Cite as: Valgerður Erna Þorvaldsdóttir (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Brúðkaupsvísur 5’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 532-3.

Bríma þýðiz bóknám brauta með siða skraut æsir, þá er ungr var, ögurs og guðs lög.

Bæði gjörðiz bókfróðr beiðir, er skamt leið, röðuls — var hann raunsviðr — rastar og trúfastr.

{Æsir {bríma {brauta ögurs}}} þýðiz bóknám og guðs lög með skraut siða, þá er var ungr. {Beiðir {röðuls rastar}} gjörðiz bæði bókfróðr og trúfastr, er skamt leið; hann var raunsviðr.

{The flinger {of the fire {of the roads of the redfish}}} [SEA > GOLD > GENEROUS MAN] embraces book-learning and God’s laws with the ornament of good conduct when he was young. {The demander {of the sun of the current}} [GOLD > MAN] became both book-wise and firm of faith after a short while; he was trulywise.

Mss: 721(14r), 1032ˣ(98v-99v), 399a-bˣ(2), 2166ˣ(2-3)

Readings: [1] Bríma: so 2166ˣ, Prima 721, 1032ˣ, 399a‑bˣ    [4] ögurs: jöfur 721

Editions: ÍM II, 130.

Notes: [All]: In the D-version of Mar, the young klerkr is said to have been sent to school (Mar 1871, 118: ok er hann óx upp var hann í skóla settr ‘and when he grew up he was put to school’). — [1] bríma ‘of the fire’: Jón Sigurðsson suggested this reading in the margin in 399a-bˣ but chose the reading Prima for the main text, following 721 and 1032ˣ. The scribe of 2166ˣ chose Bríma for the main text. Príma, from prími ‘prime, 6 a.m.’, is difficult to fit into the syntax here. — [2] með skraut siða ‘with the ornament of good conduct’: The import of this phrase is not entirely clear. It has been taken here to mean that the young man’s studiousness was further enhanced by his moral virtues (cf. st. 6/2, 4 siðknár álmr bóka ‘the well-behaved elm tree of books’ and 8/5-8). — [4] ögurs ‘of the redfish’: 721 and all transcripts read jöfur which does not make sense in this context. The word ögur was suggested by Jón Helgason, since the rhyme requires a word with ‘ög-’. A word meaning ‘fish’ is a typical determinant of a sea-kenning, which here forms the determinant of a gold-kenning. Finnur Jónsson thought that augurr was the correct form of ǫggr, en slags fisk ‘a kind of a fish’ (LP: ǫggr), but Jón Helgason and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon disagreed and thought that ǫgr was the correct form (ÍM II, 130 n.; ÍO, 1220). The fish is identified as the redfish or red sea perch (Lat. perca marina) by Fritzner: ögr. — [7] -sviðr ‘wise’: Older form of the adj. svinnr. This is one of the examples Jón Helgason gives to support his theory that the poem is older than previously thought (ÍM II, 128).