Cite as: Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Leiðarvísan 28’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 166.

Hátt gengr dýrð, sús dróttinn dáðgladdan her saddi — opt es kuðr at krapti Kristr — á lítlum vistum.

Tolf, segir elda elfar Ullr, vandlaupar fullir — matr vannsk mǫnnum snotrum — mikill fengr at af gengi.

Hátt gengr dýrð sús dróttinn saddi dáðgladdan her á lítlum vistum; Kristr es opt kuðr at krapti. {Ullr {elda elfar}} segir, at mikill fengr, tolf vandlaupar fullir, gengi af; matr vannsk snotrum mǫnnum.

Far and wide spreads the glory [from the fact] that the Lord fed the deed-gladdened host with few provisions; Christ is often known for his strength. {An Ullr <god> {of the fires of the river}} [GOLD > MAN] says that a huge catch, twelve baskets full, was left over; the food sufficed for the wise men.

Mss: B(10v), 624(89)

Readings: [5] segir: segja B, 624;    elda: edda B, enda 624    [6] Ullr: ‘ullt’ 624

Editions: Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XII], G [2]. Leiðarvísan 28: AI, 623, BI, 629, Skald I, 306, NN §1266; Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 65, Rydberg 1907, 8, Attwood 1996a, 66, 177.

Notes: [5-6] Ullr elda elfar ‘Ullr <god> of the fires of the river [GOLD > MAN]’: The man-kenning (possibly a reference to the witness of one of the evangelists) relies on an emendation of B’s ‘edda’ to elda ‘of fires’. Finnur Jónsson (Skj A, n.) claimed that B’s <dd> was an alteration, and read ‘ellda’, but this is difficult to ratify from the present state of the ms. Rydberg read <dd> without comment. All previous eds have adopted Sveinbjörn Egilsson’s emendation (1844, 65) to elda elfar, which makes for a conventional gold-kenning. — [5] segir: B reads ‘segia’, regarded by Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) as the 3rd pers. pl. pres. tense of the verb segja ‘to say’, used in the sense ‘people say’. He emends Ullr (l. 6) to Ull (so also Skald) and translates man fortæller mig, at ... ‘people tell me that ...’. However, segja renders the l. hypermetrical, and here Ullr has been retained as nom. sg., with emendation of segja to the necessary sg. verb, segir ‘says’. — [8] mikill fengr ‘a huge catch’: Kock (Skald and NN §1266) takes this phrase with the intercalary cl. and emends matr (l. 7) to matar (gen. sg.), which he takes with the main cl.