Cite as: David McDougall (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Pétrsdrápa 32’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 824-5.

Völd gaf vísi alda víngarðs efli sínum hæst; því hlaut í fystu hann forræði manna.

Alt kvað laust, það er lystir lund, á himni bundið, manndýrða, iels jörðu jöfurr kalligra palla.

{Vísi alda} gaf hæst völd {sínum efli víngarðs}; því hlaut hann í fystu forræði manna. {Jöfurr {iels kalligra palla}} kvað alt, það er lystir {lund manndýrða} laust, bundið á himni, jörðu.

{The prince of men} [= God (= Christ)] gave the highest powers {to his strengthener of the vineyard} [APOSTLE]; therefore he obtained for the first time authority over men. {The king {of the storm’s cold seats}} [SKY/HEAVEN > = God] said that everything which {the tree of human virtues} [HOLY MAN = Peter] wishes is loose [and] bound in heaven [and] on earth.

Mss: 621(59r)

Editions: Skj: [Anonyme digte og vers XIV], [B. 7]. En drape om apostlen Peder 32: AII, 505, BII, 552, Skald II, 303, NN §§1734, 3374, 3397L; Kahle 1898, 85, 111.

Notes: [5-8]: The interpretation here follows Finnur Jónsson, who takes iels ... palla (ll. 7-8) as a heaven-kenning (cf. Meissner, 433, 378), and kalligra as a form of kaldligr ‘cold’ (cf. ANG §275 and, e.g., ǪnÓf Lv 4/8^V Kallbak, Þul Jǫtna II 2/2^III, Kaldgrani, var. kallgrani]). See LP: pallr, kaldligr; cf. Skj B, where jöfurr iels kalligra palla is paraphrased: den snekolde himmels konge ‘the king of snow-cold heaven’. Finnur treats jörðu (l. 7) as parallel with himni (l. 6): løst på jorden, og bundet i himlen ‘loosed on earth and bound in heaven’. Kock (NN §1734) takes jöfurr kalligra palla on its own as a God-kenning (kalla sätens furste ‘the prince of cold seats’) and iels jörðu (l. 7) as a heaven-kenning in apposition with himni. Kahle translates ll. 5-8: ‘The prince of the land of the storm (that is, of heaven), said: let everything bound in heaven be loose that the tree of the benches of manly virtues (Peter) desires’, and suggests that the author of Pét may have simply misunderstood the scriptural parallel. This seems intrinsically unlikely, and Kahle’s rendering does not fit the text as it stands: his God-kenning (‘prince of the land of the storm’) requires emendation of ms. ‘jordu’ to jarðar, and his Peter-kenning (‘tree of the benches of manly virtues’) does not accommodate kalligra (l. 8), unless männlich ‘manly’ is meant to render both the first element of manndýrða (l. 7) and kalligra, taken as gen. pl. of karlligr ‘male, manly, virile’ (cf. ANG §272.1). One might perhaps read (though the syntax is very awkward): Jöfurr iels kvað alt það er lund kalligra palla manndýrða lystir laust, bundið á himni, jörðu ‘The king of the storm [= God] said that everything which the tree of the manly steps of human virtues [HOLY MAN = Peter] wishes is loose [and] bound in heaven [and on] earth’. Pallar manndýrða might then be compared with st. 8/8 pallr siðlætis (see Note ad loc.), st. 31/4 siðapallr, and, interpreting kalligra as a form of karlligr, might perhaps suggest an etymological pun on vir-tus (cf. Maltby 1991, 649: virtus ... a virilitate, etc.). — [5-6] laust, bundið á himni ‘loose [and] bound in heaven’: Kock (NN §3397L) notes that insertion of ok (before bundið?) would make the passage easier to read. Cf. Pétr 6/12-14: ok ek segi þer, þat er þu hefir bundit ꜳ iorðo, þat mun bundit ꜳ himni, en þat er þu hefir leyst ꜳ iorðo, þat mun leyst ꜳ himni ‘and I say to you, that which you have bound on earth, that will be bound in heaven, and that which you have loosed on earth, that will be loosed in heaven’; Matt. XVI.19 et quodcumque ligaveris super terram erit ligatum in caelis, et quodcumque solveris super terram erit solutum in caelis ‘and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed in heaven’. This st. should logically follow st. 24 (see Introduction and Note to st. 24/3-4).