Cite as: David McDougall (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Pétrsdrápa 8’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 802-3.

Þjóð öll hyggin hlýði; hátt vill eg guðs dýrð vátta; strokin er lífs með laukum lofsmíð Pétri víða.

Felli flaum og kalli fljóð og börn á góðan postula* Krists, en prestar palls siðlætis gæti.

Hlýði öll hyggin þjóð; hátt vill eg vátta dýrð guðs; lofsmíð Pétri er víða strokin með laukum lífs. Felli fljóð og börn flaum og kalli á góðan postula* Krists, en gæti prestar palls siðlætis.

Let all thoughtful people listen; I wish to bear witness out loud to the glory of God; the work of praise for Peter is at many points furbished with the flowers of life. Let women and children cast off levity and call on the good Apostle of Christ, and let priests preserve the step of virtue.

Mss: 621(57v) (Pétr)

Readings: [7] postula*: postular 621    [8] palls: pall 621

Editions: Skj: [Anonyme digte og vers XIV], [B. 7]. En drape om apostlen Peder 8: AII, 501-2, BII, 547, Skald II, 300, NN §1716; Kahle 1898, 80, 109.

Notes: [3] með laukum lífs ‘with the flowers of life’: Finnur Jónsson (LP: laukr) translates lífs laukr ‘livets løg, livet bevarende løg’ (‘life’s herb [lit. onion], life-preserving herb’), and compares the lifesaving blað ‘leaf’ of Vǫls ch. 8 (cf. similarly Fritzner: lífsgras). Kahle 1898, 109 cites Jón Þorkelsson’s suggestion that með laukum here = með blóma = með frægð ‘with glory’ (cf. blóm sóma 9/4; blóm píslanna 34/8). Með laukum lífs may then mean roughly ‘with the glory of eternal life, salvation’. Cf. Blöndal: laukur 2a blomst ‘flower’; 2b som Del af en kenning om n-t rankt og blomstrende ... Pryd ‘as part of a kenning for something straight and flourishing ... ornament’. — [8] palls siðlætis ‘the step of virtue’: Ms. ‘pall sidlætis’ with loss of <s> in palls by haplography. Cf. heims stríðandi 30/6. Steingrímur Þorsteinsson, in his transcription in AM 920 4°ˣ, reads ms. ‘pall’ as Páll, which, as Kahle observes (1898, 109), makes no sense. Finnur Jónsson also appears to have taken the ms. form as the personal name, which he emends to Pétr (Skj B) and treats in apposition with góðan postula Krists (ll. 6-7). He takes siðlætis as gen. object of gæti and translates: og præsterne iagtage sædelighed ‘and let the priests observe morality’. Kock (NN §1716) compares the locution siðlætis pallr here with siðapallr ‘step of faith’ at st. 31/4, although here the sense of pallr is effectively neutral (i.e. siðlætis pallr = siðlæti). Schottmann 1973, 132 compares Liljukvistir 23/6 (ÍM I.2, 162) sæmdar pallar. On the widespread use of this type of genitival periphrasis (nafnorðsaukning) in rímur see Björn K. Þórólfsson 1934, 204-7; Davíð Erlingsson 1974.