Cite as: Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Gyðingsvísur 1’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 516-17.

Aldýran biðk óra orðfæri guð stæra, en hyrmeiðar hlýði haukstiettar brag sliettan.

Ágæta vilk ítrum ulfsfæðendum ræðu — víst og vífs ins hæsta vegr guðs er það — segja.

Biðk aldýran guð stæra óra orðfæri, en {{{haukstiettar} hyr}meiðar} hlýði sliettan brag. Vilk segja {ítrum ulfsfæðendum} ágæta ræðu; það er víst guðs vegr og ins hæsta vífs.

I ask altogether precious God to strengthen our [my] eloquence and that {the trees {of the fire {of the hawk’s path}}} [(lit. ‘fire-trees of the hawk’s path’) ARM > GOLD > MEN] may listen to the smooth poem. I want to tell {noble wolf-feeders} [WARRIORS] an excellent tale; that is certainly God’s glory and that of the highest woman [i.e. Virgin Mary].

Mss: B(14v), 399a-bˣ

Readings: [1] Aldýran: ‘[...]ldy[...]an’ B, ‘[...]ldyran’ 399a‑bˣ, BRydberg, BFJ    [3] hyrmeiðar: so 399a‑bˣ, BRydberg, BFJ, ‘[...]yrmeidar’ B    [4] haukstiettar: ‘h[...]stettar’ B, ‘hagstettar’ 399a‑bˣ, BRydberg, ‘ha[...]stettar’ BFJ    [6] ulfsfæðendum: ‘vlfsfedundum’ all;    ræðu: ‘reda’ all    [7] vífs ins hæsta: ‘vifs[...]ta’ B, ‘vífs[...]he᷎sta’ 399a‑bˣ, ‘vigs[...]h[...]ta’ BRydberg

Editions: Skj: [Anonyme digte og vers XIV], [B. 13]. Af et digt om en rig mand, der gav alt sit bort 1: AII, 539, BII, 597, Skald II, 331; Rydberg 1907, 41, 59, Attwood 1996a, 346.

Notes: [1] Aldýran ‘altogether precious’: The scribe of B has left a space for a capital A, which has not been inserted. God is also described as aldýrr in Gamlkan Has 17/8 and 29/6 and in Anon Leið 29/1. The epithet is sometimes used for secular kings, but only once in poetry from before C12th (LP: aldýrr). — [3, 4] haukstiettar hyrmeiðar ‘fire-trees of the hawk’s path [ARM > GOLD > MEN]’: B is torn at this point, and only ‘h…stettar’ is certain. The 399a-bˣ copyist was able to read ‘hagstettar’ with certainty, although this is likely to be corrupt. Finnur Jónsson, followed by Kock, reconstructs to hafstéttar, which they take as gen. sg. of hafstétt, f., ‘sea-path’. Finnur construes this with hyrmeiðar ‘fire-trees’ to give the man-kenning hyrmeiðar hafstéttar ‘the trees of the fire of the path of the sea [SEA > GOLD > MEN]’. As a sea-kenning, however, hafstétt is tautologous and, indeed, no parallel or similar expressions are listed in LP. This edn follows Rydberg in adopting Sveinbjörn Egilsson’s suggestion (note to 444ˣ) that hagstéttar be treated as an error for haugstéttar, which normalises to haukstiettar, gen. sing. of f. haukstiett ‘hawk-path’, a kenning for the arm or hand. Although haukstiett is not itself attested elsewhere, there are several arm-kennings on the ‘land, path, way of the hawk’ model (see LP, 231-2; Meissner, 139). — [6] ulfsfæðendum (dat. pl.) ‘wolf-feeders [WARRIORS]’: A similar warrior-kenning occurs in Anon Pl 43/8 fœðir ulfs: ‘feeder of the wolf’, referring to Plácitus. — [6] ræðu ‘tale’: B’s ‘reda’ must be emended to provide an object for vilk segja in the acc. case. — [7] vífs ins hæsta ‘of the highest woman’: B is badly worn and a crack obscures the lower portion of the shaft of <f>. The shaft, however, has an angular upstroke and the bowed section appears to be made in one stroke, as is characteristic of the <f>-form used in B. Comparison with <g>-forms elsewhere confirms that the left side of this letter is not characteristically as straight as is the fragmentary shaft here. The edn therefore follows 399a-bˣ’s and BFJ’s vífs, sharing Finnur Jónsson’s assumption that some reference to the Virgin Mary (not unlikely in a poem relating to the conversion of a Jew) is intended. Skj B’s reconstruction of besta (l. 7), while making for an acceptable appellation for Mary ‘the best woman’, is not necessary here, as an earlier transcription (399a-bˣ) make it clear that hæsta was the original reading. Rydberg reads vífs as vegs, which he takes to be the first element in vegsemd ‘glory, honour’. He thus construes vilk víst ... segja ágæta rœða [sic] ok hæsta vegsemd ‘I will certainly ... tell a noble tale and the highest honour’. It seems likely that Rydberg’s reconstruction here is influenced by recollection of Has 30/3.