Cite as: Valgerður Erna Þorvaldsdóttir (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Brúðkaupsvísur 25’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 547.

Byskup frietti brimlogs að því meginbrátt: ‘Hví ertu, hlynr, svá hverforðr, góins láðs?’

Seggr liet eigi seinn að svara, því er spurt var: ‘Einglum er sú drós, dreingr, dýrri, er eg gat fyrr’.

Byskup frietti {{brimlogs}} að því meginbrátt: ‘Hví ertu svá hverforðr, {hlynr {láðs góins}}?’ Seggr liet eigi seinn að svara, því er spurt var: ‘Sú drós, er eg gat fyrr, dreingr, er dýrri einglum’.

The bishop asked {{the surf-flame}} [GOLD > ?] about it very soon: ‘Why are you so fickle in words, {maple {of the land of the snake}} [GOLD > MAN]?’ The man was not slow in answering what was asked: ‘The lady whom I mentioned before, sir, is more precious than angels’.

Mss: 721(14v), 1032ˣ(108v), 399a-bˣ(10), 2166ˣ(10)

Readings: [1] brimlogs: ‘brimlags’ 721, br⸜i⸝nlags 1032ˣ, 399a‑bˣ, brullaups corrected from ‘brinlags’ 2166ˣ    [2] að: brátt að 2166ˣ;    ‑brátt: hátt 2166ˣ    [4] hverforðr: kveifráðr 2166ˣ;    góins: so 2166ˣ, ‘gois’ 721, 1032ˣ, 399a‑bˣ;    láðs: so 399a‑bˣ, 2166ˣ, laðr 721, 1032ˣ

Editions: ÍM II, 134.

Notes: [1-2]: As Jón Helgason pointed out in his edn, the first two ll. of the st. are severely corrupted. — [1] brimlogs ‘surf-flame’: In his edn Jón Helgason read the word in 721 as ‘brⁱnlags’. The scribe of 721 seems to write <r> after <b> in the shape of ‘ꝛ’ as can be seen on fol. 14v, 5 ‘brynsuellz’, 14v, 21 ‘a⸌f⸍brígd’, 14v, 25 ‘bra’ and 14v, 27 ‘ladbríotur’, so this cannot be read as ‘brⁱn-’ because the following letter begins with a straight stroke and is obviously an ‘m’. The scribe of 1032ˣ seems to have misread ‘bⁱm’ as ‘brⁱn’, which Jón Sigurðsson copied in the main text in 399a-bˣ, while suggesting the reading brimlogs in the margin. His suggestion has been adopted into the main text in this edn, emending ‘-lags’ to -logs ‘flame’. The scribe of 2166ˣ wrote ‘brinlags’, but changed it to ‘brullaups’. It seems clear that brimlogs is the determinant of a kenning, probably a man-kenning, but the base-word is missing. It seems that the poet failed to create a proper man-kenning or that the text is so corrupt that the original kenning has not been preserved. — [2] að ‘about’: Jón Sigurðsson suggested the reading brátt at in the margin in 399a-bˣ, which the scribe of 2166ˣ adopted. — [2] -brátt ‘soon’: Jón Sigurðsson suggested the reading hátt in the margin in 399a-bˣ. — [4] hverforðr ‘fickle in words’: The scribe of 2166ˣ writes kveifráðr in the main text, but ‘-orðr’ in the margin. Jón Helgason emended to huerfradr. — [4] góins ‘of the snake’: Jón Sigurðsson suggested this reading in the margin in 399a-bˣ. — [7] dreingr ‘sir’: While dreingr often means ‘young man’ in a somewhat disrespectful sense, in Christian poetry it frequently seems to have a neutral or even a positive meaning, and so could possibly be an appropriate form of address to a bishop (see LP: drengr).