Cite as: Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Drápa af Máríugrát 42’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 788-9.

Hvern dag fimm vil eg heyra snemma höfuðfagnaði grams kveða bragna móður; bið eg, að mínir lýðir minniz þeira orða svinnir.

Kenna mun eg þá alla og inna — orð sönn eru það — lærðum mönnum; næsta er skylt, að nemi sem flestir nýtar bænir kristnir ýtar.

Hvern dag snemma vil eg heyra bragna kveða fimm höfuðfagnaði {móður grams}; eg bið, að svinnir lýðir mínir minniz þeira orða. Eg mun kenna þá alla og inna lærðum mönnum; það eru sönn orð; næsta er skylt, að kristnir ýtar nemi sem flestir nýtar bænir.

Every day early I want to hear men recite the five supreme joys {of the mother of the ruler} [= Mary]; I pray that my wise people recall those words. I will teach them all and tell them to learned men; those are true words; next it is necessary that as many Christian people as possible learn the useful prayers.

Mss: 713(128), 1032ˣ(74v), 920ˣ(209v-210r)

Readings: [2] ‑fagnaði: ‑fagnaðar 713;    kveða: kveðju 713;    bragna: om. 713    [3] móður: ‘mod[...]’ 713, móðir 1032ˣ, ‘móð.’ 920ˣ

Editions: Skj: [Anonyme digte og vers XIV], [B. 2]. Máríugrátr 42: AII, 480, BII, 517, Skald II, 283, NN §§2681, 2693, 2831, 3356; Kahle 1898, 64, 105, Sperber 1911, 40, 76, Wrightson 2001, 21.

Notes: [2]: This l. is corrupt. It lacks internal rhyme, is one syllable too short, and the inflectional endings are not easy to account for. In the present edn, höfuðfagnaðar (m. gen. sg.) ‘of supreme joy’ has been emended (with earlier eds) to höfuðfagnaði (m. acc. pl.) ‘supreme joys’ to provide an acc. object for the verb kveða ‘to recite’. Skj B emends 713’s kveðju (f. oblique sg.) ‘greeting’ to kveðna (p.p.; m. acc. pl.) ‘recited’ and supplies bragna which is taken as a determinant in the phrase móður grams bragna ‘of the mother of the ruler of men’ (i.e. of Mary). However, the long-stemmed inflected p.p. kveðna ‘recited’ makes the l. one syllable too long (see NN §§2681, 3356). Kock suggests the n. form kveðit ‘recited’, but that form is ungrammatical (see NS §245, Anm.). In the present edn, kveða (inf.) ‘to recite’ is part of an acc. inf. construction with bragna (m. acc. pl.) ‘men’ as the object. That construction is metrically and syntactically correct, but conjectural. Wrightson construes the l. as follows: höfuðfagnaði grams kveðju. According to that interpretation, kveðju ‘greeting’ is a reference to the Hail Mary (‘the greeting of the mother of the prince’) and an object of the verb heyra ‘hear’. However, the l. still remains unmetrical. For the five supreme joys of Mary, see Note to 41/3. — [3] móður (f. gen. sg.) ‘of the mother’: This emendation follows earlier eds and is necessary from a syntactical point of view.