Cite as: Kirsten Wolf (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Heilagra meyja drápa 7’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 896.

Dætur þrjár með dygð og vitru dygðargædd er Anna fæddi, Máríu liet hun meyna heita, meir elskandi en hverja þeira.

Ættprúðasta Jóachíms dóttur átti hun fyst, er dýrkaz mátti; kunnig er nú Máría mönnum; menn allir fá líkn af henni.

Er dygðargædd Anna fæddi þrjár dætur með dygð og vitru, liet hun meyna heita Máríu, elskandi meir en hverja þeira. Fyst átti hun Jóachíms ættprúðasta dóttur, er dýrkaz mátti; Máría er nú kunnig mönnum; allir menn fá líkn af henni.

When virtue-endowed Anna gave birth to three daughters [equipped] with virtue and wisdom she let the maiden be called Mary, loving [her, the Virgin Mary] more than any of the others. First she had Joachim’s highest-born daughter, who could be worshipped; Mary is now known to people; all people receive mercy from her.

Mss: 721(11r), 713(23)

Readings: [1] vitru: so 713, vitar 721    [2] dygðargædd: dýrðargæadd 713    [4] en: om. 713    [7] nú: því 713

Editions: Skj: [Anonyme digte og vers XIV], [B. 12]. Af heilogum meyjum 7: AII, 528, BII, 584, Skald II, 322, NN §3390.

Notes: [All]: The idea that Anna, mother of the Virgin Mary, was married three times derives in part from the gospels and in part from the apocryphal work known as Trinubium Annae, of which there is an Icel. extract, giving Anna’s genealogy (AÍ I, 56; Turville-Petre 1947, 138). Anna’s husbands are there said to be Joachim, Cleophas, brother of Joseph, and Salome or Salomas, and her marriage to each man produced a Mary. The first Mary was the mother of Christ, the second, who married one Alphaeus, the mother of four sons, Joseph and the three Apostles James the Less, Simon and Thaddaeus, while the third Mary, who married Zebedee, produced the Apostles John and James the Great. See sts 8-9, and on S. Anne see Wolf 2001. — [1-2]: Note the deliberate repetition of dygð/dygðar(gædd). — [4] elskandi meir en hverja þeira ‘loving [her, the Virgin Mary] more than any of the others’: The phrase is problematical, but is here taken, following Skj B, to refer to the Virgin Mary. Kock (NN §3390) emends meyna (l. 3) to meynar ‘maidens’ acc. pl., referring to all three sisters named Mary. He then construes l. 4 to mean ‘later loving each and every one of them’. However, the separation of meir ... en ‘more ... than’ is rather strained.