Cite as: Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Lilja 49’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 619-20.

Fúsir hlupu og fundu Jésúm; fundinn hröktu, lömdu og bundu; bundinn leiddu; hæðnir hæddu; hæddan, rægðan, slógu klæddan fjandans börnin; þraungum þyrni þessir spenna um blessað ennið; þessir negldu Krist á krossinn; keyra járn, svá að stökk um dreyrinn. Fúsir hlupu og fundu Jésúm; fundinn hröktu, lömdu og bundu; bundinn leiddu; hæðnir hæddu; hæddan, rægðan, slógu klæddan fjandans börnin; þraungum þyrni þessir spenna um blessað ennið; þessir negldu Krist á krossinn; keyra járn, svá að stökk um dreyrinn. Fúsir hlupu og fundu Jésúm; fundinn hröktu, lömdu og bundu; bundinn leiddu; hæðnir hæddu; hæddan, rægðan, klæddan slógu börnin fjandans; þessir spenna þraungum þyrni um blessað ennið; þessir negldu Krist á krossinn; keyra járn, svá að dreyrinn stökk um.

text prose order   Frenzied men ran and found Jesus; having found him, they abused him, struck him, and bound him; when he had been bound, they led him; those fond of mocking mocked him; when he had been mocked, reviled, and clothed {the offspring of the fiend} [= Jews] struck him; they wind a tight [crown of] thorn around the blessed forehead; they nailed Christ to the cross; they drive iron [nails] so that the blood spurted around [them].

notes: [1-4]: In skaldic poetics, the repetition of the last word of a l. at the beginning of the following l. is called dunhent ‘echoing rhymed’. See SnSt Ht sts 24, 47, and 48^III (SnE 1999, 15, 22-3) and RvHbreiðm Hl sts 57, 58, 65, and 66^III (Jón Helgason and Holtsmark 1941, 127-9), but, as Rudolf Meissner says (1922, 52), ‘What a difference between these school-examples and the stanzas of Lilja!’. In Lat. rhetoric, which may be the closer model here, the figure is called anadiplosis or reduplicatio (Lausberg 1998, §619; cf. e.g. the definition given by the Venerable Bede [Hurst 1975, 146] and the brief discussion in TGT 1884-6, I, 94). The ll. also exhibit climax or gradatio: the repeated word occurs first in the pret., and then as perf. participles (Lausberg 1998, §623; cf. e.g. the definitions in the Rhetorica ad Herennium [Marx 1923, 4.25.34] and Augustine’s De Doctrina Christiana [Martin 1962, 123]) and polyptoton, the repetition of a word in various grammatical forms (Lausberg 1998, §§640-8; cf. e.g. the Venerable Bede [Hurst 1975, 150]. See also Laugesen 1966, 297-8, and cf. Lil 55 and 66).

editions: Skj Eysteinn Ásgrímsson: Lilja 49 (AII, 379; BII, 403); Skald II, 220, NN §§1526, 1527.

sources

Holm perg 1 fol (Bb)	115ra, 14 - 115ra, 19
AM 99 a 8° (99a)	10r, 16 - 10v, 4
AM 622 4° (622)	31, 24 - 32, 3
AM 713 4° (713)	10, 11 - 10, 14
Vísnabók (Vb)	251 - 251
DKNVSB 41 8°x (41 8°x)	121, 6 - 121, 12
AM 705 4°x (705x)	13r - 13r
BLAdd 4892 (4892)	32v - 32v