Cite as: Kirsten Wolf (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Heilagra meyja drápa 52’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 923-4.

Barbara gat frá blótum horfið blíðufyld og skrýddiz fríðum; hennar faðir liet sælan svanna syrgiliga í húsi byrgja. Kvíðufullu kvalara þjóðir knífum skáru brjóst af vífi; Ságu gulls með sverði vágu; seldiz hun enn í drottins veldi. Barbara gat frá blótum horfið blíðufyld og skrýddiz fríðum; hennar faðir liet sælan svanna syrgiliga í húsi byrgja. Kvíðufullu kvalara þjóðir knífum skáru brjóst af vífi; Ságu gulls með sverði vágu; seldiz hun enn í drottins veldi. Barbara, blíðufyld, gat horfið frá blótum og skrýddiz fríðum; hennar faðir liet sælan svanna syrgiliga byrgja í húsi. Þjóðir kvalara skáru knífum brjóst af kvíðufullu vífi; með sverði vágu Ságu gulls; hun seldiz enn í veldi drottins.

text prose order   Barbara, full of grace, turned away from sacrifices and adorned herself with virtues; her father had the blessed woman sadly locked in a house. Bands of tormentors cut with knives the breast off the fearful woman; with a sword [they] struck {the Sága of gold}; [WOMAN] she still gave herself into the power of the Lord.

notes: Like Christina, S. Barbara was a beautiful maiden whose father, Dioscurus, shut her up in a tower to keep her away from her numerous suitors. Dioscurus found out that Barbara had become a Christian, so he attempted to kill her, but she was miraculously removed from his reach. He then denounced her to the prefect of the province, who tortured her (including cutting off a breast; for this motif, see Wolf 1997) to make her renounce her faith. She refused to do so, whereupon her father was ordered to kill her, which he did, and was immediately struck by lightning. There are two C15th mss of a saga of S. Barbara, both independently derived from the same exemplar (Unger 1877, I, 153-7; Widding, Bekker-Nielsen and Shook 1963, 301; Wolf 2000 and 2003, 142-7 and 176-7). For evidence of her cult in Iceland, see Cormack 1994, 2, 16, 19 n. 26, 29, 37, 83-4 and Wolf 2000, 68-72.

editions: Skj [Anonyme digte og vers XIV]: [B. 12]. Af heilogum meyjum 52 (AII, 537; BII, 595); Skald II, 329, NN §§91, 2970B.

sources

AM 721 4° (721)	9v - 9v	(Mey)
AM 713 4° (713)	27, 21 - 27, 23