Cite as: Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Heilags anda drápa 8’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 458.

Hvert mein þváið, hirtir hugar sjúks, liði mjúku, gegn, sá er góðu magnar, glöðum brunni miskunnar.

Siðlátum eykr sætan sá bekkr, þeim er af drekka, (linar brysti þrá) þo*sta (þekkr elskugi) rekkum.

Gegn hirtir, sá er góðu magnar, þváið hvert mein sjúks hugar mjúku liði glöðum brunni miskunnar. Sá bekkr eykr sætan þo*sta siðlátum rekkum, þeim er af drekka; þekkr elskugi linar þrá brysti.

Fitting chastiser, who strengthens righteousness, you wash every stain of the sick mind with gentle help in the clear spring of mercy. That spring intensifies sweet thirst in those morally upright men who drink from it; delightful love alleviates longing in the breast.

Mss: B(10r), 399a-bˣ

Readings: [1] Hvert: so 399a‑bˣ, BRydberg, ‘H[...]t’ B, ‘H[...]rt’ BFJ    [7] þo*sta: þorsta all    [8] elskugi: so 399a‑bˣ, BRydberg, BFJ, ‘elsk[...]ge’ B

Editions: Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], C. [3]. Heilags anda vísur 8: AII, 161, BII, 177, Skald II, 93, NN §1407; Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 54, Rydberg 1907, 2, 46, Attwood 1996a, 56-7, 152.

Notes: [2] sjúks hugar ‘of the sick mind’: This phrase may also be construed with hirtir (l. 1), giving the kenning-like periphrasis hirtir sjúks hugar ‘chastiser of the sick mind’ for the Holy Spirit; cf. 14/2, 3 lundgóðr hirtir böls ‘benevolent chastiser of sin’. This is however, a less preferable reading, as the Holy Spirit (and Christ) are usually represented as healers, not chastisers, of the sick mind. — [2] liði mjúku: This edn follows Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) in interpreting this phrase as describing the Spirit’s aid, and is translated ‘with gentle help’. This interpretation relies on taking liði as dat. sg. of lið, n. meaning ‘help, assistance, care’ (Fritzner: lið 2). It is also possible to interpret lið, n. in the sense ‘people, folk’ (Fritzner: lið 1), and to take the phrase as a reference to those cleansed by the Spirit (pace Kock, NN §1407). — [4] glöðum ‘clear’: Skj B emends to glæps gen. sg. of glæpr m. ‘sin, wickedness’, construing the kenning as gegn hirtir glæps ‘gentle chastister of sin’. He takes hvert mein sjúks hugar ‘every stain of the sick mind’ as the object of the verb þváið ‘you wash’. — [5-8]: There seems to be a curious reversal here of Christ’s promise in John IV.13-14: ei omnis qui bibit ex aqua hac sitiet iterum qui autem biberit ex aqua quam ego dabo ei non sitiet in aeternum sed aqua quam dabo ei fiet in eo fons aquae salientis in vitam aeternam ‘Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again; but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst for ever: But the water that I will give him, shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting’. — [7] brysti : þo*sta: The rhyme remains imperfect, but B’s þorsta must be normalised to the late form þo*sta to give a semblance of skothending.