. acc. sg.) ‘loathsome’ with lygð (f. acc. sg.) ‘lie’. That is less convincing, because we would not expect a (usually) stressed adv. in a dip. — [5, 6] brík bríma brims ‘plank of the fire of the ocean [GOLD > WOMAN]’: The ms. reading blóms ‘of the flower’ (brík blóms bríma ‘plank of the flower of fire’; so Wrightson) makes no sense as a determinant in a kenning for ‘woman’ and has been emended in accordance with Sperber, Skj B and Skald. — [8] skal eg aldri ‘I shall never’: The 713 reading, skal eg þig aldri [fýsaz] ‘I shall never (desire) you’, is possible, but the pron. þig ‘you’ must have been inserted in 713 to provide the missing syllable (fald ‘head-dress’ rather than faldreið ‘headdress-chariot’; so 721).