Cite as: Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Lilja 40’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 610-11.

‘Jésúm tígna eingla rásir upp og niðr af himni þriðja; stjörnuljós og færðar fórnir, friðar samband á hverju landi,

slík afla mier sóttarauka, sönn stórmerkin veitt hjá mönnum; kvíðig, að hans remming ráða ríði mier að báðum síðum.

‘Rásir eingla tígna Jésúm upp og niðr af þriðja himni; stjörnuljós og færðar fórnir, samband friðar á hverju landi, slík sönn stórmerkin veitt hjá mönnum afla mier sóttarauka; kvíðig, að remming ráða hans ríði mier að báðum síðum.

‘Hosts of angels honour Jesus [travelling] up and down from the third heaven; starlight and presented offerings, union of peace in every land, such true signs granted among men cause me an increase of woe; I fear that his strengthening through counsels will press me from all [lit. both] sides.

Mss: Bb(114vb), 99a(8v), 622(30), 713(9), Vb(250), 41 8°ˣ(118), 705ˣ(11r), 4892(31r)

Readings: [1] Jésúm: Jésús 4892    [2] upp: uppi 99a, 622, 705ˣ;    niðr: niðri 99a, 622, 713, 705ˣ, 4892;    af: í 99a, 622, Vb, 41 8°ˣ, 705ˣ, 4892, á 713;    himni: heimi 99a, 622, Vb, 41 8°ˣ, 705ˣ    [3] færðar: friðar 622    [4] friðar: og friðar 99a, 705ˣ    [5] slík: slíkt 713;    afla: aflar 622, afl 713    [6] stórmerkin: stórmerki 713, 705ˣ    [7] kvíðig: kvið 622;    að: om. 99a, Vb, 41 8°ˣ, við að 622, við 4892;    ráða: ráði 713    [8] ríði: og ríði 713

Editions: Skj: Eysteinn Ásgrímsson, Lilja 40: AII, 376, BII, 401, Skald II, 218.

Notes: [1-3]: Cf. Mar 1871, 186, 479 and Note to st. 39. — [2] upp og niðr ‘up and down’: The angels descended from heaven to earth, and then went up again. Cf. Gen. XXVIII.12 and Stjórn (Unger 1862, 169): Þar medr sá hann i suefininum ganga guds engla upp eptir stiganum ok nidr ‘Therewith he saw in his sleep the angels of God going up by means of a ladder and down [again]’ and Luke II.15: … ut discesserunt ab eis angeli in caelum … ‘... after the angels departed from them into heaven ...’. Cf. 1/6, uppi ok niðri ok þar í miðju. Several mss have uppi og niðri in this l. too (so Skj B and Skald). — [2] þriðja himni ‘from the third heaven’: So Bb, but other mss have heimi þriðja ‘from the third world’, a reading adopted by Skj B and Skald. Perhaps an allusion to 2 Cor. XII.2, where S. Paul tells that he was taken up into the third heaven. See Note on 11/3 and cf. 27/4. The poet envisions a three-tiered cosmology: the sphere of air and nature surrounding the earth, the sphere of ether, the realm of angels, beyond it, and the third sphere, the abode of God. — [3-4]: These ll. could also be taken (so Skj B and Skald) as in apposition with rásir eingla ‘hosts of angels’ (l. 1), so that starlight, offerings and peace worship Jesus along with the angels. This interpretation allows l. 4 to begin a new main cl. — [3] stjörnuljós ‘starlight’: Schottmann again (1973, 201) sees a direct verbal parallel in the homily of Maximus of Turin: coelum illi radio stellae laetioris arridet ‘heaven smiles on him with the beam of a star of gladness’ (Maximus Taurinensis, Homilia XXXVII, col. 305; see also the introductory Note to st. 39 and the Note on 39/5). — [5] sóttarauka ‘increase of woe’: Sótt can refer to both physical illness and to worry or spiritual distress. Cf. LP: sótt, and 53/7, 73/6, 82/6, 89/2. — [7] remming ‘strengthening, the act of making strong’: Cognate with remma ‘to strengthen’. The noun is not attested elsewhere in ON. See Sigfús Blöndal 1920-4: remming for its use in MIcel.